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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

Idania Dowman, who replaced the late Barbara Wilson as the

singer for the Jazz Effects, started the afternoon off with band

leader Reggie Boyce playing the trumpet alongside her.

Scenes from a Saturday

of jazz in Plaza Catedral

photos, captions and in some graphics electronic manipulations by Eric Jackson

The Effects play some straightforward jazz, with modern and Latin influences but sounding much like mainstream US jazz after the big bands and before bebop

Babito, a Brazilian who has been a regular on the Panamanian scene

for some 25 years, led his band in some South American style riffs...

...with a hint of this country's musical traditions

Next band up was the New England Conservatory's jazz ensemble

Out in the crowd trumpeter and band leader Vitín Paz,

center, was taking in the free concert and socializing

with a younger generation of jazz musicians

And festival co-sponsor Ricardo Perez SA entertained

between sets with the car dealership's murga

Uruguayan pianist Nando Michelin actually wasn't in a blue

mood --- he was really enjoying himself and his first exposure

to Panamanian musical traditions during this festival

The percussion section of the Banda Tributo a Chile included drummer Pancho

Molina, who is better known to rock audiences for keeping the beat for Los Tres

Playing sax, introducing the songs and even dancing the

cueca for the Banda Tributo a Chile was Patricia Zárate

Mexican singer Mili Bermejo and her American husband

and bassist Dan Greenspan teamed up with Zárate,

Molina and Michelin for the tribute to Chilean culture

The most amazing and well received new sensation for Panamanian jazz fans was

Colombian harpist Edmar Castañeda. It wasn't just him, however. The entire band,

which included trombone player Marshall Gilkes, drummer Dave Silliman and the

vocalist Andrea Tierra, played brilliantly, mixing innovative jazz forms --- including

some trombone work like you probably have never heard before --- with Colombian

traditional music. In a festival dedicated to a late great female vocalist Tierra, who

did not play in the publicity, wowed the audiences at least as much as any of the

other talented women who sang. The CDs this band brought to sell were quickly

snapped up by the fans and Castañeda's group got the concert's biggest ovations

Nnenna Freelon, backed by a superb international band,

is the jazz diva with the five Grammy nominations. Often

mentioned in connection with her singing is Sarah Vaughn,

but if she's arguably in that tradition it has to be said that

Freelon's blazing new trails from the points of departure

left by the outstanding female jazz singers of yesteryear

Beverly Botsford is the percussionist in Nnenna Freelon's band

After Nnenna Freelon, festival organizer and renowned pianist Danilo

Pérez showed off the talented kids who are much of the focus of these

events, which include workshops, auditions and seminars for younger

musicians as well as public concerts. Above we have Panamanians Jahaziel

Arrocha on sax and Milagros Blades on tambor, with Pérez and 12-year-old

Tony Machuca (below) playing a four-handed piano along with them

Next were the Mildes, a group composed of kids backed by their adult

teachers that plays cumbias, tamboritos and other Panamanian genres.

Milagros Blades, the group's drummer, could be said to be the "star," but

in years to come we'll likely hear more from several of these youngsters

Almost hidden behind a drum set, we heard the festival's top-billed attraction,

Billy Cobham. He came out and played with Pérez, Machuca, Arrocha and Blades

and then was part of the Panamanian all-star band that closed out the free concert

Renato Thoms played percussion with the Panamanian masters

And again in the finale, we heard Danilo Pérez

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