Born in Spanish Harlem in 1936, Eddie began piano studies at an early age, as did his celebrated older brother, the late Salsa legend and pianist, Charlie Palmieri. For Latin New Yorkers of Eddie’s generation, music was a vehicle out of El Barrio. At age 11, he auditioned at Weil Recital Hall, which is next door to Carnegie Hall, a venue as far from the Bronx as he could imagine. Possessed by a desire to play the drums, Palmieri joined his uncle’s orchestra at age 13, where he played timbales. Says Palmieri, ”By 15, it was good-bye timbales and back to the piano until this day. I’m a frustrated percussionist, so I take it out on the piano”.
He began his professional career as a pianist in the early ’50s with Eddie Forrester’s Orchestra. In 1955 he joined Johnny Segui’s band. He also spent a year with the Tito Rodriguez Orchestra before forming his own band, the legendary La Perfecta in 1961. La Perfecta was unique in that it featured a trombone section (led by the late Barry Rogers) in place of trumpets, something that had been rarely done in Latin music, demonstrating the early stages of Palmieri’s unconventional means of orchestration. They were known as ”the band with the crazy roaring elephants” because of this configuration of two trombones, flute, percussion, bass and a vocalist. With an infectious sound, Palmieri’s band soon joined the ranks of Machito, Tito Rodriguez and other major Latin orchestras of the day. His unconventional style would once again surprise critics and his fans with the 1970 release entitled Harlem River Drive. This recording was the first to really merge black and latin styles (and musicians), resulting in a free-form sound encompassing elements of salsa, funk, soul and jazz. What resulted was a fusion that moved effortlessly from mood, groove, texture and excitement with its multi-dimensional guitar, funky piano riffs, notable brass and unforgettable rhythm section. Led by Eddie, the group also included his brother Charlie, as well as excellent players from both communities such as Victor Venegas, Andy Gonzales, Bernard ”Pretty” Purdie and Ronnie Cuber. Further to this proclivity for creating and performing in funk latin style, in 1997 he was invited to record by Little Louie Vega in Nuyorican Soul, a release which has been a huge hit with dancers and dj’s in the house music genre.
Palmieri’s influences include not only his older brother Charlie but also Jesus Lopez, Lili Martinez and other Cuban players of the 1940s; jazz luminaries Art Tatum, Bobby Timmons, Bill Evans, Horace Silver, Bud Powell and McCoy Tyner. Says Palmieri, ”In Cuba, there was a development and crystallization of rhythmical patterns that have excited people for years. Cuban music provides the fundamental from which I never move. Whatever has to be built must be built from there. It’s a cross-cultural effect that makes magnificent music”.
Eddie Palmieri, a restless, yet instinctive artist, embraces the future of his music by unapologetically blazing a distinctive musical path to the delight of fans across the globe. He has one of the most actively touring Salsa and Latin Jazz orchestras to date, tours of which have taken him to Europe, Asia, Latin America, North Africa and throughout the Caribbean. A true powerhouse of brilliance, known for his astute arranging skills and historic compositions, Mr. Palmieri has shown that time is infinite with respect to his repertoire as he continues to thrill audiences throughout the world with his legendary style.
Review Excerpts :
The Sun of Latin Music shone so hot Wednesday night it’s a miracle the paint didn’t melt off the walls of Jazz Alley... the pianist let the beat burn down to ashes as crashing chords fanned the flames of the melody until it burst into a great ball of noise, setting the band on fire.
Roberta Penn, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Palmieri plays music... deeper than any salsa and funkier than any Latin jazz.
Canary Summer 2002
Palmieri plays the piano like Muhammad Ali boxed... [his] left hand could stop a truck. His right could outrun an Olympian. And the two mitts together make music so percussive and chord-filled, so dense and driving, that Palmieri can deliver the energy of an entire band even when playing solo.
Tom Surowicz, Twin Cities Reader, Minneapolis
Palmieri looms , in the current landscape of tropical music , as the last of the larger than life giants.
Ernesto Lechner, Los Angeles Times
His achievement appears more magnificent with the passing years, and, from the musical evidence, musical hungers gnaw at him more deeply than ever.
Down Beat 2002
This is Palmieri’s tightest and most relaxed band in recent memory. They are a superb bunch providing plenty of memorable moments behind the master’s swinging and cascading discombobulation of the piano.
Jazz Times, Sept 2003
Salsa boasts many brilliant musicians... but none quite like the eccentric Eddie Palmieri – at once the Miles Davis and James Brown of the genre.
Alan Leeds, City Pages, Minneapolis
The first time I heard Eddie Palmieri, I said ’Aha – the Latin Thelonious Monk.
Lee Tanner, jazz photographer, San Francisco
Palmieri’s piano work is one of the unifying elements melding a heady combination of Latin rhythms, jazz ensemble work and classical themes. ...Palmieri is a master musician who understands that more spices in a dish means tastier results.
Marshal Bowden
This is music so vital and joyous... a totally celebratory sound, bouncing, shuffling, weaving and grooving along on a beat so mesmeric and soul-wrenchingly right that you want it to go on for ever.
Linton Chiswick, Time Out, London
Eddie Palmieri... has been the most consistently innovative artist in Afro-Cuban music in the United States for the past 30 years.
Fernando Gonzalez, Boston Globe, Boston
Eddie Palmieri’s current playing suggests that he is at the start of another chapter of ever more robust musicianship... the 57-year-old composer, arranger and pianist bent notes with such vigor as to make you wince.
Rohan B. Preston, Chicago Tribune, Chicago
[Mr. Palmieri] can splash out thick modern-jazz chords or roll through a steel-fingered salsa pattern; his quick changes had the band members laughing at his audacity.
John Pareles, New York Times, New York
All too few musicians are declared national treasures in their lifetimes... Eddie Palmieri... can lay legitimate claim to being a musical monument.
Derk Richardson, San Francisco Bay Guardian
As world traditions collide and mingle, it’s a relief to hear something so purley itself, so elegant and – in the case of Eddie Palmieri’s band – so absolutely on fire that the idea of improving it seems laughable.
Paul de Barros, Jazz Etc
Pianist-bandleader Eddie Palmieri has nothing left to prove, his discography as deep as his talent is immense. Yet the band he brought to HotHouse this week for several sold-out shows suggested that the man still thrives on artistic challenge. Certainly any musician who convenes the likes of conguero Giovanni Hidalgo, trombonist Conrad Herwig and trumpeter Brian Lynch enjoys a musical challenge. Add to the lineup a tenor saxophonist as explosive as Ivan Renta, and you have the core of an ensemble that easily lives up to its somewhat grandiloquent name: the Afro-Caribbean All-Stars. No wonder HotHouse was packed Thursday night for the first of four sets spread over two nights. Even the first set in the engagement proved incendiary, the band firing off intricately conceived compositions with remarkable technical prowess and ensemble precision. Unlike many modern Latin groups, this one leans less toward improvisation and more toward composition. Its charts call for pinpoint interchanges among the instruments; its dynamics and phrasings have been meticulously worked out. And yet, when it comes time to solo, these musicians take flight. Herwig’s often phenomenally fleet trombone virtuosity, Renta’s ferociously syncopated riffs on tenor saxophone and Palmieri’s florid pianism at all tempos were worth savoring. And then there was Hidalgo, a conga master who can express phrase and line and nuance in even the most technically brilliant passages. When this band was going full tilt, as it did in a tune of 1960s vintage, listeners were hearing one of the most disciplined Latin jazz bands playing today.
Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune, 2006
People grabbed partners to dance, bump and grind in the aisles. Those who were too shy to get up and show off their moves had their eyes glued to the stage, watching as if in a trance. Remind you of anything? T-Pain? Ludacris? Actually, the grinding that took place this Saturday at Bailey Hall was not the result of intoxicated collegians and the mesmerized faces were not ones of horror but of amazement. In fact, I have yet to attend a Cornell event filled with a more passionate, eager or enthusiastic audience than the one that came together on Saturday to witness a performance by Eddie Palmieri’s Latin Jazz Band. Palmieri, a 9-time Grammy winner and salsa and Latin jazz bandleader for over 50 years, may not be a familiar name to the average college student, but to those familiar with the Latin jazz genre, he is a god. But the crowd (yes, Bailey, home to about 1,300 Psychology 101 students in the fall, was actually crowded) was not only graced with Palmeri’s presence, but also the presence of his band. Members include Richie Viruet on trumpet, Conrad Herwig on trombone, Luques Curtis on bass and Jose Claussell, Vincente Rivero and Orlando Vega on percussion. There are really no words to describe the sheer talent, not to mention pure brilliance, of these men. Each impressive on his own, as a group, along with Palmeri, they were the epitome of absolute musical genius. Legendary jazz pianist Eddie Palmieri, winner of 9 Grammys, played a rousing show with his Latin Jazz Band on Saturday night in Bailey Hall. Palmieri kicked off the show onstage by himself with a mesmerizing composition, one that seemed part jazz and part ballad. His band then came out to join him, and he immediately transitioned from looking mostly at his fingers while playing to interacting with the band members. While people did not start dancing in the aisles until the end of the concert, the audience was grooving to the beats from the very beginning. Palmieri noted, ”[I] saw you dancing in your chairs... never seen chair dancers like you ever”. At one point he got the entire audience to clap a traditional Cuban ”son clave” beat. If you have been in Bailey before, you know that it’s not exactly a cozy venue. However, even from the balcony, the presence of Palmieri and his band were remarkable, making you feel like you were right on stage with them. Palmieri’s Latin Jazz Band is a gem, a stunning representation of American music styles merging with those from around the world.
Suzanne Baumgarten, The Cornell Daily Sun, 2009
At the age of 66, one would think that Newyorcian pianist and composer Eddie Palmieri would have seen and done it all. But, partly due to the recent passing of such Latin jazz icons as Tito Puente, Chico O’Farrill and Mongo Santamaria, he’s enjoying new fame and performance opportunities, and is increasingly being viewed as the leader of the Latin jazz pack. What’s clear is that Palmieri is having the time of his life, playing better and relishing his role as the reigning jefe of the movement he’s been a fundamental part of since the sixties.
Hispanic Magazine
It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that the season’s best Afro-Cuban jazz album comes from pianist Palmieri, the 66 year old firebrand who has, rather quietly, been one of the giants in the genre for the past four decades. His latest has him working with larger ensembles – an expanded rhytmn section, a variety of horns and, on six songs, a vocal group – all used to fine effect. Palmieri is innovative as ever in his playing, but it’s the collectiove energy of the band that stands out here. This is a guaranteed mover-and-shaker.
The Times, Trenton NJ Ritmo Cliente
Pianist Palmieri has been around the Latin music block more times than most – and some even declare him to be the rightfull heir to Puente’s throne. Here he’s working with the fiery 10-piece La Perfecta II, which is in the same mold as his successful 60’s band. Palmieri always gets notice for his smart and sassy Latin jazz arrangements, but he’ll knock you out with his assimilation bebop piano into the Latin context.
Village Voice
Approaching 70, Palmieri might be forgiven for simply offering up the old songs, but instead he’s infusing them with contemporary energy and pushing the old sounds into new places. The master may be older, but his music is as fresh as ever.
Daily News |
