Now that the stage has been set, please enjoy these brilliant pieces of Panamanian Dancefloor
- La Ofensiva – “Me La Tienes Que Dar”
Per the liner notes of La Ofensiva’s first LP, the band was formed by the brilliant multi-instrumentalist and Tipico Accordonist Colaquito Cortez. Tille Valderrama (see earlier post “3 favorites: Salsa Dura”) contributed arrangements, and I’m assuming he did so on this hot one as well.
2. Alexis y Su Bonche – “Meñique”
Can’t tell you how many times I pulled out this LP and just listened to Bush y Su Nuevo Sonido’s majestic Ruben Blades-penned beast “9 de Enero”. But once I dropped the needle on this song, I tend to come back to it every time and listen to it LOUD.
Alexis is “Profesór” Alexis Castillo, trumpet player and one of Panama’s great arrangers, who went on to direct the Banda de Música del Benemérito Cuerpo de Bomberos de Panamá (the Firemen’s Big Band) and the Banda Republicana. Vocal is by El Conde Licas, kind of a tier-two singer but really fun, with that very typical bounciness that the great Panamanian Salseros of the ’70s have.
(Speaking of which, If you like this kind of thing, google up Skorpio’s “Te Toca Tocar La Tumba”, with vocal by the great Ricardo “Babaila” de Rosario (Roberto y su Zafra, and later with Bobby Rodriguez Y La Compania in NYC). His vocals are ’70s Panamanian Dancefloor Soneo in its purest form. The song appears on Vol.2 of the Panama! series in Soundway Records, but I’m trying to highlight music that did not appear on those comps on this blog)
3. Manito Johnson y Los Diferentes – “Corre Camino”
Maaaaaan. Manito, who had such an illustrious career beginning in the early ’50s with Armando Boza’s famous big band “La Perfecta”, and famously with the thunderous Maximo Rodriguez and his Estrellas Panameñas in the ’60s, absolutely brought it with his own band “Los Diferentes” in the early ’70s.
Manito’s vocals are among the strongest, most manly in the AfroCuban Canon – the only comparable singers who come to mind are Venezuela’s great Joe Ruiz, El Gran Combo’s Andy Montañez and Charlie Aponte, and Cheo Feliciano. Those that have listened to the breadth of this music’s recordings across the region and across the decades agree – though underappreciated outside of Panama (and Peru) in his heyday, Manito is among the all-time greats of the Genre.