The Goombays or Los Goombays were like a phantom on the Combos Nacionales scene. All the great Combos that came later will tell you how excellent the Goombays were, but almost the whole group up and moved to the US in around 1971, which means they really only participated in the first half of the Combos era which was roughly 1965 to 1978 or so.
Joe Clark of the Silvertones told me:
“This is 1965, ’66… the Goombays were a hit then, younger guys looked up to them… They were a big group in Colón… I went to dances and they called me up to sing, the Goombays used to call me up, we used to sing at the Esquire together, but then after Cecilo Wilmot got into the group I just dropped out…
They were tremendous, really. If you hear “Siboney”, with Ces singing, that’s what I am talking about. There is one American singer who can do that, that’s Smokey Robinson. I haven’t heard anybody else do that, except maybe Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston. But for a man to be able to go that high, that has to be respected… they did a lot of covers, and a lot of originals, they did mixes with Calypso and Spanish music. They did very good until they went to the states, since then I haven’t heard anything from them.”
Here is a song that captured me the first time I heard it, The Goombays cover of the great Dennis Yost and Classics IV song “Spooky”:
Next is another great Panamanian Soul tune by Bocas del Toro’s Los Ases del Ritmo. This one is a personal favorite of my man Adam Dunbar, a deep collector – I remember him soon after he started hearing it, telling me “those drums man!”
Finally, returning to the Goombays for a lovely instrumental track off the Story Book LP they pressed in San Francisco (California!) in 1972, “Black Tribute”:
I love to think how I was a year-old baby being strolled around the streets in the same town while these guys were admiring their amazing, freshly pressed LP =)