Three musical flowers that grew from the seeds of Los Mozambiques included Nueva Vida, Roberto y Su Zafra and Skorpio 77.
Ernesto “Cortijo” Atherley, who played cencerro for Los Mozambiques and later timbales and batería for Jaime Murrell’s Skorpio, got the chance to lead his own band in 1975-76. Known as Orquesta Nueva Vida (Nuevavida, Nueva Vida) they recorded a number of beautiful sides across four 45s on the Tamayo label, including a fantastic version of Don Lengua (see earlier post) with vocal by Murrell.
Orquesta Nueva Vida included Atherley on timbales/batería, Skorpio’s David Choy on electric piano (Wurlitzer), Chombín on bass, Timaná (now living in Spain) on tumbadora, and two (delicious) trombones in Macarthy and De Leon. Macarthy, who now lives in France, was from a Cuban family and did the horn arrangements with Choy. Vocals were by Los Mozambiques big three of Carlos Martinez, Jaime Murrell and Eduardo Williams. On the last 45, Victor Del Rosario – Babaila’s brother – handled the vocals. I have not been able to get the name of the bongocero – if anyone knows, please advise.
The A-side of “Don Lengua” was “Sombrero de Paja”, which the musicians most likely heard from a version by the Venezuelan Cholo y su Combo from the De Espanto! canta Chiqui Tamayo LP on Velvet (1966/67). The original composition was “Un Sombrero de Paja” (1964) by the Argentine Chico Novarro (real name Bernardo Mitnik, child of Jewish migrants from Europe). In this lovely remake, vocals are by the golden-throated Carlos Martinez:
Nueva Vida’s four 45s are as follows:
“Sombrero de Paja/Don Lengua” (Vocal by Carlos Martinez/Jaime Murrell)
“Rosita/Consuelate” (Vocal by Carlos Martinez/Eduardo Williams)
“Gloria Melina/Pa’ Jerusalem” (Vocals by Carlos Martinez)
“La Mariposa/Mi Corazon Te Llama” (Vocals by Victor Del Rosario)
Roberto y su Zafra (the zafra is the annual cane harvest) were led by Mozambiques guitarist Roberto Dominguez, and their first (self-titled) LP on Tamayo (1976) featured Ricardo Babaila del Rosario (see previous post) on vocals. Arrangements were by Alexis “El Profe” Castillo, whose fingerprints are all over Panamanian Salsa in the ’70s, and the combo featured the well regarded “Amed” on piano. There is an extended bio of Roberto Dominguez here.
The first song on the LP has Babaila singing a hot version of “El Muñeco De La Ciudad”, here renamed “El Negro de la Ciudad” . The song is a great example of some of the musical pathways traveled in the Latin Caribbean.
“El Muñeco De La Ciudad” is a Venezuelan Merengue by composer Adrián Pérez from Miranda state in that lovely, troubled country, which became a big hit as recorded by Nelson Pinedo with la Sonora Matancera in La Habana Cuba in 1954. Pinedo himself was from Barranquilla, Colombia, and Wikipedia says this about his work with La Sonora Matancera :”He incorporated various Colombian songs (porros, cumbias, and mapalés) into the band’s repertoire—many being adapted to Cuban rhythms such as the Bolero.” Here Roberto Dominguez and Babaila Del Rosario throughly Pana-salsify the classic, adding bits of Boricua Sonero Mayor Ismael Rivera’s “Mi Negrita Me Espera” into the mix:
Roberto y su Zafra was soon joined by Beny Romero, who would become the band’s main singer (they also recorded with Gabino Pampini). Here is a song from their excellent LP De Beny a Beny (dedicated to Beny Moré) – also with arrangements by Alexis Castillo, and this time with piano by Raul Gallimore – a cover of Silvestre Mendez’s “Yiri Yiri Bom”, which Moré immortalized in 1948-50 with Orquesta De Rafael De La Paz in Mexico City:
In 1977, Skorpio also split up, and half of the band recorded at least three songs, with Tommy Barrett now on vocals – “Violencia” which shares a 45 with Roberto y su Zafra’s “Que Murmuren”, and an excellent version of the Johnny Colón dancefloor burner “Merecumbe” :
Thanks for help with research on this series goes to my brother Paul Hobi, Alonso Speid QEPD, Tommy Barrett QEPD, and Maestros David Choy, Ricardo “Babaila” del Rosario, Carlos Martinez and Virgilio Martin. Additional information was taken from the Retro Panama Musical account on FB
Disfruten!