Grupo 4:40 is one of the most innovative and popular merengue bands in the world, a position it has attained by softening the sound of traditional merengue with infusions of melodic harmonization à la Manhattan Transfer and by adding layers of metaphor and poetic allusion that advert to the social and political realities of the Dominican Republic. Band mastermind, Juan Luis Guerra, traces the sound to his study of literature at the University of Santa Domingo and his years studying jazz at Boston's prestigious Berklee College. Although he was greatly influenced by such bands as the Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, and Manhattan Transfer, he tries to keep the band faithful to its Latin roots. ~ Leon Jackson, Rovi