Panamá 77 cover

Panamá 77

Released

If Dos Santos, the band that Daniel Villarreal plays drums for, parses their Latin-diaspora music through a funky psych-rock context, his solo debut finds a more nebulous sense of style to build around his vision of jazz-derived improv. But while you could spend a lot of space playing influence/redolence connect-the-dots — some ’60s Chico Hamilton Latin jazz here (“In/On”), some mellow g-funky “Summer Madness”-mode Kool & the Gang there (“18th & Morgan”), shades of cumbia, salsa, and reggaeton-derived grooves just about everywhere — it’s Villarreal’s ability to put rhythm first and let his ensemble players piece together the signifiers as they go that gives Panama 77 the feeling of wide-open joy and the possibilities of cross-cultural musical evolution.

Nate Patrin

Recommended by

Suggestions
Bleed Out cover

Bleed Out

The Mountain Goats
2nd Wave cover

2nd Wave

Roland Haynes
Out There cover

Out There

The Heliocentrics
Heritage cover

Heritage

Eddie Henderson
Feelings cover

Feelings

Stefano Torossi, Puccio Roelens