Profile of Latin Jazz Pianist Eddie Palmieri

Born:

December 15, 1936 in New York, New York

Awards:

• Winner of nine Grammy awards:
  • The Sun of Latin Music (1975)
  • Unfinished Masterpiece (1976)
  • Palo Pa ' Rumba (1984)
  • Solito (1985)
  • La Verdad (1987)
  • a Grammy and a Latin Grammy for Tito Puente’s Obra Maestra (Masterpiece) (2000)
  • Listen Here! (2006)
  • and most recently, the 2007 Grammy for best Latin jazz disc, Simpático
• He was awarded the Eubie Blake Award by Dr. Billy Taylor in 1991
• He was awarded the Chubb Fellowship by Yale University in 2002 for developing communities through music. The award is usually reserved for international heads of state.
• In 2005 he received the Alice Tully African Heritage Award from City College, the Harlem Renaissance Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Urban Latino Magazine.

Latin jazz pianist Eddie Palmieri’s sound is defined by a percussive, quirky approach to the piano. His first performance experience was on the timbales, and he brings the propulsive rhythm of the drums to the piano bench. Growing up among the sounds of jazz and Latin dance music, he draws from both to forge his unique style.

Leaving El Barrio:

Palmieri was born in Spanish Harlem, and grew up in the Bronx, both areas where Puerto had Ricans emigrated in masses in the 1940s. Although Palmieri’s community was rich with music, there was not a lot of money, and the future Latin music legend saw music as a way to leave his rough surroundings. He grew up listening to his uncles play guitar and sing in the traditional Puerto Rican style. Inspired by his older brother Charlie, who was also a Latin music star, Palmieri took up the piano at a young age, but really aspired to be a drummer.

He began to play timbales with his uncle’s orchestra in 1949, when he was just 13. However, two years later he turned in his sticks, and stuck with the piano for good. Charlie was making a name for himself as a touring pianist, and when he left town he would ask his younger brother to substitute for him at local gigs. This was how he landed his first serious job in 1955, in bassist Johnny Segui’s band.

Since Segui was the copyist for other major bandleaders including Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez, he had an extensive repertoire book that exposed Palmieri to some of the best dance music around. Palmieri toured with Segui and others until he formed his own group, Conjunto La Perfecta, in 1961.

Roaring Elephants:

La Perfecta, as the group came to be known, was a nod to the Charanga, a popular dance style of music that was normally played by an orchestra consisting of violins and a flute. Palmieri kept the flute in his orchestrations, but instead of violins used two trombones. The robust and powerful low brass instruments caused some to draw comparisons of the group’s sound to roaring elephants.

One of the trombonists in La Perfecta was Barry Rogers, a well-known musician and arranger who was also responsible for encouraging Palmieri to start seriously studying jazz. The two traded records, Palmieri giving Rogers traditional Cuban dance music, and Rogers sharing his collection of recordings by jazz innovators. Palmieri was struck by the intensity of pianists like McCoy Tyner and Horace Silver, and by the harmonic experimentation of Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans.

Going Strong:

Since rising to fame with La Perfecta, Palmieri has continued to arrange and perform his music, which has incorporated all sorts of traditional Latin music with funk, soul, and jazz. He continues to rack up Grammy awards for his intuitive melding of styles. His latest Grammy, for Simpático , a collaboration with trumpeter Brian Lynch, featured some of the best musicians in jazz and Latin music, including Phil Woods, Giovanni Hidalgo, Donald Harrison, Ruben Rodriguez, and Dafnis Prieto. Now in his 70s, and still expanding his skill as an arranger and performer, Palmieri continues to excel as one of the giants of Latin jazz.