De Panamá a New York

When Rubén Blades first arrived in New York, he encountered Alegre Records and its producer Pancho Cristal, who had already worked on tracks like "I Like It Like That" and "Jala Jala y Boogaloo". It was at that moment that Blades, along with Pete Rodríguez and His Orchestra, shaped his first studio album, De Panamá a New York, released in 1970. This work, recorded at Bell Sound studios in New York and Sound Factory in Hollywood, laid the groundwork for what was to come. Although the songs did not achieve the expected success at the time, tracks like Descarga Caliente, El Bravo, and Juan González became the germ of later pieces such as Pedro Navaja, Plástico, and Siembra. The recording took place during a family trip by Blades to New York, and it marks the first time the artist composed the majority of the songs on an album.

Year: 1970
Songs: 10
Duration: 31 min 30 seg

Listen to the album ★

10 song|s

Song list

# Title Available ⏱

El pescador

Guitar · Guitar

Juan González

Guitar · Advanced

3:57 00

Solo

Guitar · Advanced

2:42

Hey Man

3:41

When

Guitar

2:38

Descarga caliente

5:24

El bravo

Guitar · Intermediate

3:34 00

Dónde

Guitar

2:25 00

Amanecer

Guitar · Intermediate

2:50

De Panamá a New York

4:19

Genres

latin latin jazz latin pop Rock Salsa

Details

Year: 1970
Songs: 10
Duration: 31 min 30 seg

About the album

De Panamá a New York, according to DoReSol

In De Panamá a New York, the distinctive hallmarks of Rubén Blades are already glimpsed: the ability to tell stories, relatable language, character creation, a great sense of melody, and his characteristic soneos or vocal improvisations. For example, Juan González, the song that opens the album, anticipates concepts he would develop later. This piece, with a salsa rhythm reminiscent of Mexican corridos, narrates the legend of revolutionary folk heroes, similar to Cipriano Armenteros, recorded by Ismael Miranda in 1975. While Cipriano Armenteros is a more developed story, Juan González already showed that narrative strength. Four decades later, Blades revived Juan González on a European tour in 2008. In Hey Man, he addresses a heartbroken friend in a bilingual manner, while El Pescador evokes the melody of Prepara, by Fania All Stars Crossover (1979), combining tenderness and foreboding. In Descarga Caliente, Blades unleashes impressive vocal energy, expressing his independence and a critical social message against pretense and materialism, clearly anticipating Plástico and Siembra from his 1978 album with Willie Colón.

The album, with a total duration of 37:31, encompasses genres such as salsa, Latin soul, bolero, guaguancó, and guaracha. Rubén Blades was the main composer of all the tracks, and Miguel Estivill was responsible for the production. The mix of languages, Spanish and English, is also a characteristic of this early work.

Discography