Panamanian music – the voices-and-drums tamborito, the voice, fiddle and percussion cumbia and the guitar-backed mejorana – is one of the most exciting in the whole Afro-Latin area. Street Music Of Panama is the real thing, taped before the tradition began to fade. It also appears to be the only album in existence devoted to this wonderful idiom.
Selection: Cumbia. Recorded in a casa bruja
(sorcerer’s hut) in Panama City and played on retuned bazaar-bought ukuleles backed by maraccas and percussion.