BAKER CITY — Daniel Villarreal grew up in Panama, but he did not play Latin music.

He played in a punk band.

“I didn’t play that kind of music at all growing up,” he said. “I got into that later in the U.S. I’m a rocker.”

He grew up hearing his dad play the organ and played some piano before moving to the drums.

“I was around music because of him,” he said.

His music career started at 18 in Panama, where he joined a punk rock band.

A few years later, he met Freddy Sobers, drummer of bands known for pioneering reggaeton music in Panama.

“He taught me how to play all kinds of rhythms and told me I didn’t just have to play punk music,” Villarreal told the Chicago Reader in 2021. “He told me if I wanted to be a good drummer, I had to learn all the styles.”

As for why he chose drums?

“I liked the way it sounded,” he said. “I always wanted to be a drummer. Percussion spoke to me — it felt so natural.”

The band’s drummer, he said, keeps tempo and beat and pays attention to the other players on stage.

“You’re like the captain of the ship,” he said.

And rather than setting up his drums in the back of the stage, Villarreal faces the keyboard player in a semi-circle of musicians.

“When I have my band, I want to see everyone’s faces,” he said.

He came to the United States in the early 2000s, and lived near Woodstock, Illinois, before moving to Chicago in 2010 to pursue music full-time, and was a founding member of Dos Santos. He recently moved to Philadelphia.

He does two to three tours a year, plus festivals and opening for other bands. This month he’s on a Pacific Northwest tour that includes Baker City on Friday, Feb. 28. He’ll be playing music from his two albums — “Panama 77” and “Lados B” (B sides).

“All my music is funky and inspired by sounds that are a little bit different,” he said. “There’s a little bit for everyone.”

The show

Villarreal will bring a four-piece band for the show at Churchill School, 3451 Broadway St. Doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance at churchillbaker.com or $25 at the door. Admission is free for ages 15 and younger who attend with a paid adult.

The show opens with Matt Cooper and Greg Johnson.

Cooper was on the music faculty at Eastern Oregon University for 28 years. He has toured with the Woody Herman Young Thundering Herd and performed with Eddie Harris, Nancy King, Clark Terry and many others. His recent release with Lee McKinney and Greg Abate, titled “Reflections in Two Shades,” was on the top 100 jazz albums list for four weeks in 2024.

Johnson teaches chromatic and jazz theory, improvisation, arranging and woodwind performance at Eastern Oregon University. He plays saxophone — jazz, rock, blues and classical — across Northeastern Oregon.

Cooper and Johnson have performed as a duo at Josephy Fest and EOU, and have worked together in numerous regional bands, including the Depot Street Syncopators, Porter and the Pale Ales, the Matt Cooper X-Tet and the Greg Johnson Quartet.