Casco Viejo, Panama
Lunch with Panamanian Grammy Award winner Danilo Pérez is an experience on its own. He is full of energy and information, but most of it all, I always end up loving Panama a bit more after talking to him. I didn`t know, for example, that Panama was one of the countries that had more “musicians per capita” contributing significantly to jazz. At every Panama Jazz Festival, he makes a point of dedicating each to a different musician and to celebrate their life and contribution.
This year, the 9th edition of the Panama Jazz Festival will be dedicated to Carlos Garnett, a self taught saxophonist who started playing calypso music back in 1957. He moves to New York in the 60`s and ends up playing with big names such as Mile Davis and Charles Mingus.
2012 Panama Jazz Festival will be exciting! Big names like Tito Puente Jr and Omara Portuondo will be here. Chucho Valdés, Charlie Sepulveda, Luis Bonilla, John Scofield, Marlow Rosado, Teri Roigers, all of them sharing stage from January 16th to the 21st, 2012.
We don´t have the specific schedule yet, so keep tuned!
