and became Panama’s Minister of Tourism.
Further Reading
Balaguer, Alejandro. “Ruben Blades: Minister of Salsa: Better Known Outside
His Country as a Singer-Songwriter and Actor, This Renaissance Man Today
Speaks from a Political Stage, as Panama’s Minister of Tourism.” Americas 60
(Jan.–Feb. 2008): 14–21.
Rebecca Stuhr
Panama
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during the American occupation of the Dominican Republic (1916–1924); the
name pambiche is derived from a phonetic corruption of Palm Beach, which was
the fabric worn by American soldiers during the occupation. As the legend goes,
the merengue estilo yanqui (Yankee style) became known as pambiche (Palm Beach
style) because the Americans were neither capable of dancing well, nor with the nu-
ance appropriate for the rhythm. While it is possible that the name pambiche origi-
nated during the U.S. occupation, it is more likely that the form existed long before
the name pambiche was given to the dance. It is performed at a slower tempo than
the merengue and utilizes a cinquillo -based tambora rhythm.
Further Reading
Austerlitz, Paul. Merengue: Dominican Music and Dominican Identity. Philadelphia,
PA: Temple University Press, 1997.
George Torres
Panama
As a passageway between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as well as the North and
South American continents, Panama is largely defined by its geographical identity
as the crossroads of the world. Panama’s history as a former Spanish colony, Co-
lombian province, and United States protectorate have created inextricably inter-
woven cultural pathways that contribute to its rich tapestry of popular expressive
cultures.
Though identified as a Central American country, Panama is culturally more
akin to its South American and Caribbean neighbors. Colombian vallenato and
cumbia , for example, have significantly influenced Panama’s folk music traditions,
known collectively as música típica . Throughout the 20th century, the rise of radio
and television media, along with the importation of commercial recordings and
touring musicians from Cuba, Puerto Rico, and other Caribbean countries, have
played a pivotal role in the commercialization of música típica today considered to
be Panama’s most popular music.
Caribbean music genres such as calypso , soca , and reggae are very popular.
Although calypso groups were emerging as early as the 1930s, the genre’s golden
age of commercial development occurred in the 1960s and 1970s when artists
such as Lord Cobra and Lord Panama achieved considerable fame in Panama and
abroad. Panama has also played a pivotal role in the development and popularization
of reggae throughout Latin America. Starting in the late 1970s, artists cultivated
a musical sound that intertwined Jamaican reggae rhythms with Spanish lyrics,
consequently spawning the reggae en español movement. In the early 1990s, Ed-
gardo Franco Low, otherwise known as El General, popularized a dancehall music
style sung or rapped in Spanish (often recording English and Spanish versions of
294 | Panama
the same song) now known as reggaetón . Today, reggae en español and reggae-
tón continue to enjoy immense popularity throughout Panama, especially with the
country’s young population.
Panamanian salsero and songwriter Ruben Blades is the country’s most promi-
nent exponent of salsa . Blades’s collaboration with Puerto Rican composer and
trombonist Willie Colon led to the production of several albums under the Fania
label. Their 1978 album Siembra continues to be the best selling salsa album ever
at over 25 million copies. Other Panamanian musicians who have established in-
ternational careers in salsa include trumpetist and member of the Fania All-Stars
Vitín Paz. From 1968 until 1990, the salsa group Bush y sus magnificos, fronted by
percussionist Francisco “Bush” Buckley, was a dominating force in the salsa scene,
having recorded multiple albums of original material and touring internationally.
Panama’s contributions to jazz, while manifold, are not well known beyond the
country’s borders. One of the earliest figures to emerge, Luis Russell, relocated to
New Orleans where he began a career as a jazz pianist and bandleader. Flutist and
saxophonist Mauricio also became an important jazz musician working with major
figures such as Machito, Mongo Santamaria, Tito Puente, Charlie Mingus, and
Dizzy Gillespie, among many others. In recent years, Panama has experienced a re-
newed interest in jazz. Grammy award–winning jazz pianist and composer Danilo
Perez, who has served as cultural ambassador to Panama, founded the Panama Jazz
Festival in 2003.
Panama’s complex political, economic, and military relationship with the United
States, spanning most of the 20th century, has left an indelible mark on the nation’s
popular cultural landscape. Just as rock music was gaining ground as a popular
music genre in the United States and Britain during the 1960s, a similar music scene
was also flourishing in Panama. While many of the first Panamanian-based rock
groups were cover bands, others such as Woodstock created a hybrid style of rock
that incorporated Caribbean and Pan-Latino musical styles such as salsa. Panama’s
rock music scene, based largely in the nation’s capital, has produced many success-
ful rock groups who have gone on to receive international acclaim.
Panamanian singer and songwriter Pedro Altamirada is an important popular
cultural figure whose music defies generic categorization. Starting in the late 1970s,
Altamirada created songs that commingled calypso rhythms with musical elements
from salsa creating a sound that attracts a multigenerational, as well as ethnically
and racially diverse fan base. Altamiranda’s music is also strongly influenced by
the Panamanian murga, a brass and percussion ensemble that performs a repertoire
of Panamanian traditional musics and Caribbean popular, especially during the
Carnival season. Altimirada is also recognized for his songwriting, which contains
politically charged lyrics and social commentary, often expressed with Panama-
nian colloquialisms. In fact, several of his songs were censored by the Panamanian
government during the 1980s.
Pandeiro
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Further Reading
Buckley, Francisco. La Música Salsa En Panamá Y Algo Mas . Panama: Editorial Uni-
versitaria “Carlos Manuel Gasteazoro,” 2004.
Guerrón-Montero, Carla. “Can’t Beat Me Own Drum in Me Own Native Land: Calypso
Music and Tourism in the Panamanian Atlantic Coast.” Anthropological Quarterly 79, no.
4 (2006): 633–63.
Rivera, R.Z., Marshall, M., and Hernandez, D.P, eds. Reggaetón. Durham, NC: Duke
University Press, 2009.
Steward, Noel Foster. Las Expresiones Musicales en Panamé: Una Aproximación . Pan-
ama: Editorial Universitaria, 1997.
Melissa González
Pandeiro
The pandeiro, a type of tambourine (a single-headed frame drum with metal jin-
gles), is a versatile Brazilian percussion instrument played with the thumb, f
ingers,
and palm of the hand. Used in hundreds of local and regional musical traditions in
Brazil during the mid-20th century, the pandeiro became the country’s de facto
national percussion instrument through its associations with choro and samba in Rio de Janeiro. Contemporary performers have explored virtuosic techniques and
electroacoustic possibilities on the instrument.
Historical records of pandeiros in Brazil are rather sketchy, but frame drums
with jingles (often called adufe in rural areas) were likely introduced into Brazil
by Portuguese settlers and missionaries early in the 16th century. During colonial
and imperial periods, pandeiros became common rhythmic accompaniment instru-
ments in the music traditions of privileged and subaltern populations throughout the
country. Numerous Brazilian processional and dramatic music and dance traditions
use the pandeiro (including pastoril, folia de reis, congada, cavalo marinho, and
moçambique ). The instrument is also found in many social dance contexts ( samba
de roda, coco, forró ) and as accompaniment to specific song genres ( embolada ).
The pandeiro also accompanies the Afro-Brazilian martial arts–like game dance
of capoeira.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, pandeiro players entered hybrid
artistic contexts of urban music-making. In Rio de Janeiro, pandeiros were used
to accompany parading Carnival clubs known as ranchos and blocos and later in
the escolas de samba (see samba ) forming in the hillside slums where the major-
ity of the black population was located. In Recife, Pernambuco, the pandeiro was
used in the Carnival blocos of middle-class Italian immigrants as well as in the pe-
destrian frevo clubs of urban laborers comprising working-class black and mestiço
populations.
296 | Paraguay
In Rio de Janeiro, the pandeiro became an essential component of choro en-
sembles in the 1910s and was included in Brazil’s first important popular music
group: Pixinguinha’s Oito Batutas. In the 1930s, the pandeiro became the primary
percussion instrument of the conjuntos regionais (professional choro ensembles
used in the broadcast and recording industry). Simultaneously, the pandeiro was a
key percussion instrument in the emerging urban samba music of Rio de Janeiro, a
complex field of artistic activity that included the nascent Brazilian music industry
and spanned racial and class divisions. Important pandeiro players from the early
era of Brazilian popular music included Jacó Palmieri and João da Baiana (Ernesto
Joaquim Maria dos Santos).
In contemporary Brazil, a variety of regional and national styles of pandeiro
playing can be found. In the Northeast, unique forms of pandeiro are associated
with the coco, cavalo marinho, and the frevo . In Rio de Janeiro, distinct styles include those used in the escola de samba, pagode, and in choro. Some contempo-
rary percussionists such as Marcos Suzano and Bernardo Aguiar specialize in the
pandeiro and have incorporated electroacoustic innovations into their playing and
have developed new virtuosic techniques. Such innovations have helped establish
the Brazilian pandeiro as an important global percussion instrument.
Further Reading
Bolão, Oscar . Batuque é um privilégio: A percussão da música do Rio de Janeiro/
Batuque Is a Privilege: Percussion in Rio de Janeiro’s Music. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Lu-
miar Editora, 2003.
Feiner, Scott. Pandeiristas: Player Bios. Pandeiro, www.pandeiro.com/players.php
Larry Crook
Paraguay
Paraguay is one of the only landlocked countries in South America, bordered
by Brazil, Argentina, and Bolivia. Of the population, 95 percent is mestizo and the country has two official languages, Spanish and Guaraní, as a large percentage of the population is bilingual. A hybrid language, Jopará, has developed
as a result of the combination of the two languages. Paraguayan folk music is
closely related to national identity. In 1944, the Paraguayan government des-
ignated “Campamento Cerro Léon” by Giménez and Fernández and “India” by
Flores and Ortíz Guerrero as Canciones Populares Nacionales. In 1959, the
government passed a law mandating that 50 percent of all music played on the
radio be composed by Paraguayans, a law which still exists today, although it
is not enforced.
The most iconic Paraguayan instrument is the arpa paraguaya. It was adapted
from the European harp brought by the Spanish in the 17th or 18th century. The arpa
Paraguay
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297
Some 50 Paraguayan harpists perform at the presidential house in Asuncion to celebrate
the World Harp Festival in 2009. (Noberto Duarte/AFP/Getty Images)
is particularly prominent in music from the Guairá region and may be played by a
soloist or in a conjunto . Two of the most famous arpistas from Paraguay include
Luis Bordón and Félix Pérez Cardozo, who wrote the well-known polka “Pájaro
Campana.”
The polka is considered the national genre. It differs significantly from the Eu-
ropean dance style of the same name. The dance music of the polca paraguaya is
comprised of a duple rhythm. The different variations of the dance are known by
adjectives describing the dance, such as polca popó (jumping polka), polca syryrý
(slippery or smooth), and polca valseado (like a waltz, or vals ). José Asunción Flores is credited with the creation of guaránia, a musical genre derived from polka,
usually played in a minor mode.
Another important traditional genre in Paraguay is the galopa, which contains
two parts, the first of which is similar to polca. The galopa is danced by a woman,
who improvises the steps while balancing a pitcher or bottle on top of her head. Par-
aguayan folk music is frequently played in steakhouses, called parrilladas, which
remain popular tourist attractions, as they serve traditional meals while conjuntos
perform live music, sometimes including the danza de las botellas. During the
danza de las botellas, which is performed to polka music, the woman balances
bottles on her head, and more are added throughout the dance.
298 | Pasillo
While polka and guaránia are still popular in Paraguay today, rock has found
an increasingly large following within the country. Rock bands often play both
their own music and covers of American rock as entertainment for parties. Under
the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner (1954–1989), freedom of expression was
limited, but in the 1990s, rock flourished in Paraguay. Contemporary popular rock
bands include Flou, Revolber and Slow Agony. Paraguayan Creole music such as
the polca may be adapted to popular urban styles. There is also some evidence com-
piled by Paraguayan musician Luis Szarán of a nueva canción movement similar
to that of Chile and Nicaragua.
Agustín Barrios (1885–1944) was a famous Paraguayan guitarist and composer.
He began his career playing popular music like polkas and valses. His music re-
mains influential today, as famous musicians like John Williams acknowledge that
Barrios was an influential, talented composer and guitarist.
In 1947, Florentín Giménez (1925–) created his first orchestra, Ritmos de
América. In 1950, h
e formed “ Florentín Giménez y su típica moderna, ” which in-
cluded singers Oscar Escobar, Juan Carlos Miranda, Carlos Centurión, and Jorge
Alonso. His “Symphony No. 6” was dedicated to Agustín Barrios. Luis Alberto
del Paraná (1926–1974) is probably the best-selling Paraguayan artist of the 20th
century. El Trío Los Paraguayos, comprised of Paraná, Digno García, and Agustín
Barboza, performed around the world in the 1950s and 1960s, including a show in
which they shared the stage with the Beatles in November 1963. He also di-
rected the Conjunto Los Paraguayos. After his death, he was awarded the Ordén
Nacional del Mérito by the government of Paraguay.
Further Reading
Colman, Alfredo. “El arpa diatónica paraguaya en la búsqueda del tekora: representacio-
nes de paraguayidad.” Latin American Music Review. 28, no. 1 (2007): 125–49.
Garcete Salvídar, Bernardo. “Luis Alberto del Paraná: Perfil de un Triunfador.” June 2,
2012. http://www.musicaparaguaya.org.py/parana.html.
González Páez, César. “ Florentín Giménez: La música como bandera. ” LANIC. January
20, 2010. http://www.musicaparaguaya.org.py/florentin.html.
Jeong, Johnna. “Agustín Barrios Mangoré: The Folkloric, Imitative, and the Religious In-
fluence Behind His Compositions.” June 2, 2012. http://www.cybozone.com/fg/jeong.html.
Caitlin Lowery
Pasillo
The pasillo is a Latin American variant of the vals that is especially popular in Colombia and Ecuador, though the genre has enjoyed success throughout the years
from Mexico to Argentina. It was cultivated during the colonial period among
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elite groups as an embraced couple dance in a moderate triple meter. There are
two distinct varieties of pasillo practiced in Colombia: the pasillo lento and the
pasillo instrumental. The former is usually sung as a solo or a duet, and in moder-
ate time, accompanied either by piano (salon performance), guitar and tiple with percussion, or by an estudiantina . The texts reference an idealized or unrequited
love, thus having poetic themes related to the bolero . The pasillo instrumental is, as its name implies, an instrumental genre for guitar and tiple and is much faster in
Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music Page 51
