La Murga by Willie Colon is one of my favorite salsa songs of all time. In the lyrics Mr. Lavoe canta “vamos a bailar la Murga, la Murga de Panama.” I visited Panama just before Carnaval this year. I got the chance to dance to a live Murga band.

This one is Dianas. I’m not sure if it’s a different style from Murga or not but it seems similar enough to me.

I also picked up some old and new Panamanian Dancehall. And in this track I started visioning images of the Murga band coming out of the sample heavy production:

Track 10 from El Chino Presenta: Bu-yu Reggae

One of my favorite of the new Panamanian Dancehall tunes and artists is Cocobola de la Verga by Japanese on the Drop Draws Riddim. (Poco Pelo!)

(Cell phone camer footage ends at 44 sec.)

And lo and behold in the cache of tunes I picked up appeared this Murga/Dancehall hybrid, which is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever heard.

Dianas 2007: Cocobola de la Verga

Finally, online I found this cover of Dancehall/Reggaeton by Dianas Bands. ¡Que Viva Carnaval!