The most unexpected place was Bingo 90, a gaudy gambling casino in the middle-class district of Obarrio, near a fashionable new mall called Multiplaza Pacific. There, in a dark, hot and sweaty bingo hall, I saw two of the best local exponents of a native folk style called \o7tipico\f7, accordionists Osvaldo Ayala and Ulpiano Vergara, with their bands.
Hearing these two paunchy middle-age men play their squeezeboxes with such improvisational gusto was like coming across a hot zydeco group in New Orleans. \o7Tipico\f7 is played with a rhythm unlike any other in the Caribbean.
It was great to see so many young couples, blacks and whites, dancing to the music. Their style was unusual, a slow dance to fast beats, done cheek-to-cheek in a full, headlock embrace. They shuffled side to side, twirled together, eyes closed romantically.
These increasingly competitive casinos, often attached to hotels, are now featuring live bands to attract customers. Outside the bingo hall in much brighter light, a small salsa combo had customers dancing in the aisles near the roulette table and the slot machines.
In Panama, you find the fun in funky.
Like Latin youth anywhere, Panamanian kids are also keen on \o7reggaeton\f7, the hip-hop style that exploded out of Puerto Rico. Daddy Yankee, its biggest star, performed this month at the new Figali Convention Center on the causeway, site of the 2003 Miss Universe contest.
People don't give enough credit to one of \o7reggaeton\f7's originators, Panamanian singer El General. Although the music didn't have a name back then, El General experimented with the style in the late '80s by borrowing reggae beats from the children of Jamaican immigrants who came to work on the canal.
El General (born Edgardo Franco) is now retired from music. When I finally tracked him down, he was on location outside the city making a movie about a boy and his grandfather. One of his costars is Blades, who plays a psychiatrist.
Small world, Panama. It turns out that Blades was a high school classmate of Ulpiano, the accordion ace.
No pop artist in Panama has survived as long as Blades. His music plays on the radio constantly. In nightclubs, people sing along to his lyrics, as they did when they heard "Buscando Guayaba" (Looking for the Guava) played by transplanted Cuban bandleader Fidel Morales at Platea, one of the chic new clubs spearheading a restoration of the shamefully dilapidated Casco Antiguo, the fortressed historic quarter at the southern end of Panama Bay.
