The Most Famous
MUSICIANS from Panama
Top 1
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Panamanian Musicians of all time. This list of famous Panamanian Musicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Billy Cobham (b. 1944)
With an HPI of 55.20, Billy Cobham is the most famous Panamanian Musician. His biography has been translated into 26 different languages on wikipedia.
William Emanuel Cobham Jr. (born May 16, 1944) is a Panamanian–American jazz drummer who came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with the Mahavishnu Orchestra. He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1987 and the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame in 2013. AllMusic biographer Steve Huey said, "Generally acclaimed as fusion's greatest drummer, Billy Cobham's explosive technique powered some of the genre's most important early recordings – including groundbreaking efforts by Miles Davis and the Mahavishnu Orchestra – before he became an accomplished bandleader in his own right. At his best, Cobham harnessed his amazing dexterity into thundering, high-octane hybrids of jazz complexity and rock & roll aggression." Cobham's influence stretched far beyond jazz; he influenced progressive rock contemporaries like Bill Bruford of King Crimson, and later ones like Danny Carey of Tool. Prince and Jeff Beck both played a version of Cobham's "Stratus" in concert. Phil Collins, who named the Mahavishnu Orchestra's The Inner Mounting Flame as a key influence on his early style, said: "Billy Cobham played some of the finest drumming I've ever heard on that record."
People
Pantheon has 1 people classified as Panamanian musicians born between 1944 and 1944. Of these 1, 1 (100.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Panamanian musicians include Billy Cobham.
