Sech Celebrated Panamanian, Black Culture With NPR ‘Tiny Desk (Home) Concert’

Panamanian singer-songwriter Sech appeared as the latest NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert performer in tandem with the series’ Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations.

Sech ran through three songs from his latest album 42, including “Playa,” “911,” and “Sal y Perrea.” He performed with a DJ and nine other supporting musicians on vocals, violin, guitar, bass, and drums. The musician dropped 42 in April as a celebration of Panamanian and Black culture.

“It all starts from Jackie Robinson, the first Black player in the Major League in history. That impacted me, because when I got into music, maybe I wasn’t seen as the prototype that people were used to,” Sech told Rolling Stone of the album title’s origin. “As time went by, they took the number 42 and gave it to the Panamanian Mariano Rivera. As a kid, he gave me a lot, a lot, a lot of inspiration, being from Panama and [showing that] if he can, I can too. So in a way, the idea of the album title is him passing the number on to me, to keep breaking barriers.”

Last week, Sech released the “Sal y Perrea” remix featuring Daddy Yankee and J Balvin. It followed the reworkings of “911” with Jhay Cortez and “Volando” with Bad Bunny and Mora from earlier this year.