Reimagining Panama's Musical and Cultural Narratives of Jazz

Book excerpt: Reimagining Panama’s Musical and Cultural Narratives of Jazz: Panamanian Suite narrates the complex relationship between Panama and the United States by tracing the paths of their music, tracking the development of jazz in Panama from the mid-nineteenth century to the modern day through three movements: pre-jazz, jazz, and global jazz. As a vital port of Caribbean migration in the twentieth century, Panama played an essential role in the emergence and shaping of jazz and other cultural forms, many of which influenced culture on the mainland United States. Patricia Zarate de Perez explores new narratives of jazz from a Pan-Afro-Latin American perspective, beginning with an examination of music that contributed to a Panamanian imaginary which justified the expansion of imperial territories beginning in the mid-nineteenth century. This Panamanian imaginary and the white supremacy embedded within it also served as a basis for the erasure of the contributions of Panamanians throughout jazz history, but not without resistance—modern Panamanian artists and cultural leaders continue to enact redressing actions even now. This book documents a history of jazz in Panama, naming its principal characters and culminating with the development of Global Jazz, a twenty-first century imaginary centered on the next generation of musicians and their place in jazz history.