Panamá 77

Chronique

Daniel Villarreal is a Panama-born drummer, percussionist, and DJ based in Chicago and Los Angeles. A founding member of Dos Santos, he is also half of the Los Sundowns (with guitarist Beto Martinez), and a member of Chicago's traditional son jarocho group Ida y Vuelta. Villarreal's fluid pan-Latin style melds traditional Panamanian sounds with those from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Mexico, and West Africa, alongside influences from psychedelic rock, free jazz, post-punk, hip-hop, R&B, and funk. Panamá 77 is his first solo album.
Dos Santos is a wildly creative Latin American ensemble who crisscross cumbia, neo-psychedelia, surf music, indie rock, and improvisation. Villarreal makes jazz his focus here, though his particular brand of it centers on a highly individual sense of and feel for the almighty groove; it also makes use of the aforementioned genres and other sounds. Opener "Bella Vista" employs an Afro-Latin percussion vamp using everything from tom-toms and congas to cymbals in circular rhythm under a bleating tenor saxophone. "Ofelia" weds Nathan Karagianis' dramatic surf guitar to a wall of Farfisa and Mellotron, congas, and a drum kit in a stretched-out, psychedelicized waltz. "Uncanny" bubbles with pulsing intensity from Fender Rhodes, synth, layers of shakers, congas, trumpet, and bass, crisscrossing Afrobeat, electro-cumbia, and jazz-funk. "I Didn't Expect That" is a brief but glorious exercise in 21st century Latin soul-jazz played by a killer quartet that includes double bassist Anna Butterss, guitarist Jeff Parker, and B-3 organist Cole DeGenova. The guitarist's sophisticated, intricate lyricism helms the trio offering "In/On," with Butterss' double bass groove and Dave Vettraino on droning "air organ." Villarreal guides the lithe, spacious flow with bells, shakers, congas, and the kick drum from his kit. "Cali Colors" is a lovely exercise in post-bop exotica thanks in no small part to Marta Sofia Honer's violin and viola playing exchanges with Parker's arpeggios as Butterss and Villarreal slow dance an intricate backbeat. "Activo" begins as an abstract rhythm-based tune, then Elliot Bergman's kalimba balances a mode-based melody with a double-timed pulse. Guitar, bass, and drums frame that pulse and add melodic elements and polyrhythmic accents before the ensemble finds a hypnotic vamp to work. "Patria" weaves together son jarocho, mutant cumbia, exotica, and psychedelia. Villarreal pays tribute to his organ-playing father via the haunted, reverb-laden organ sounds of the great Panamanian composer/keyboardist Avelino Muñoz. While the spacious, vampy, groove-centric percussion workout "Messenger" evokes Miles Davis' Bitches Brew era in the closing track, the immediately preceding "18th & Morgan" might have been a better choice to end the album with its breezy layers of Rhodes, synth, violins, and violas over Villarreal's nocturnal summery groove. Even with strings, it offers a sweet vibe worthy of Young-Holt Unlimited.
Panamá 77's loose interactions embrace spontaneity and unpredictability; they are governed by an unshakeable sense of groove. The rootsy elements in Villarreal's style make this set a vibrant, engaging exercise in musical sophistication, ripe for summertime listening.

© Thom Jurek /TiVo