I have elsewhere pointed out that Panama was a key part of overlapping musical routes of AfroCuban, Jazz, Calypso and Spanish Language popular musics during the 1930s through ‘70s. For AfroCuban music, key stops on the route included Havana, New York, Puerto Rico, Caracas, Mexico City and Panama City/Colon. A connected part of the story involves the diaspora of AfroCuban musicians throughout those destinations and further afield in Latin America.
On the one hand, Cubans (musicians and otherwise) had been moving to Latin American countries (and NY, whose Latin population by the 1940s was over 150,000) throughout the first half of the 20th century, bringing their music with them. Thus the interesting cultures of Danzón in Veracruz and the Yucatan since the beginning of the 20th c., and Cuban Son dance cultures in the Dominican Republic and Curacao, some related to Cubans involved in the sugar industry moving to those countries.
This happened in Colombia as well, per an article on Sexteto Tabalá: “The story of the sexteto in Colombian tradition begins in the sugar mills sometime in the 1930s. Fulfilling needs for labor, plantation managers imported Cuban workers to Colombian mills, and with them came not only their skill in the field, but their mastery of the son, a style of music originally played with the Spanish vocals and guitar matched by African rhythms.”
Various pushes and pulls brought Cuban musicians to Latin American countries (and again, to NYC) from the ‘30s through the ‘60s. The frothy nightlife of Mexico City, Colón (thanks to large populations of US servicemen and Canal employees) and Caracas offered excellent opportunities for Cuban musicians. All of these cities had well developed Radio stations, and Mexico City in addition was an emerging center of motion pictures distributed throughout the Spanish speaking world – especially the 1940s and ‘50s “Rumbera” movies that featured AfroCuban music and told stories of dissipate women in the nightlife milieu.
Some of the pulls to NY included the opportunity to play lucrative gigs for White society (especially for light skinned musicians) and for Latin populations alike. Per “Hispanic New York, A Sourcebook” the Puerto Rican population exploded from roughly 60,000 in 1940 to 600,000 in 1960, and they were key consumers (and contributors to new forms of) of AfroCuban music. So Anselmo Sacasas and Miguelito Valdes, the star pianist/arranger and singer respectively of Orquesta Casino de la Playa, both left for NY in the early ‘40s. Sacasas had a successful career playing the sort of society clubs Walter Winchell could be found at, later retiring to Puerto Rico. Likewise Miguelito Valdes, who played with the nationally famous Xavier Cugat, and later acted in movies in Hollywood and Mexico City.
For more on Miguelito, see my article here: http://esperobook.com/2020/04/23/cugie-ricky-ricardo-and-the-real-mr-babalu/
Another impetus to sojourn in or move to Latin American cities involved the sheer numbers of excellent musicians in Havana. The talent was just too deep, and there were only so many choice gigs. Beny Moré is the classic example. An unknown in his native Cuba, he could not break through in the Havana of the early ‘40s, so moved to Mexico City and recorded a series of seminal recordings (“La Culebra, “Bonito y Sabroso”, etc.) that have become classics of the AfroCuban canon. He returned to Cuba a star in the early 1950s.
Excellent musicians either proceeded or followed him to Mexico City, including singers Orlando “Cascarita” Guerra, Kiko Mendive (who also lived in Caracas), singer/composers Francisco Fellové and Silvestre Méndez, and Bandleaders Damaso Pérez Prado and Mariano Mercerón.
Racism also pushed Cuban musicians – Havana’s color line was as bad as in any US state, exacerbated by large numbers of US tourists and Yankee casino managers who insisted on anti-black racism. Many musicians commented on racism as a factor in their decision to immigrate, including Machito bandleader Mario Bauza, who was relieved to be able to live in a Harlem where blackness was normal.
Finally, political developments were a push, especially after the Cuban Revolution, leading artists like Celia Cruz and La Sonora Matancera to emigrate first to Mexico and later to NY and other cities in the US and Latin America. Some of this was based on political preferences, but it was also true that Revolutionary Cuba both effectively killed Havana’s nightlife and suppressed AfroCuban religious practices after the revolution.
Coming back to Panama, as I noted earlier in a post on René Santos’ recordings with Alberto Quintanar: “Santos was part of a wave of Cuban musicians that came to Panama in the mid ’40s to play in the popping nightclub scene during and after the World War, names that include Peruchín and Miguelito Cuní!” Another accomplished musician who moved to Panama (and then to NY, and back to Panama) was Saxophonist/violinist Chombo Silva, who played with the Alegre All Stars in NY and whose tone on Sax has been likened to Lester Young’s.
Big name Cuban bands also toured Panama in the era, including Orquesta Riverside and Roberto Faz, and Cascarita, Beny and Manuel “Puntillita” Licea played the carnavales numerous times in the late ‘40s through 1950s. For more on Beny in Panama, see my article here: http://esperobook.com/2020/04/18/salsa-in-panama-from-beny-to-willie/
Of René Santos unfortunately I have not been able to find much documentation, and he passed in the months before I first visited Panama for interviews (he was one of the first I inquired about). According to Mario Garcia Hudson, Director of the Centro Audiovisual de la Biblioteca Nacional de Panama, Santos came to Panama in 1948. Francisco Bush Buckley (QEPD) in his “La Musica Salsa en Panama y Algo Mas” has Santos touring Panama with the Conjunto Habana, and deciding to stay.
As Tresero (and bassist), Santos was a solid representative of the Cuban Conjunto style in Panama. Remember these are the glory years for Cuban Conjuntos – Beny had gone to Mexico with the Conjunto Matamoros in 1945, and by the late ‘40s Arsenio’s Conjunto was just breaking up as he was moving to NY to try to get advanced medical care for his blindness. All the excellent Conjuntos that splintered from Arsenio’s seminal group, such as Conjunto Modelo, Estrellas de Chocolate and the inimitable Conjunto Chappottin, led by Arsenio’s first trumpet, were at their peak in this era or shortly afterward.
Santos played in various groups in Panama, including Armando Boza’s La Perfecta, and Trio Las Tres Voces with (soon to be famous Bolerista) Marta Estela Paredes and Cuban singer Osvaldo García. García, who later sang with Panamana’s Orquesta Rumba Casino, imparted his knowledge of Cubano Soneo to a young Panamanian singer named Felipe Carrasco, who would go on to sing with Santos and many other excellent groups.
Santos also played with the Conjunto Bahia, which included García and singers Sonia Evans (also Cuban) and Panamanian Jorge Luis “Chuchi” Moreno. Per Hudson, Chuchi, who was a singer with Ezequiel “Pipo” Navarro’s Conjunto Estrellas Panameñas, loved the conjunto style and was one of the first to sing with Santos when he organized his own Conjunto.
Here is Chuchi singing the delicious Son Montuno “Pegao Pegao” with René Santos’ Conjunto, on the Discos Istmeños 45:
In the ‘60s, Moreno also sang with the Conjunto Gigante, the house band of Panama’s National TV2, directed by Saxophonist Gussy Escobar and later by Fermín Macias. It seems that there was a rotating door of musicians between René Santos’ Conjunto and his Estrellas and both Conjunto Gigante, as well as the well-regarded Orquesta 11 de Octubre of the Guardia Nacional.
Conjunto Gigante’s pianist was Teofilo “Cuz” Joseph, and arrangements were handled by Escobar, Santos and Panama’s famed bassist/bandleader/arranger Clarence Martin Sr. Conjunto Gigante also featured singer Marcos Caceres, who moonlighted as an outstanding graphic artist. In fact, Caceres designed a number of the arresting LP covers in Panama’s discography – The Nuevos Soul Fantastic and Manito Johnson y Sus Diferentes LPs on Taboga stand out as examples.
Here is Moreno again, this time with Conjunto Gigante, singing the massive “Guajiralandia” on Padisco:
Santos’ Conjunto also featured Felipe Carrasco, mentioned above. According to Eric Gonzalez of Herencia Latina, Carrasco is considered Panama’s best Cuban-style Sonero. Carrasco first recorded (and had a small hit) with Santos’ Conjunto on “Tierra Querida/Sarasí” on the Artelec label. He later went on to sing with the Orquesta 11 de Octubre, Conjunto Gigante, Víctor “Vitín” Paz’s Orquesta, Rafael Labasta’s Orquesta, Los Salvajes del Ritmo ( which earlier had a young Ruben Blades as singer) and his own group called “Los Criollos.” Carrasco’s sister is Catalina Carrasco – “Catita” de Panamá – one of the most famous música típica singers. who starred with the Conjunto de Yin Carrizo.
Here is Carrasco singing René’s love poem to Panama, the guaracha “Tierra Querida”:
Finally, here is another excellent 45 by René Santos y Sus Estrellas – the Boogaloo flavored Son Montuno “Yo No Camino Mas”. The song is of Cuban origin, written by Anacario Mondejar. Damirón y Su Charanga did a version in the ‘60s, and the Sonny Bravo-led NY powerhouse Típica 73 later recorded a nice modern charanga típica version, featuring all-world musicians Alfredo De La Fe on violin and Mario Rivera on Baritone Sax, with vocal by Jose “El Canario” Alberto.
The singer is not listed but everyone seems to agree it’s neither Carrasco nor Moreno. Musician and Panamanian Music Historian Clarence Martin Jr. believes that it’s either Manolín Diaz or Tony Bermudez.
To be continued…
Thank you!