New release : On the Soundway label more vintage sounds, Panama! 3: Calypso Panameno, Guajira Jazz and Cumbia Tipica on Theisthmus 1960-1975 demonstrating tropical music and national pride during the fertile decades of the 1960s & 70s Panama! 3 is the latest edition of the much lauded and heavily championed Panama compilations and continues to explore the extraordinary dimensions of Panamanian music during the 1960s and 70s.

Set for release on November 16th, Panama! 3 digs that little bit deeper into the cross-cultural soul of the Isthmus with track selections from Will Holland (Quantic) alongside Panama! series compilers Roberto Gyemant and Miles Cleret.

Due to its’ totally unique geographical location connecting North and South America, Panama’s music is a soulful blend of Latin American, Caribbean, European and indigenous forms. From bilingual calypsos to guajira jazz, from tropical guarachas to cumbia tamboreras, Panamanian musicians fearlessly combined and brilliantly executed styles that reflected their multicultural environment during a turbulent time in the young country’s history.

As is the case with all Soundway albums, the Panama! 3 CD is presented with a full colour 24-page booklet, nuggets of vital information, untold stories behind the music, vintage photos and some very special cover art.

From soul to calypso via the Port of Colon
Akin to the previous volumes, Panama! 3 documents some of the groups referred to as the ‘Combos Nacionales’ such as Los Silvertones, Ralph Weeks (The Exciters) & Los Mozambiques. The ‘Combos Nacionales’ were groups that emerged in the ‘60s influenced by the black power period in the US while fusing jazz, calypso, salsa, cumbia, doo wop, soul and funk in different measures.

However, it is the focus on Panamanian calypso that sets this album apart from its predecessors. A product of the Afro Antillean immigration from countries like Jamaica and Trinidad, Panama’s calypsos can be separated into two camps: joyous songs about good times, parties and sexual prowess, or the more melancholic, mysterious and sombre laments on tragedy and lost love. The album opens with Lord Panama’s Fire Down Below, a record with 1950s sound quality but absolutely dripping in charisma. The dominant figure among a group of brilliant Calypsonians was Lord Cobra, who features on two tracks including the clever “Partido Calysonian” that announces the founding of the calypso political party, and ends up placing the Mighty Sparrow as the Governor of Trinidad!

The Panama! story 2001 - 2009
One of Soundway’s beliefs is that if you find some hot country-specific records then there are bound to be more. In 2001, when Miles Cleret first listened to a record of ‘The Exciters’ he received through eBay, he immediately got the wheels in motion. Deliberating with compiler and friend Roberto Gyemant (Beto), who lived in Costa Rica and was regularly in Panama, Miles set about putting together the lost pieces of a tropical jigsaw puzzle. Beto has visited Panama over twenty times in the last eight years, scouring radio station back rooms, dusty record shops and visiting musicians and historians. He is probably the most well versed foreigner in the music and history of The Combos Nacionales.

Panama! 3: Calypso Panameno, Guajira Jazz and Cumbia Tipica on Theisthmus 1960-1975 is released on 16th November 2009.

Panama! Volume 3 — Calypso Panameño, Guajira Jazz & Cumbia Tipica on the Isthmus 1960—75