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Scenes from the Panama Jazz Festival, the first night
Scenes from the Panama Jazz Festival, the second night
Scenes from the Panama Jazz Festival, the third night
Scenes from the Panama Jazz Festival, the free concert

The new San Carlos arts center starts with a little party
Boquete Jazz Festival coming up
Gallery & Museum Guide

Nnenna Freelon's university education was as a social worker, but her

jazz education was with the likes of Yusef Lateef and Ellis Marsalis

and that's reflected in both the five Grammy nominations she has

earned and in the warm reception she got from the folks at ATLAPA

Abstract takes on Friday night's jazz at ATLAPA

photos and electronic manipulations by Eric Jackson

The night's other top-billed star, Panamanian-born drummer Billy Cobham,

was hard to properly photograph when the camera with the zoom lens was

malfunctioning and with all those drums and cymbals in the way --- but he

was heard loud and clear, both in this solo and with the rest of the band

Brandon McCune played piano in the band that backed up Freelon...

...and Wayne Batchelor, whose own favorite bass is in the repair shop recovering from

abuse by an obnoxious New Year's reveler, played a borrowed instrument behind her

Keeping the beat behind Freelon were Kinah Boto on drums and Beverly Botsford on percussion

Billy Cobham was first among equals --- if there can be such a thing in the rarified world of top jazz professionals who are all highly unique and not readily compared --- in a Panamanian all-star band that included pianist Danilo Pérez, saxophonists Jorge Sylvester and Carlos Garnett, percussionist Renato Thoms and bass player Santi DeBriano. At the pre-festival press conference the sixty-something Cobham described himself as a "student," but several members of this band earn much of their living teaching music --- Garnett here in Panama and Pérez  and DeBriano in the United States. So what's the difference between the brilliant youngsters we heard earlier and the festival and this older generation of masters? One distinction is that while the kids may have acquired most or all of the powers of their elders at an early age, this group of musicians can not only play with great speed, precision and range that the youngsters demonstrated, but also have acquired the wisdom to apply those skills with the discretion and creativity that a prodigy will take years to acquire. That's one of the points where advanced musical education becomes invaluable.

Carlos Garnett blew his tenor sax...

and Jorge Sylvester played his alto sax

Scenes from the Panama Jazz Festival, the first night
Scenes from the Panama Jazz Festival, the second night
Scenes from the Panama Jazz Festival, the third night
Scenes from the Panama Jazz Festival, the free concert