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New Sound Way collection of 60s - 70s Panamanian music

And now, a blast from the past

a record review by Eric Jackson

Lord Cobra died a Pentacostalist, but I don't know what he believed all those years when he tended bar in Colon. In 1970, along with his band of the time, the Pana-Afro Sounds, he covered the Lloyd Thomas calypso classic "Rocombey:"

One night I took a chance

And I went to a Voodoo dance

I was looking for new romance

That's why I went to the Voodoo dance

Did he get saved, then lost? Or lost, then saved?

Fortunately, some of the late Wilfred Berry's (Lord Cobra's) music has been saved, even if he was so horribly ripped off in his lifetime that he never received a penny in royalties from the five albums he recorded or the 43 songs he wrote. With this compilation, however, there is a hope that the musicians who made these 15 tracks between 1965 and 1975 will see some justice and some recognition, though it will surely not be enough.

Roberto Ernesto Gyemant, the son of a Tico father who grew up in San Francisco, California, has a great appreciation for Panama's popular music and those who make it, one that the people who have been making all the profits from the latters' work have never had. The liner notes of this CD, which will be hard but not impossible to find in Panama but is readily available through Amazon.com, detail Gyemant's love affair with the Combos Nacionales of a bygone era and the story of that seminal and incredibly diverse scene.

Do you get into the salsa that Rubén Blades pioneered? Find its Panamanian roots, which in turn reflected Cuban and other Latin American influences, here on this disc.

The Exciters, who appear on this CD along with Los Exagerados, Bush y Sus Magníficos, Víctor Boa y Su Música, Freddy y Sus Afro Latinos, Papi Brandao y Sus Ejecutivos, Los Silvertones, Los Fabulosos Festivals, Bolita y Su Tentación Latina, Los Cabelleros de Colón, Los Mozambiques, Máximo Rodríguez y Sus Estrellas Panameñas and Lord Cobra & Pan-Afro Sounds. This CD's 15 cuts range from uniquely Panamanian renditions of African-American standards to the roots of salsa, with lots of things that fit neither of those descriptions in between.

Are you a Brooklyn native and the progeny of Afro-Antillean Baby Boomers who came of age in Panama? Then listen to this to know who you are. The jazz, funk and soul influences that melded with Panamanian music of that time are all here.

Are you a recently arrived American expatriate who didn't realize that there was this English-speaking culture here before you were born, and mostly it was neither American military people nor Zonians, although those strains went into it? Then listen to this to know where you are.

Did you catch Reggie Johnson and his Jazz Effects at the casino? Listen to this and know something he helped make way back when, so that you understand where he's coming from now.

This collection covers a lot of ground, so it's very likely that some of it will be your thing and other parts of it not so much. As Kabir, whose music plays a part in this collection, told Gyemant:

Every band had their own unique sound, but what we found was that they all had the same feeling. Ironically, we still have no name for that feeling. Every other country can name their stuff, the bachata, the mambo, the vallenato, the salsa. We are still waiting for someone to name what we did.

Proto-salsa? Panafunk? Tambo jazz? Alma típica? It's not for this reviewer to name. It's for you to hear.