The Entertainment Scene
with Lourdes Quijada

Boquete, fast becoming  a must-visit festival center in Panama has taken the lead in bringing Blues to the Isthmus.

And there’s nothing like a blues tune to chase away the blues. Ask my husband who during his recent stay in hospital managed to gripe away with the T-Bone Walker blues classic Call it Stormy Monday (which is the day he ended up in ICU). The lyrics continue, “ Tuesday’s just as bad, Wednesday’s worse…” if you get my meaning.  When he felt better he even brought up onto his laptop a late 50’s recording of Guy Mitchell singing “I’ve never felt more like singin’ the blues.” Now I know he’s getting better.

Bulgarian jazz diva Saska Laroo

Everybody knows the Danilo Perez’ annual Jazz Festival in Panama City which next year will move it’s final concert from Casco Viejo to the City of Knowledge, but tiny Boquete has had an annual Jazz Festival for the last five years and plans next month to steal a march on it’s famed cousin.

As Jazz lovers will know  Jazz, is the baby that grew out of blues, and Boquete is bringing  daddy and baby together in March.

There’s an annual Blues Festival in Costa Rica. There have been large Blues concerts in Colombia and Ecuador. There’s a huge Blues scene in Brazil with festivals that attract tens of thousands of people, there are annual Blues Festivals on various Caribbean islands… and now Panama.

Blues is almost unknown here. There may be some people who know some of  the big names in the Blues like B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Taj Mahal…but beyond that there’s very little knowledge of this unique, and genuinely American music…

The Blues has been around long before Jazz evolved out of it. The Blues has spread from the cotton fields of Mississippi to Chicago, all over the USA, and from there all over the world. You can hear the Blues, and attend Blues Festivals almost everywhere, from North America to South America, Europe, the Near East, Australia, and Asia. Blues Festivals in Japan always attract huge crowds of Blues-crazy fans.

In Panama you can hear and enjoy everything from salsa, and  merengue, to heavy metal … but no Blues!. On March 1-4, all of that will change when The Boquete Jazz & Blues Festival Foundation will present the country‘ first open-air Jazz & Blues Festival in Panama with world-class Blues artists from the US and Europe in addition to top-notch Jazz musicians from Panama, the US and Europe.

World-class Jazz and Blues on the slopes of Volcan Baru in the valley of rainbows and eternal spring.

Here’s the line up

Blues:Mitch Woods (US), Johnny Sansone (US), Andy Egert (CH) with Bob Stroger (US), Sharrie Williams&The Wiseguys (US), Ron Hacker (US).

Jazz: Carlos Ubarte quartet with Idania Dowman (PA), Saskia Laroo (NL) with Salsa Bop, The Smoking Time Jazz Club (US), Betty Bryant (US), Rigoberto Coba Big Band (PA)

A special concert with Jazz lady Betty Bryant and friends will take place at the BCP theatre in Boquete on Thursday evening, March  1

There will be a FREE opening show for the general public  in Boquete central park on Friday, March 2 followed by parties at local restaurants and hotels in Boquete and then a two dayopen-air festival in the Valle Escondido amphitheatre on March 3 & 4.

Festival tickets can be booked online and  tickets are sold locally at Mailboxes ETC. in Boquete.. Tickets for the open air March 3 and 4, are:…day ticket; $20 adult, $ 5 students and minors. 2 day festival pass: $30 adults, $7.50 students and  minors

Ticket price for the Betty Bryant concert on, March 1. : $ 13.
www.boquetejazzandbluesfestival.com

www.es.boquetejazzandbluesfestival.com

The Boquete Jazz&Blues Festival Foundation is a non-commercial, all-volunteer, not-for-profit organization. Which does its work for the love of music, and to enhance cultural life in the  community and to realize  a vision of putting Boquete firmly on the Jazz and Blues map.

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