Ernie's El Dorado Pt 16 - Nicaragua

We have now made it two-thirds of the way through our musical tour of continental America and we have arrived in Nicaragua.

The political history of the country is pretty much the same as all the other Central American countries that have featured in the series and sadly the noble Sandinistas of our youth have turned out to be no better than the dynasties before them. Daniel Ortega is now in the 19th year of his reign and passes the time jailing opponents, closing media outlets, fiddling elections and doing the whole despot thing.

So lets instead praise Nicaragua's scenery, architecture, folklore and people, all of which I had the pleasure of encountering when I went there on holiday in 2014. There are photos of my visit over on Flickr if you are interested. There are lots of bright colours, fine buildings and smiling faces and a fair old dollop of weirdness as well, like so...

That's enough of me, let's get on with the show. We'll start with a couple of bands from among the small pile of mp3 discs I chose pretty much at random when I was there. 

The cumbia funsters Fuzion 4 are still going strong and are active on Facebook and probably other places as well. The same can be said for Los Nuevos Panzer's (their apostrophe not mine) who are not to be confused with the original Los Panzer's, whose heyday was in the 1970s. I have not yet been able to establish what if any connection there is between them. Perhaps our many Nicaraguan readers can help.

Speaking of the 1970s as we were, that's where we are heading next for some soulful Latin sounds. I have not been able to find out anything at all about Grupo Africans but this 1974 single is decidedly funky. You can find it on the "Sonidos Perdidos de Centroamérica" compilation that has featured a few times in this series.

By contrast I am positively awash with information about Poder Del Alma, a local supergroup originally put together for a benefit concert following an earthquake that hit Managua in 1972. They enjoyed it so much they went on to release a couple of albums in 1974 and 1975. The first, from which this track comes, is mainly cool Latin rock and soul. The second goes a bit more jazz-funk with liberal splashes of mini-Moog, but they are both worth a listen.

Speaking of the 1970s and jazz-funk as we were, Alfonso Lovo has an interesting tale to tell. The son of a government minister in the Somoza regime, he was shot by Sandinista hijackers on a flight from the US to Nicaragua in 1971 and got his dodgy dad to finance his music career. 

So far so bad you may think, but he was no dilettante and in 1976 he recorded some really far out psychedelic jazz sessions for an album that was to be called "La Gigantora", named for the giant lady who features in street festivals around the country (like this one that I met in León, standing next to a moustachioed Frank Sidebottom). For one reason and another it was never released at the time, only finally seeing the light of day in 2015 thanks to the Numero Group.

In the interests of balance we probably should have some music from old school Sandinista supporters now. It was a toss up between Carlos Meija Godoy and Grupo Pancasan and for the mp3s I have opted for the latter, specifically the self-titled song from their 1978 debut. Carlos can be found in the video clips (when the cameraman can tear himself away from the ladies in the audience). 

Grupo Pancasan wound up in 1990 when the first Sandinista government lost the election. Carlos is still going strong at 83 and unlike Ortega has stayed true to his principles, including taking part in the 2018 protests than resulted in multiple deaths and the banning of political marches. 

For the last couple of tunes we are off to Caribbean coast where we encounter the Miskito people (you may remember meeting them when we were in Costa Rica). There is a lively music scene in the main city of Bluefields and the Bluefields Sound System label does a great job in capturing it on record. From their catalogue I have chosen this track from "Palo De Mayo", the 2012 album by Barbaros Del Ritmo. 

If you head about 50 miles north from Bluefields you'll find the small town of Tasbapauni, birthplace of Philip Montalbán, provider of this episode's MAR. You can read all about him in this article if you are so inclined  You can find today's track is on a 2023 album called "Viva La Vida" although the song itself has been available on YouTube since 2009.

"El Jincadito" - Fuzion 4

"La Gorda De Las Esquinas" - Los Nuevos Panzer's

"La Guinoma" - Grupo Africans

"Caperucita Roja" - Poder Del Alma

"La Bomba De Neutron" - Alfonso Lovo

"Pancasán" - Grupo Pancasán

"Judith Drownded" - Barbaros Del Ritmo

"Salvemos El Planeta" -  Philip Montalbán

Mr. Montalbán's solo work is pretty good but his old band Soul Vibrations were a bit special. I couldn't track down any of their records but I think the first clip below from 1989 will explain their appeal.