The term Latin jazz has generally been used to describe a fusion of jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms, including son, mambo, cha-cha, danzón, and guaguancó (all of the things that people started describing as salsa in the 1970s, thanks to the folks at Fania Records). But what if a jazz musician is interested in Latin styles that didn't come out of Cuba? If an improviser combined jazz with Columbian cumbia, Dominican merengue, Venezuelan joropo, or Mexican mariachi, he or she would be well within his/her right to call it Latin jazz. On this 1993 session, Panamanian jazz bassist Santi Debriano embraces a variety of Latin rhythms -- and not all of them are Afro-Cuban. Panamaniacs has its share of Afro-Cuban jazz; acoustic post-bop and Afro-Cuban rhythms are successfully combined on Beny Moré's Como Fué and Sensación, a mambo that Debriano's father, pianist Alfphonso Debriano, wrote in 1949. However, Panamaniacs also finds the acoustic bassist and his sidemen (who include tenor saxophonist David Sanchez, pianist Dave Kikoski, drummer Tommy Campbell, and percussionist Mino Cinelu) incorporating Brazilian samba (Xin Xin Swing) and Argentinean tango (Broken Wing). The latter is a melancholy piece that Debriano wrote for the late tango legend Astor Piazzolla, who has been described as "the Charlie Parker of Tango." Back in the 1950s, Piazzolla was incredibly controversial in Argentina -- like Bird, he was a major innovator who was adored by some and hated by others. Some of Piazzolla's detractors actually expressed their displeasure by literally beating him up in the streets of Buenos Aires! Broken Wing captures the darkness and the longing that characterized much of Piazzolla's work, but Debriano does it on his own terms -- this CD is without a bandoneon, the accordion-like instrument that Piazzolla played. Not without its share of surprises, Panamaniacs is arguably the best album that Debriano provided in the 1990s. ~ Alex Henderson, Rovi

1		Sensacisn
2		Tio
3		Xin Xin Swing
4		Mimosa
5		Broken Wing
6		Darien
7		Baladana
8		Como Fui