Sención Minaya (center) with the ESENDOM team: (left to right) Ray Chino Díaz, Jhensen Ortiz, and Emmanuel Espinal./Photo: Jhensen Ortiz.
By Jhensen Ortiz
September 15, 2020
Oral History Interview
Sención Minaya—at 78 years of age—is now retired but he has 30-plus years as a professional musician under his belt. When we met Sención in his home in Keasbey, New Jersey we had no idea the direction our conversation would take. The little we knew about him we learned through his recordings. However, many details about his life and career remained a mystery. Indeed, Minaya’s multiple talents as a singer, songwriter, guitarist and band leader remained hidden in obscurity for a very long time until now. Minaya came to the realization early on that being a musician was a natural born gift forged by the relationships he has kept until today.
Birth of the band and early days
Sención was born in the town of El Mamey in La Vega and this is where he first learned about music at the age of nine years old. He left his hometown in 1968 to New York City. In the midst of the conversation, he revealed that Sergio Santana who is also from the same town was the man responsible for naming the group Sencion Minaya y los Quisqueyanos in New York City in 1971. Furthermore, when he started the band in Perth Amboy, N.J.Sención and his band mates would get together, have drinks and jam in a basement. The band made their own makeshift güira yet they could not get their hands on a tambora in those days. Instead they played with a plastic bucket until the aforementioned instruments were brought over from the Dominican Republic. The band used a marimba as a substitute for the bass guitar, as was customary in Dominican folk music such as merengue típico. There were six musicians in the band and they debuted at a party in Perth Amboy, N.J., making $75.
The Songwriting Tres Player
Sención performed and recorded with a tres—unknown to us when we first heard the recordings. He has been playing and recording with the same tres since 1970. He proceeded by demonstrating his playing ability and performed the song “Si me esperas yo vuelvo.” Sención composed this song and gave it to his good friend and legendary bachata artist Eladio Romero Santos who recorded the song. Sención developed his songwriting by reading poetry and hearing décimas in his hometown, but his true inspiration came from anything that crossed his mind. He would sip his drink and begin writing. The song “Si me esperas yo vuelvo” emerged from Widdi’s Hall, a catering hall located on the southwest corner at the intersection of 6th Avenue and 56th Street in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Sención performed at this venue for the second time with his band after their debut through a man by the name of César Fernández who attended their first party. César introduced Sención to Luis Kalaff who lived in Brooklyn at the time. He proceeded to tell us the backstory to one of his other well-known songs “Bailando Pegadito.” He remembered one family party at Widdi’s when a young woman asked him to dance with her. She told him that the only thing she did not like was dancing close and he responded by saying that I don’t really dance, “lo que hago es figureo.” He went on to say that he found that experience memorable and went home the next day and started putting the song together with his tres. He shared the inspiration for the song “Me caí contigo” where a man is flirting with a woman at a party and she tells him not to bother her because “I will push you out of the way.” The man's response was “well if you push me we're both falling down.” He remembered their interaction and “turned it into a” merengue that folks could relate to and enjoy. Lastly, the song “Tu bajaste de una nube” is dedicated to his second wife whom he met in 1980 in the Dominican Republic. At the close of the interview, Sención shared that a lot of his songwriting came natural to him and his interactions with friends and family helped nourish his ability. Sención’s talent and unique style of playing the tres caught the ears of Luis Kalaff, Primitivo Santos, Johnny Ventura, and non-Dominican acts like the Conjunto Clásico, Dimensión Latina, Juilo Jaramillo, and Johnny Albino y su Trío San Juan. As a gigging musician these opportunities were few and far between and he has maintained both a career in music while working full time at Sunshine Biscuits factory during the day.
His debut album
Minaya’s debut album in 1976 for Madley records did not sell many copies, but it was a success nonetheless because it was the culmination of the local popularity he achieved with the songs “El Jangueador” and “Mi Tierra Bella,” a tribute to the Dominican Republic released independently in 1973 as a 7 inch single. He took the record to Radio WADO and went to the program, “Puertas y micrófonos abiertos” with Rubiany de la Rosa and later on another program with Rafael Font. Sención did an interview with Rubiany and after he appeared on that show. A relative named Carmen heard the songs on Radio WADO. She lived near the Fama Record Shop located on 61 Clinton St in the Lower East Side. Carmen told him that some lady had gone to the record shop looking to buy the record. Sención immediately went over to the store with two boxes with 100 records each. The record store owner's name was María and she introduced Sención to Madley records because she was buying records from them. María told them this is the guy who you hear on Radio WADO every day and he is an upstart musician making some noise. He recorded three more albums for the label throughout the 1970s.
While Sención never achieved stardom, he is remembered by musicians and collectors who shared love for his music. A composer who took his inspiration from everyday life experiences and made it his own with a wry, twinkling sense of humor. His unique style and approach led to a total of eighty compositions during the course of his career. Sención's personal story also reflects his respect and commitment to his town of Perth Amboy, N.J. and the love of his family and friends. While many musicians have moved into musical areas outside of Latin American music to provide themselves with more work, Sención always played a guitar and tres in traditional Latin American music. He neither compromised his music nor his talent. If it had not been for Ray “Chino” Diaz, I never would have known of Sención or his music. I’m glad I did because we managed to preserve his story and music with the hope of inspiring more stories like his to surface and be shared by others.
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Ray Chino Díaz, Emmanuel Espinal, and Nelson Santana collaborated with this interview.
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