Various - Panama! 2: Latin Sounds, Cumbia Tropical & Calypso Funk on the Isthmus 1967-77 CD

AllMusic Review

Panama! 2: Latin Sounds, Cumbia Tropical and Calypso Funk On the Isthmus 1967-77 Review by François Couture

Three years after volume one comes Panama! 2. The idea hasn't changed, and the liner notes haven't changed much either (a redux of the previous album's notes, plus new material on Panama's musica tipica). However, they still provide a good overview of Panama's history, society, culture, and music. And that introduction is key to understanding the unusual melting pot that became Panama's music, sucking in the influence of neighboring Colombia, Cuba, the Antilles (for the Panamanians are more closely related to Afro-Antillean peoples than to the Latin American pool), plus the jazz and rock & roll brought in by the Americans. Panama! 2 celebrates the music of the isthmus, still very little known outside the region, with a selection of 20 tracks off 45s salvaged in the 2000s from the basements of local radio stations. Sound quality is occasionally shaky, but connoisseurs will find in these rhythms enough nuggets to compensate for the lack of high-fidelity sound. Most of the music here oscillates between jazz-tinged Latin rhythms and Afro-Cuban songwriting, although you might encounter calypso merging with cumbia or reggae (as in Sir Jablonsky's "Juck Juck"), or the odd influence of psychedelic rock (cuts by los Superiores and the Soul Fanatics, basically rock combos with a timbale player). Just like with volume one, most if not all of the tracks are upbeat, festive, and positive.

893775001507

CNDWCD013

Soundway Records, 2009

Good condition; cardboard slipcase shelf-worn

C07