Cumbia, but beyond tipico

by Eric Jackson

Two young ad men, Danilo Ovalle and David Quintero, have taken the plunge into show business in their spare time, and the self-published "Danny & David" CD is the result. One of the singles from the disk, "Cipriano," can now be heard on some of Panama’s tipico radio stations. However, though their music depends heavily on the accordion and incorporates cumbia riffs, the two young artists don’t like to be pigeonholed as "tipico."

"What we do is more refined — cumbia stylized for export," Ovalle, the duo’s singer and main songwriter explains. He points out Vallenato influences, especially Carlos Vives’s. Listening to the CD, there are subtle but palpable jazz, pop and reggae influences, and electric drums and synthesizers in the mix.

Ovalle and Quintero mostly work in a recording studio, doing advertising jingles for a living. That has given them the skills and equipment to self-produce. The weak ad industry adds a financial incentive to develop their musical talent on the side. However, Danny & David are mostly into music for the fun of artistic expression.

Ovalle comes from a family without musicians and has relatively little formal musical education. However, he has been working on his vocal techniques for the past couple of years and brings a lot of natural singing talent into the mix. His vocals are the single most outstanding thing about the CD.

Quintero took classical piano lessons for eight years, both in Panama and in Argentina. He took voice lessons for two years and studied the accordion for a year. His parents also are musicians, but with a preference for guitars rather than accordions. Quintero’s accordion and keyboard riffs are tight and professional, and on this disc he shows that his efforts to go beyond tipico are nevertheless solidly grounded in the cumbia genre’s canons.

The duo, backed by six other musicians and four dancers, performed at the 20/30 Telethon this past December, and will play at Magnum Eventos during Carnival. Gigs in Colombia are in the works and a visit to Miami is in the discussion stage. But meanwhile, producers, managers and distributors all demand huge cuts of the proceeds, so Danny & David are doing their own production, management and distribution work. Through enormous effort, they have managed to place their CD on the racks in most of Panama’s music stores. Their struggle to make a name without a record label’s backing is made a bit less lonely by a fan club whose members religiously attend all engagements.

"My goal is to live off my music — I don’t want to spend the rest of my life doing commercials," Danny says. Noting that a second CD is in the writing phase, he expresses a most ambitious goal — "We want to be prophets in our own land."

David states his ambitions in more musical terms: "Tipico music is stagnant, and we want to produce something distinct, something more refined."

Their first CD shows them well on their way toward that musical goal, even if the lyrics lean toward the love songs with which most young composers start. Give them some time and experience and the themes are likely to go farther afield as part of a natural maturation process. Meanwhile, "Danny & David" is a worthy first effort by folks from whom we will hear more.