Victor Boa Interview Part 1
Afro-Panamanian jazz pianist and composer Victor Everton McRae (Victor Boa) was known as the “High Priest of Jazz” and “Master of the Keyboard”. Victor was a key part of the vibrant Panamanian jazz scene beginning in the late forties and played alongside jazz greats such as Clarence Martin Sr., Gladston “Bat” Gordon, Barbara Wilson, Harold “Zaggy” Berry, Ricardo Staples, Danny Clovis, John “Rubberlegs” McKindo, Reginald Johnson and Carlos Garnett. He was a well-loved fixture in the hotels and jazz clubs of Colon and Panama city for many years, playing everywhere from the humblest of venues to the Teatro Balboa and Teatro Nacional, always with his trademark cigar or pipe in mouth.
Victor lived in Juan Diaz, Panama City, where I had the luck and pleasure of interviewing him in June of 2004 in the company of Panamanian salsa great Francisco “Bush” Buckley and photographer Marcela Tason. On Monday, December 6, 2004 El Maestro passed away from a heart attack at age 80. He left behind an enormous group of admirers and friends, among them Panamanian jazz piano virtuoso Danilo “El Cholo” Pérez, who counts Victor, whom he compares to Art Tatum, as one of his influences. He also left behind over 300 original compositions and a place as one of the great composers in Panamanian music history. His particular flavor of jazz was called “Tambo Jazz,” and was the subject of a 1992 documentary of the same name by University of Panama sociologist Gerardo Maloney. But jazz was only one of the musical idioms with which he was proficient — he also composed and recorded guarachas, guajiras and mambos, boleros and waltzes, soul and blues pieces as well as calypsos with artists such as Lord Panama, Sir Jablonsky and Two Gun Smokey.
According to Licenciado Noel Foster Steward’s excellent resource “Las Expresiones Musicales en Panama: Una Aproximacion” (Editorial Universitaria, Panama, 1997) Victor was born in the barrio of “El Vaticano,” in Chorillo, Panama City. Victor grew up in the Baptist Church: his mother Louise McRae played piano and sang, his father John played organ. Victor performed with the early jazz quintet “Downbeat Five” in 1946 along with trumpet player Luis “Draper” Gregory, drummer Richard “Dicky” Griffith, bassist Lensworth “Sombra” Reece and Sax player Mitch Kelly. Widely regarded as a musical genius himself, Clarence Martin Sr. joined the group soon after.
Victor played piano professionally with Armando Boza’s famed “La Perfecta” in 1947, leaving to start his own orchestra, “La Sonora de Victor Boa,” in 1950. Victor performed all over Panama, at the Snake’s Pit and Kelvin’s in Rio Abajo, Club Windsor and Club Camelot, the Continental, Marriott, Hotel El Panama and Panama Señorial. He also played with visiting jazz stars such as Avelino Muñoz, Woody Herman, Gerry Mulligan and Charlie Parker. Anel Sanders, who was the first to play the stand-up timbales in Panama, played with Victor in what later became Máximo Rodríguez’s Estrellas Panameñas in the 1950s; the group included famed singer Camilo Rodríguez, presenter Cab Calloway Jr. and Fermín Francisco Castañeda on bongos. Castañeda later became head of the Panamanian Symphony, and a professor at the Conservatory of Music.
Victor recorded various 45 rpm records under the labels Musa, Grecha and Tropelco, and in 1970 released a full length LP “A Bailar con Victor Boa y Su Musica” by Victor Boa y Sus Estrellas on the Taboga / Discos Istmeños label. The instrumental LP, which is at once modern, funky and rooted in classic jazz forms, was produced by Leroy Gittens, another Panamanian music great and original singer of the international hit “My Commanding Wife.” The album is a brilliant mix of Victor’s innovative compositions, including guarachas, bossa novas, vals modernos, boleros and soul boogaloos on which Victor’s feathery flourishes can be heard as his agile fingers roam over the piano keys.
Victor’s Estrellas were an excellent group of musicians: Victor directing on piano, Reginald Johnson on tenor sax, José “Tata” Pinto on alto sax, Jimmy Maxwell on bass, Danny Clovis on drums, and Francisco “Chino” Cho on congas. Panama City residents are lucky enough to be able to see both Danny Clovis and Reginald Johnson live at the Caesar Park hotel, where they currently play.
Victor continued to play through the 70s and 80s, forming a number of trios and groups such as 1989’s “Los Ejemplos.” He recorded a CD called “Leyendas del Tambo Jazz” in time for 2003’s centennial celebration; the excellent album features sax player Carlos Garnett and drummer Ricardo Staples.
Professor Maloney’s documentary “Tambo Jazz”, which screened in New York City in 1992, was a first step in the process of shedding light on the rich history of jazz music in Panama. In recognition of his many achievements, Victor was the subject of a number of awards and nights of recognition, including from the Union of Music Workers, from the Arts Magnifique Foundation, from the Society of Friends of the Afro-Antillean Museum of Panama and the Black Panamanian Congress. Danilo Pérez also performed a concert in homage to Victor at the Teatro Las Huacas.
May he rest in peace.
Roberto Ernesto Gyemant
Victor Boa, Bush Buckley and Beto
Comment