Hot Panamanian Dancefloor Salsa Pt.2

Here’s a smoking original by Panama’s great Manito Johnson with his Diferentes from 1973-74, with a nice anti-domestic violence message as well. The arrangement is by “El Profesor” Alexis Castillo.

Next is a beautiful original composition by Pedro “Bolita” Gómez from his hard to track down LP Bolita y su Tentación Latina (1972?). “Los Provincianos” deals with the different provinces in Panama, which culturally differ significantly, but of whom Bolita affirms, “todos somos hermanos.” Bolita’s group included the Ortega brothers Dirk (Piano), Cancer (Tres) and Villo (Conga).

Bolita – one of Panama’s great salsa singers and lyricists, who sang lead on the beautiful Freddy y sus Afro Latinos LP – was raised in barrio Calidonia, and sang with the well known big band “La Super de Raul Ortiz” early in his career. He also recorded a couple of very hot sides with Tille y Su Nueva Dimension on the Tamayo label.

Bolita later moved to Puerto Rico and was the last singer Joe Quijano had with his Conjunto Cachana.

Here is the 45 version – which is shorter, and a different arrangement (thanks to Jota Ortiz for the heads up):

And here is the LP version:

Tommy Olivencia – who toured Panama a number of times beginning in the early ’70s – got the Bolita composition in his hands and recorded an excellent version with his Orquesta on the Juntos de Nuevo LP (1974), with vocal by the great Chamaco Ramirez. I imagine it was from Olivencia’s version that Enrique Lynch’s band in Peru got wind of the song, and created their own really nice version that extends the concept of brotherhood to all of Latin America. Take a listen:

Finally, here is one of those amazing one-off Salsa sides Panama is infamous for – the electric piano-led guaguanco “Felicidad” by Silvestre y su Grupo, canta Eddy Acosta, on the Tamayo label. This band was led by Jorge Sylvester – another of the musical geniuses born and raised in Panama (Colón).

Dirk Ortega appears on piano here, and shared arranging duties on this 45 with Sylvester, who plays Tenor Sax as he did on the Bolita LP. Panama’s Gabriel Solis is on Trumpet – Solis would later go on to play with Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz among others.

Sylvester (starting at 14 or 15 years old) led the excellent raw combo “Los Caballeros de Colon” with singer Mauro Garcia, and after attending the Conservatory in Panama and playing with bands as varied as Bolita’s and with Victor Boa, left Panama to a fruitful career in Free Jazz.

You can hear an example of his brilliant Afro Caribbean Experimental art here:

And for more, check out: https://www.jorgesylvesteracemusic.com/

Disfruten!