Music of Panama
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Panama is a Central American country, inhabited mostly by mestizos (persons of mixed African, European and indigenous ancestry), with a large population from the African diaspora (especially from Jamaica, Barbados, Martinique and Trinidad) descended of those who came to work on the French and North American canal projects between the 1880s and 1910. Only independent from southern neighbor Colombia since 1903, Panama's national identity has been quick to assert itself.
With salsa, merengue, reggae, vallenato and other imported genres often dominating the charts, Panama's main folkoric popular music has had to struggle to survive. A distinctive vocal style dominates the music, which is said to derive from Sevillians of African descent who arrived in the early 16th century. The most important native instruments are the mejoranera, a five-stringed guitar used to play songs called mejoranas, as well as torrentes, and the rabel, a violin with three strings, used to play cumbias, puntos and pasillos in the central provinces of Coclé, Herrera, Los Santos and Veraguas.
Popular Panama folkloric music is generally called música típica or pindín, which since the 1940s has included instruments such as the guiro, conga and especially the accordion, among others. Some famous Panamanian artists in this genre are Ulpiano Vergara, Dorindo Cárdenas, Victorio Vergara, Roberto "Papi" Brandao, Nenito Vargas, Yin Carrizo, Nina Campines, Abdiel Núñez, Manuel de Jesús Abrego, and Samy y Sandra Sandova , just to name a few.
The word típico is different from música típica, in that the former is the general name of the native dance styles of the central provinces.
A folk dance called tamborito is very popular. Danced by men and women in costumes, the tamborito is led by a cantalante, a female lead singer, who is backed by a clapping chorus (the "estribillo") that sings four-line stanzas of copla (a lyrical form related to Spanish poetry) as well as three drums. A somewhat similar genre called congo is popular among the black communities of the northern coast in Costa Arriba, which includes Portobelo, province of Colón; it is distinguished by using upright drums and wild, lascivious movements and lyrics. Jamaican immigrants have brought mento and calypso music as well. Closely related to its more well-known Colombian cousin, Panamanian cumbia, especially amanojá; and atravesao styles, are domestically popular. Another important music is punto and the salon dances like pasillo, danza and contradanza.
Panama's leading salsa musician, Ruben Blades, has achieved international stardom, after collaborating with other local musicians like Rómulo Castro and Tuira. Other world famous musicians from Panama included Luis Russell, who played with Louie Armstrong in the 1920s, Mauricio Smith, a noted saxophone and flute player who played with Chubby Checker, Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie, Machito and Mongo Santamaría, among others. Victor "Vitin" Paz, a pillar of the Latin jazz trumpet, was a cornerstone of the Fania All Stars for many years.
Meanwhile, Panama has a long history in jazz: by the 1940s the port city of Colón boasted at least ten local jazz orchestras. Legends of Jazz in Panama included pianist and composer Victor Boa, Bassist Clarence Martin, Singer Barbara Wilson and French Horn player John "Rubberlegs" McKindo. This Jazz legacy was recently reinvigorated when the US-based Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez organized the first Jazz Festival in January 2005.
Panama also boasts a vibrant history of Calypso and Mento music sung by nationally well-known musicians such as Lord Panama, Delicious, Two-Gun Smokey, Lady Trixie, Lord Kitty, and Lord Cobra and the Pana-Afro sounds.
By the 1960s, local doo-wop groups were evolving into what became known as the Combos Nacionales, five to ten musician groups using electric instruments and incorporating the diverse sounds of jazz, calypso, salsa, vallenato, doo wop, soul and funk. Famous Combos Nacionales included the Silvertones, the Exciters, the Fabulous Festivals, the Soul Fantastics, Los Mozambiques, the Goombays, Roberto y su Zafra and Bush y sus Magnificos. By 1970, the dynamic Combos Nacionales sound dominated Panamanian popular music, only winding down toward the late 1970s.
Spanish Reggae performed by rappers is also very popular among youth, and spawned the Spanish language reggae-rap style known as Reggaeton or Reggae en español, which originated with such artists as El General, Nando Boom, Renato, Aldo Ranks and Kafu Banton, before becoming popular in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and eventually amongst youth in the United States.
A thriving Rock en espanol scene has produced such groups as Los Rabanes and Os Almirantes.
| Central American music |
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Belize - Costa Rica - El Salvador - Garifuna - Guatemala - Honduras - Nicaragua - Panama |
| Latin American music |
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Argentina - Bolivia - Brazil - Chile - Colombia - Costa Rica - Cuba - Dominican Republic - Ecuador - El Salvador |
[edit] References
- Broadbank, Robin and Nigel Gallop. "Dancing Between the Oceans". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 2: Latin & North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific, pp 477-480. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN 1-85828-636-0
- Gyemant, Roberto. Liner notes to "Panama! Latin, Calypso & Funk On The Isthmus 1964-75" on Soundway Records.
