REPORTAJES PARA WORLD SOUND -- SAO PAULO---outro jeto de beat**

mi querida revista me mando a Sao Paulo para una serie de articulos interesantes: Les Nubians (video), un duo de cantoras de hip hop con sabor a Afro de Bordeaux (conocidas mas en USA que en Francia, de hecho) fueron invitadas, juntas con Adama Yalamba de Mali y unas chefs africanas tambien de Bordeaux, a participar en unos talleres por distintas favelas del pais del orden y del progreso...acompañados por el colectivo Moleque de Rua ! En las visperas de la salida de su proximo album, que ellas quieren terminar durante esta visita, esto pinta muy interesante. Otra razon es la venida a Sao Paolo de mi amigo Amayo (video), el cantante del legendario grupo de afro beat neoyorquino (musica!) Antibalas, para grabar unas sesiones para el primer album de su nuevo proyecto solo, el Fu Arkist Ra... Y finalmente, la idea es hacer algo que a WorldSound le gusta, uno de estos retratos de ciudad como los que fuerons hechos sobre Estanbul y Panama. Con la cantidad de contactos establecidos, en esa locura de ciudad, tenemos buenas perspectivas adelante, y asi nos montamos en el avion...




Bueno, al llegar, SPaulo es bien deprimente..sobre todo cuando hace algo de frio, llueve, y pensabas llegar a Brasil, Brasil por favooor ! a finales de un mes de septembre normalmente el tiempo deberia ser bonito...le sumas a esto 4 horas de sueño, los trancones entre una favela, un cloaca y unos rascacielos, y un terminal / metro super loco, gente corriendo por todos lados...guau ! La visita al centro es maso lo mismo, pero esta vez tiene un toque casi cinematografico, que de una vez lo seduce a uno. Vemos unas autopistas urbana encerradas entre fortalezas de 50 pisos, en medio de la cual hay un hueco y por este hueco, por debajo aparece otra autopista! Pasando encima de esto, pasarelas con gente, algunas encorbatadas otras saliendo del taller, corriendo hacia las entradas del metro, vendedores de comida china, fideos saltados, dvds porno, mendigos, llovizna, policia...con esta mezcla, asia- america latina, pasado con futuro caotico e incierto, casi estamos en el set up de una pelicula tipo blade runner o 5to elemento..es feamente lindo...féérique! Se siente que al anochecer el barrio Anhangabau se transformara en algo poco recomendable para la gente del comun, un lugar en el cual solo permaneceran los mendigos, las prostituas de Agusta que tienen su apartamento en esta zona, y uno que otro artista underground con su taller o miembro de la comunidad gay... Amayo me comenta que seguramente, es lo mas parecido a lo que pudo ser NY en los años 70, antes de que Giuliani transformara la manzana en naranja mecanica para Bobo's.



Buildings enteros abandonados, como este predio Martinelli, que fue el mas grande squat de America Latina hasta hace poco !

Venimos para musica...el articulo en WorldSound lo contara todo, pero SP es impresionante en este aspecto. Desde que Rio dejo de ser capital, el ascenso de SP como capital musical de Brazil ha sido permanente. Y la caida de los grandes sellos disqueros, fuente del poderio carioca en terminos musicales, a favor de los sellos independientes y de las redes informales que caracteriza la escena en SP, ha terminado de confirmar esta tendencia. Despues de las oleadas de cariocas, ahora es la gente de Recife que viene a llenar el escenario con sus talentos polirytmicos. Hay de todo en SP, pero lo que mas llama la atencion entre la cantidad de gente que uno va encontrando es este trip hop Paulista que se esta haciendo, del cual (musica!)Instituto/3 Namassa, proyectos liderados por Rica Amabis, es uno de los mejores representantes, con tambien Curumin, Céu o Guizado. Una fascinacion para el triphop que hasta llevo la Orquesta Imperial (de Rio pero como siempre su publico esta en SP) a presentar aqui una serie de conciertos dedicados a Serge Gainsbourg ! Y es que encaja perfectamente con este ambiente retrofuturistico, este paisaje urbano algo frio-caliente, esta latinidad gozona mezclada con la soledad melancolica del sujeto europeo post-68 (???)...



en esta filmacion de baja calidad, una sesion en el estudio de Fefe, con el bajista ZeNigro, el percusionista de Recife Jota y el cantante Amayo en los teclados, esbozando arreglos para un posible track del proximo album de la figura de Antibalas. Noche de tragos y humo...mas tarde, el taxi se llevara la mochila con la camara y el cuaderno de notas...al dia siguiente, Jota se pondra en la bateria para tocar sus primerimos breaks de afro beat...lo hara como si siempre lo hubiese tocado...3 dias mas adelante, vuelvo a encontrar la mochila con la camara adentro

De Regreso de Bz y Arg - Un nuevo fieston !

El secretariado unipersonal de la Republica regresa de un viaje a Sao Paulo, Rio y BsAs para una serie de articulos para WorldSound...tanta musica, tantos encuentros : Curumin, Ceu, Amayo de Antibalas, Lucas Santtana, Thalma de Freitas, Stephane San Juan, NinaBecker, Instituto, Axel Krygier, Villa Diamante, Chancha Via Circuito, etc etc...proximamente habra un post dedicado a este viaje que realmente me dejo agotado, casi como este tipo que me pille una mañana por Anhagabau, con fotos y todo, tal como lo hubo para Panama y Estanbul !




Mientras estaba afuera, no me olvide de Cali, y con Magnum Pimp, ideamos una super Republica Calicuta para el viernes 23 de octubre en Saloon (av 9N con clle 13N, Granada, Cali), sin duda la mejor fiesta en el momento: invitamos al productor Cero 39

MUSICA Tambien estuve averiguando lo que estaba pasando en el planeta musical, las ultimas producciones.

Esto empieza con algo que no tiene nada que ver con los viajes WorldSound al cono Sur. Les quiero hablar de un tipo cuyo trabajo me fascina desde que lo descubri con Antibalas, que se llama Ticklah, uno de los mejores productores que hay ahora en NY en el genero Afro Latin, Dub. Check out el REMIX que le hizo a una de las ultimas canciones de Alice Russell, la cantante que otrora canto con nuestro amigo, el anglo-caleño Quantic ! Estoy que invito al chico a Cali...armemos una vaca !

Volviendo a Brazil, y del interesante eje Sao Paulo-Rio, como no hablar de Thalma de Freitas, la cantante de Orquesta Imperial que tuve la suerte de entrevistar en SP. Cone l tiempo que pasa entre las dos ciudades, es un buen ejemplo de la perfecta combinacion entre la sensualidad creativa Carioca y la nueva onda Paulista ? Aqui encontraran el tema que grabo con 3Namassa, uno de los colectivos mas interesantes en America Latina hoy, en el genero electro-trip hop -latin, y del cual volveremos a hablar mas adelante...Un tema escrito a lo Chico Buarque: escritores hombres se imaginan siendo mujeres, escriben algo, y 3 Massa invita divas a cantar...mientras lo agarran, pillense el video aqui !

Seni seviyorum Estanbul ! Selim Sesler, Babazula y demas cosas encontradas durante el reportaje para WORLD SOUND en Turquia

Turkiye. Istanbul. En el agua transparente y azul, el alboroto de las helices de un barco que lleva el nombre de un cantante de los años 70, Baris Manço, aguas lindas donde los pescadores urbanos tiran sus anzuelos con destreza y sin que caiga la ceniza de su cigarillo. Miro la pared urbana, calles empinadisimas, mezquitas, torres, cual “Banque d'Athènes” que nos lleva mas de un siglo atras, cuando el mediterraneo aun era el centro del mundo y el centro de la disputa entre los grandes poderes. Lamendome los dedos porque el baklava tenia mucha miel y era tan bueno que habia que comerlo ya, en este momento, aqui, pienso que vistas desde debajo del puente, las canas de pescar mas arriba parecen las antenas de una cucarachas, escondidas, listas para clavar en el agua...




Sera el calor que me pone asi? O la musica siquedelico-anatoliano-funkistica de Okay Temiz, quien tiene su tienda del otro lado de este puente, que me estaba escuchando? Cucarachas aqui no hay, nunca he visto una ciudad tan grande y tan limpia a la vez, de hecho. que extraño. Luego, sentado en el baño, una llave de paso y un huequito ahi en la tasa, para limpiarse el culo. divertido. cosquillas. salgo y compro un par de medias negras al bigotudo que mantiene frente a la mezquita antecito y despuecito de cada rezo, vendiento ropa interior...ahora que les estoy hablando me doy cuenta que de pronto la gente quiere evitar de exponer sus ruinas de medias con un mundo de huecos...


En fin...comemos en una terraza mirando el ocaso y despues vamos a Badhane a bailar y escuchar a este man, Selim Sesler, cuya musica esta aqui. Clarineta, violin, Qannun (harpa horizontal), Derbuka...


Musica de la zona de Edirne, Trakia, esta region de Turquia que esta al lado de Bulgaria, en Europa...melodias Roms y ritmos Turcos se encuentran ahi, y en el bar un tipo de USA me ayuda traduciendo mis preguntas para Sesler...este mismo man me hubiera gustado tenerlo al dia siguiente, cuando fui al barrio Rom que destruyeron (despues de 1400 años de estar ahi, dicho sea de paso, que tal la capital europea de la cultura??) hace poco...cuando llegué encontré escombros y me meti a un bar donde sirven 1000 tés por hora a unos tipos que uno no sabe que es lo que estan haciendo, negocios, domino, cartas...saqué unas fotos que eran muy buenas pero un tipo vino, me obligo a borarlas todas con un lenguaje corporal amenazante, y luego otro vino, se sento y me miro sin decir nada, y al rato cuando le pregunté con gestos si ellos querian que yo me marchara, solo movio la cabeza de arriba a bajo dos veces...y afuera este carro con un retrato gigante de Ata Turk...tristes tropicos como decia Levi Strauss



Murat Ertel, Mustafa Özkent, Richard, Asle, Okan....varios musicos encontrados, diferentes versiones de un mismo pais, diferentes maneras de compartir con el resto del mundo. Murat , de Babazula, fusiona y tiene ganas de europa, aqui tienen un dub bien chevere de el (esta en la foto con las gafas negras).



Mustafa en los 70s tocaba funk para estas peliculas donde uno de esos Chuck Norris turcos meten patadas en las guevas a diestra y siniestra con el puente colgante ese en el background, y hoy hace musica para comerciales. Okan, tierno timido y divertido, produce minimal electro y empieza a torturar los restos de un Commodore 64...Richard y Asle, de Kolektif Istanbul, pues a ellos les vale gueva: un argento pasa por ahi, toca con ellos, al otro rato estan en Benin y no se hacen mas preguntas, la gozan en el momento, en el sitio y punto. Al mismo tiempo, tienen esta fascinacion por la musica de las minorias turcas de los balkanes. una historia interesant, ahi si que investigan. irlos a entrevistar es el camello soñado de cualquier periodista: una islita hermosa a 1h40 de Istanbul. te esperan con el mejor almuerzayuno de tu vida, con x cantidad de mieles que traen de los 4 rincones del ex emperio otomano, yogurt uno-a, frutas confitadas, jamon de cordero, queso, aji uyyy no . Te tocan musiquita, como esa flauta




contestan tus preguntas chimbas con paciencia en un frances perfecto, y luego te dicen: “tienes tu traje de baño? a 500 metros hay una playita.” Asle tiene una voz de cabaret aleman de entre guerras...Dietrich, Prucnal...sensual, distingué...tan poco oriental pero tan Istanbul al mismo tiempo. estamos tomando cerveza tostandonos la piel, suena la voz del muezzin de la mezquita, el agua es un espejo oscuro donde un yate echo su ancla, para llorar solito la muerte de bambi jackson, y este palo de higos sale de la pared a mi lado, reparte sus olores de antes que anochezca.





Salgo a mear mi 5ta cerveza contra una pared que lamen las olitas, recojo mis cosas y me voy para el barco, regreso a la ciudad...en el barco, estos pies, la gente sentada conversando...pongo algo de musica para dormir , de repente me siento todo un gonzo periodista....

BLACK CAUCA VIBES

These days i have been exploring the Cauca province, south of Cali, looking for signs of Afro Colombian music there. Since Cauca that part of Cauca (the one in between the two mountain range) is more famous for its indigenous population, like the Guambianos and the Nasa, you don't really expect an afrocolombian tradition to arise in this land of green hills and little farms, pineapple crops and small size cattle growing, where the sight of black people actually is a kind of surprise. Why ? because most of them are concentrated in the humid coastal jungle across the cordillera, or in the flat Cauca valley, where they work in the huge sugarcane industry.
A surprise too to see afrocolombians living in houses that resemble more the white paisa's houses of the cafe region, than the wooden constructions one is used to with the rest of the afro colombians.

-as i write these words a couple of huge parrots are flying around screaming. But the nicer the appearance, the uglier the voice, sounds familiar?-

So after a series of socio-spatial and architectural surprises, no wonder we were going to stumble on some MUSICAL SURPRISE, which takes the shape of an afro colombian musical tradition, based on 6/8 rhythms, which main instrument is...the violin ! Probably one of the very few examples of use of violin in african America. The conjunto features a tiple, a guitar, an upright bass (unique features in afro colombian music), a bombo (the one shown in that picture is said to be from early 20th century) and sometimes snare drum, plus maracas and of course voices.



I won't get too much in the details here. so just a few words...Their style is called juga caucana, and it is largely unknown even to the big names of world music like Arwad Esber of Paris' Maison des Cultures du Monde, who confessed it to me. Its origins are very old, but the use of the violin slowly started at the end of the 19th century, mainly because the people there were trying to play cuban music. So it was quite exciting to take a bus, then a motorbike, to go discover that music and area, with its wooden centennial trapiches (the cane's panela's plant, nowadays in concrete) by beautiful rivers. These guys also play bambuco viejo, something known to both white mestizos of andean colombia, where bambuco is an old tradition, and the afro ecuadorians ...Ecuador, to which the Cauca department is linked: listen to the accents, look at the racial composition of the society, the landscape, check out history, the links between the Quito audience and Popayan's role as the then metropolis of southern New Granada...

On top of that, these musicians not only play their music, they also have an oooold tradition of playing Pachanga...Cuban music among the afro pacific people? This would sound strange on the coast, a place isolated from the rest of the world , like Quantic once told me. But Cauca is less disconnected from the rest of the world... which brings me to conclude that topography influences music. Most of them play as families: husband, wife, brother, sister in law, plus the 6 year old playing campana etc....I liked it so much that I went there twice, two week ends in a row, to make contacts, take these pictures, film, listen, dance and go to the river...Their names: Aires de Dominguillo, Palmas, Cañabrava, Renovacion...MAXIMUM RESPECT TO THESE FINE BANDS ! Cañabrava is due to play at the next REPUBLICA CALICUTA, in Cali, june 13th.

WORLD SOUND # 4 - SABROSOUNDS DE PANAMA

(Uno de mis articulos para la revista francesa World Sound de mayo - junio, traducido al ingles. Antes de leer bajese este track del leyendario Papi Brandao de Panama!2, la nueva compilacion de Roberto Ernesto Gyemant para Soundway / One of my articles for issue #4 of french magazine World Sound. Go straight there for a refreshing Papi Brandao track from Panama!2, Roberto Ernesto Gyemant's new SoundWay delivery)

Besides a canal and the 80s-like memory of an ill-mannered general, or shall we say somewhere between the two, in the 60s and the 70s Panama has produced authentic musical gems, mixing wah wah guitars, drum breaks and calypso among others. Apart from this period where it played the role of a musical crossroads, the adventure goes on today between dancehall in spanish and "conscious" reggaeton. With a few days remaining before crucial elections, we hade to take the readers there.


The wings of the plane caress the mosaic of lights that reflect on the ocean at night. Somewhere in the brain, the echo of Sonny Crockett's voice and the shitty greenish grey suits of Ricardo Tubbs on patrol in Miami keep bouncing back and forth, until the pilot's voice blows the bubble. I almost felt there! Bienvenidos a Panama, with its humid heat, its green bill and its race for the ugliest high rise.
As you go out for a tour though, the landscape offers more contrasts. In the partly popular Casco Viejo, by the sea, the colonial buildings from the 19th century, where large families live on top of each other among drying panties and socks, reminds the wanderer of La Habana. As you walk a dead end street, the feeble public light reveals an old shattered basket ball playground, where the sound of little waves below can be heard. On Plaza Herrera, the stage at Baños Publicos -a garage bar stuck between walls in ruins- has a bunch oh hairy musicians on a vintage Santana latin rock trip, while the nonchalant assistance sips a 1$ Balboa.

One could actually say there are two Panama Cities, and it's not from yesterday. At the time of the famed Combos Nacionales, the separation was clearly visible between those of the militarized zone and the average Panamian. Kabir, singer of The Festivals, one of the most important groups of the Combo's era, remembers:" You even had a separation, in the Colon-Panama City train, between the personnel of the base, their friends and guests, and the rest of the people. The same thing for the public fountains. Back then I could get in the base because I had a sax player in my band - he was black too- whose father was working there"
Timbalero Francis "Bush" Buckley, another legend of that time, says the same " Each group had their own places for the party and their own music genres, well separated...rock vs soul, sort of...So it's kind of funny to see the so called rebel kids exclusively into rock. If only they knew where rock comes from in this country (laughter) !"

From Brooklyn to Panama, via Colon

Soul singer Kabir (he stopped calling himself Ernie King since he converted to Islam) participated to the boom of the Combos Nacionales, those bands that, at the end of the 60s, were blending soul, calypso, cumbia and later on salsa. For those of the first generation, goodbye pianos and bongos, welcome to the world of electric guitars and drum sets. Their name? The Exciters, The Mozambiques, Los Fabulosos Festivals, Soul Fantastics: "But there is a difference between bands like ours and bands like Bush y sus Magnificos that appeared later on. Not only were we playing a music that was deeply influnced by soul music or calypso, while they were playing Cuban; the fact is also, there was an amateur thing to our music, we came from the street, while they were more educated", Kabir recalls.

He had arrived in Colon from Brooklyn, where he had grown up with an authoritarian father, who wanted to force draft him in the army. But Corean war was over and the VietNam mess was next on the list. He was barely 18 when he fled on a boat thanks to a japanese man, soon after having declared himself member of Malcom X's Nation of Islam, a religion of which, he confesses now, he hadn't really understood the meaning at that time. It is quite logical, in this context, that he would keep on paying attention to soul music and manifestations of black pride upon his arrival.

In front of his barber shop in the popular San Miguel barrio, between two gunshots, pointing his chin at two hustlers running inside a dark bulding opposite us, he resumes, inviting us to go back inside the shop:" In the 70s president Torrijos (note: dead "accidentally" and replaced by Noriega) was backing us. He was from the country and had a deep respect for tipica and combos nacionales, while the radios were only interested by stuff from abroad. We would always open our shows with a concert of tipica: Yin Carrizo, Ceferino Nieto, etc. Today the radios have total power and they don't focus on the most interesting stuff, so to say."

But, how did the combos evolve towards a style much closer to that of Cuba? " The combos nacionales mix appeared mainly because most of the white hispanos, especially near Bocas del Toro, had an english speaking mother or father. They could play with us, and later, when a great number of musicians went to live in NYC, we had to call massively on to the spanish speaking musicians. The repertoire evolved in function of their culture."

With the 70s comes the hey days of the Panama Carnival, and the main bands are now those of Maximo Rodriguez, Bush y sus magnificos, Bolita y su tentacion latina...bands that dig deeply into guaguanco, descargas and cuban music in general. Bush comments:" It was all based on soul, plus calypso and cuban son. Lots of blending, but it's only when we started singing stuff in spanish that the combo genre became a popular hit." Revolving around Bush's planet, important satelites: singer Camilo Azuquita, who introduced salsa in Paris in the 70s alongside sandinista leftist writer Pierre Goldman (brother of pop singer Jean Jacques), was participating in a tv show alongside Bush, the #1 at that time. Ruben Blades was practicing his vocal skills in Bush's Salvajes del ritmo, before hitting NYC for the career everyone knows of.

The Message, part 3

Back in 2009. With 30 years of difference, rapper DJ Black isn't but crying out his own "Message", after the one Kabir and the Festivals sang in their own 1972 cover of Cymande's classic. With its irresistible beat, Black's "La chucha de su madre" - a highly provocative and contagious motto that can be interpreted as "fuck that", has taken by surprise a country barely used to verbal excess, even less in the case of a song that is pushed by a social message of despair. From the underground to number one, Black was not the least surprised by this sudden success, as today's context favors the reggaeton hits, devoid of any meaning and content.
Like a reflection on life in the ghetto, denouncing the apathy of the politicians, La chucha is a jab in the so calle Panamian miracle's liver , based on real estate's boom, global trade and tourism to which the country was trying to believe, as optimistic tv clips featuring Ruben Blades were flooding the tv networks.
The success of the song should then be considerered the result of the combination of a higly danceable beat and the scandal effect of lyrics that stick to the reality and took the upper and middle classes by surprise, generating controversy and consequently, popularity “In this country there's like a fucking problem / and the people's telling you they're tired of this / we work like rats in construction / for apartments we'll never live in / we end up earning shit money / and every 4 years appears that clown / to tell us more bullshit / he begs for my ballot like a bitch / But you'll hear him snore at the congress / and he'll disappear with the dough."

Indeed! Panamian reggaeton (also called reggae or plena) seems to have a little bit of advance, as it demonstrates both its capacity to wake the minds up and move the bottoms, something rare these days...After all this is the place where it was born, as Black explains: "In 82-85, hip hop became important here with guys like Nando Boom, Renato and a bunch of other guys. They were rapping in spanish on the instrumental b sides of some dancehall 45s like "gimme punani" and stuff by Yellowman. Back then I was breakdancing, it was the moment of the US invasion here. One day Nando Boom came up with his own version of a Jamaican hit, Dem bo, and he changed it to " On the dole, raise your hand if you live on the dole !" He'd done that on a riddim which came to be the classic reggaeton beat we all know now, but back then we'd call it the Dembo ,and it was much faster." How did it cross the borders? “DJ Negro, from Puerto Rico, came here and brought it back to his island. Over there, it was hip hop that was the big thing...Rodney Clark took it, slowed it down, people liked it and it started there. The beat had been deliberately chosen in order to allow easy combination with different styles on the breaks."

Black is not blind regarding the dark side of the genre he's chosen, and confesses: " We have to admit too, that this is a music that was developped thanks to money laundering, people who were trying to recycle their money in PR. The same thing happened years ago, when Cuba was won by Fidel Castro, the music went to PR, which became the epicenter of Salsa to the expense of Cuba, a shift that came along the transfer of a whole fauna of casinos, parallel business and night life that had to leave Cuba (note: read James Ellroy and Hunter S Thomson). Well, PR was a safe haven for reggaeton pretty much in the same conditions, but with a different type of business, 30 years later."

Whatever may happen with present and past times music in Panama, the country seems to be a place where there will always be a up and coming generation of musicians that will offer something new. The ability of the local musicians, when it comes to receiving influences from abroad, tells it all.

PANAMA!2 the compilation

Record hunter Roberto Ernesto Gyemant is back with SoundWay label ! Panama!2 compilation is a logical follow up to its much acclaimed predecessor. Large portions of this one are dedicated to some of the heroes of tipica, a genre that blends columbian style acordions and african electric guitars, imitations of dog barking and guacharaca from cumbia tradition, for which a whole article would not be enough. The excellent track of Alfredo y sus Montañeros, using a classic tune taken from the carnival of the rural Herrera province, is an evocation of the rivalry between peasants from the high land (calle arriba) and those from the coast (calle abajo).
As for the combo nacional style, The Soul Fantastics play a hot version of Bill Withers' Ain't no sunshine. Amazing! And what can be said of Sr Jablonsky and his "Juck Juck", somewhere between jamaïcan music and the great mambo orchestras from the 50s. As for the Descarga by the Superiores, excelent tour de force psychedelic latino, it reminds us the group that ways playing at Baños Publicos (mentionned above).


also check DJ Black's La Chucha de su madre !

REPUBLICA CALICUTA# 12

Con Pernett live + Etienne, el Calicuta selector, en dj ! El viernes 15 de mayo a las 10pm, en Blues Brothers (av 6an #21n-40), 8000$. Para los que no lo conocen todavia, Pernett es un multi-instrumentista, cantante y productor electro de Barranquilla. Ex integrante de la banda Sidestepper, ha trabajado con Calle 13 tambien, ha hecho numerosas giras en Colombia y en Europa solo o con Ss. Tambien lo escucharon en la banda sonora de Rosario Tijeras, en el Carnaval de Bquilla etc etc
Su estilo es algo entre cumbia, chalupa, electro y dub. super rumbero, melodico, sensual como un guarapo bien frio ! tiene nuevas canciones para presentar...

su myspace

http://www.myspace.com/pernetthumberto

nos vemos ahi!!

PAPI BRANDAO: CACIQUE NO !

I wasn't in Panama for him, but to investigate for World Sound on the country's hey days and present day's musical hopes...But I ended up obsessed by the man. Looking for Panamean "musica tipica" legend and acordion master Papi Brandao is not an easy task, rather one that takes you on a trip through side roads, dodgy cantinas and sucks you back in the game when you had just thrown the towel!



First, you have to spend a lot of time with his wife on the phone: “he's at the beach with some friends / he's at a party / he's doing some business/ he's...wait a second” (but he never catches the phone)...The other day Quantic told me that he even came to the peninsula of Azueros where PB lives only to go back to PTY without having met the man ! We tried something last sunday but by the phone conversations i was having i sensed it wouldn't work...













So I decided to focus on those artists I knew I could meet somehow, sometime, somewhere. Bush and Ernie King aka Kabir where among them. Former Fabulosos Festivals singer Kabir (he took a muslim name after becoming a cheikh in the 80s) is one piece of a character: imagine a cheikh who used to be a combo nacional soul hero in the 70s, has is wife wearing the controversial (looking west-east) tchador like many muslim women, while assuming the role of manager, a man who knows his Coran by heart, yet gently and loudly honors the feminine presence in his block, and sings “Georgia on my mind” like you would swear he's a genuine southern state afro american.

His barber shop stands behind Chocho supermarket in San Miguel. Such a lovely street with big wooden housing project buildings, if it wasn't for the gunshots that started right in front of us as I was recording the interview, and forced us to an emergency retreat in the shop. Lots of anecdotes and lots of laughter...the man was born in Colon, left at age 4 to Brooklyn with his dad and mother in law, then escaped at age 18 as he had discovered his father wanted him to force him to join the army, and arrived in Colon with a Nation of Islam background, with a strong desire to sing soul!



This interview lasted like 3 hours! Between clients getting shaved and where was Is ? We finally went to a chinese restaurant where he explained me all about the faith and such things that are definitely interesting, but let's leave the subject here ahaha.

The week went on between interviews, taking pictures, more interviews, phonecalls, lots of writing and finally the week end came along. And still the ghost of PB, as we listened to the 2 tracks beto put in next Panama2 compilation for Sound Way. As we anted to take a flight to San Blas, we were supposed to wake up at 5 am on saturday but when Bush invites you for a concert of his son's cuban style combo, you just can't refuse. Man what a singer and what a performer on stage that night ! The man moves like a dismantled washing machine, while shooting eficient sonero rhymes, his face a mix of actors Gilbert Melki and Benicio del Toro. During the pause, as if still on stage, he'll explain you 10 things per minute, nodding at a girls ass passing by, asking a question to the bass player, coming back to you and lighting a match before you even stuck the cigarette to your lips, asking if you ever went to cuba but too late he's back on stage before you got a chance to answer !

After a short night we headed to the airport, destination San Blas. Alas! San Blas up your ass, without passport you no pass! It's 6.30 in the morning in Albrooke airport and the plane left without us. In a matter of seconds though, we were outside looking for the next bus to Las Tablas, thinking this was a sign that time had come for us to meet Papi Brandao at last ! Estelle being a great fan of Tipico and the Herrera province in general, planB looked pretty nice actually, so I avoided a well deserved lecture on trip logistics !

The Peninsula is dry as hell these days, and crowded too. Finding a hotel was not easy, but we made it. The spot was strange, just the way we like it!



After a little nap on Uveritos beach, surrounded by dancing birds, we watched the sun go down (can you hear the voice of Cassandra Wilson?), had a few beers at the local shack, and left as we had an apointment with Papi that same night. He was to play tipico acordion alongside other musicians. We walked the Tronosa barrio several times back and forth, but no acordion notes resounding in the distance. We hit a cantina where a guy was about to puke on us as he was trying to utter some words, I guess that's how good Seco is for your brain...The tenant of the cantina advised us to go to Guarare where the big feria was going on, because if PB was to play somewhere that night, it had to be at the crowded feria. The bus that took us there had tuned in on Radical 97.5 fm and some heavy jamaican dancehall music was being played by hysteric djs yelling all the time and gunshots and horse farts and whatever. What a trip, worth 3 liters of red bull. Good news was that Ullpiano, another great tipico hero, was playing there, between john deere tractors and Balboa beer dancehall arenas for vips only. A guy started talking french to us - his bodyguard helping us a great deal with the herds of borrachos coming to harass Estelle - happened to be the minister of work in the panamanian government, a man worth knowing in person for her...how funny was it to go from the borracho to a minister in the same place...But still, no Papi Brandao.




After another short night's sleep, we headed towards Pedasi for a nice morning at the beach. There we found a seat watching the ocean, getting licked by the waves, next to a little stool where a fine glass and a bottle of red wine were standing...some objects on the beach are stories per se, like those you see in Fellini movies...In the middle of nowhere, we met some french dudes who happened to live in a shack not far from the spot, 6 months on their own with their instruments and equipment, recording music...they were the ones who had put this Bobby Ewing kind of chair and offered us to take a shower after the sun burns and the salted water...What a blessing!

As we came arrived in Las Tablas, it looked like the gods were definitely on our side: we found the Club Tronosa crowded with people some of them celebrating the end of a baseball game with liters of beers, some others taking their turn to sing tamborito and tipica, the 2 most important genres of the region.



Women singing great polyphonies, doing salomas, men barking like dogs, alternating Mandingue (¾) and “normal” Bantou (4/4 if i'm not wrong) rhythm patterns. What an afternoon ! We left at 7 pm, quite drunk, having forgotten that the last bus to Panama was at 5.30 , with our flights out of Panama on the next morning. Oh Lawd ! We actually managed to reach la Divisa where we could find some transportation, and slept all the way back. Outside a bus was saying, on its backwindow: GRUPO PAPITO- Chitre Panama





musique: Papi Brandao - Viva Panama - from Panama! (soundway rec)