Eddie Palmieri

Thelonious Monk once said, "Jazz is New York. You can feel it in the air." This is an observation that can be easily recast to produce another truism: "Salsa is New York. You can feel it in the streets." Both musics are integral to NYC culture and come together no more eloquently than they do in the musical persona of Latin jazz pianist Eddie Palmieri. NYC born and raised, Eddie comes from a musical family and seems to have been predestined to serve as the nexus for a synergistic meeting of established forms. His late brother, the highly influential pianist Charlie Palmieri, and traditional Puerto Rican and Cuban orchestras of the '40s and '50s all clearly impacted Eddie's style. But so did Monk's exquisite use of dissonance and McCoy Tyner's chordal genius.

In the '50s, the Palladium Ballroom at West 53rd Street and Broadway was the mecca of Latin dance music. Home to top musical acts like Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez and the Machito Orchestra, legendary dancers with names like Cuban Pete and Killer Joe Piro held sway. The Palladium was the epicenter of the national mambo and cha cha cha craze and it seemed that everyone in the whole country was dancing Latin. The ballroom's proximity to 52nd Street also made it natural that top jazz musicians like Dizzy Gillespie and Cal Tjader would sit in with the bands and pick up on the rhythms. Eddie became a member of the Tito Rodriguez band appearing on the LP Live at the Palladium (United Artists, 1960) and he remembers the diverse crowds and celebrities, "On Wednesdays you had mostly a Jewish crowd in the Palladium and celebrities...Marlon Brando would be there...Kim Novak...to see the Mambo show...Fridays you had the 'fast lane' Hispanics...gamblers, sharp dressers and the great dancers...Saturday was the working class Puerto Rican...they worked from 9 til 5 all week and on Saturdays would pack the Palladium...Sunday was all Black...it was extraordinary that you were playing for all these different crowds."

It was not long however, before Eddie made his own mark. In the early '60s, with his band Conjunto La Perfecta, Eddie Palmieri essentially redefined Latin music. He did so, along with band member and trombonist Barry Rogers, by constructing singular arrangements that creatively used brass voicings and flute to up the ante on the genre's musical proficiency. The resultant sound has come to represent the gold standard of Latin dance music.

As a piano stylist though, Eddie Palmieri is unique in Latin Music. He combines a jazzer's sense of adventure with an untainted respect for the complex and varied rhythmic cores of the complete range of Latin musical dance styles. His corpus of work in effect define a "Latin jazz" that can still be called "Latin" without apology to what came before while allowing plenty of room for the improvisation and risk taking inherent in jazz. Referred to as the Latin Monk, Eddie still vibrantly continues to raise the bar of musical expertise within the Latin Jazz genre as he celebrates 50 years in the music business. On his recently released Listen Here! (Concord, 2005), Palmieri and his band that deliver extraordinarily exciting rhythms are joined with such jazz luminaries as violinist Regina Carter, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, guitarist John Scofield, bassist Christian McBride and alto man Donald Harrison for a cross genre musical triumph. Eddie reflected on the process of creating music for such a session, "How was I going to be able to satisfy those jazz musicians AND the percussion players? If you listen carefully to the Latin jazz that I write... I was able to work it out...you hear the jazz players taking their solos with the chordal structure and then you'll have a piano solo following the chord structures or I change immediately and bring it to my dance form orchestra...where we feature the rhythm section and their playing desires are satisfied... then into a mambo and then the coda which I always try to make as exciting as I can."

Very cognizant of the history of both jazz and Latin, Eddie discussed the genesis of the conjunto band, a line up that resulted in the pianist's augmented role "...a conjunto...didn't have saxophones. So the removal of the saxophone gave that whole pressure to the pianist. Now the pianist had to play all the vamps that the saxophones would play...the chords on top between him and the bassist, so the role of the pianist within a Latin orchestra is vital. The vamps that he must use to accompany the soloing of the percussionist...because you know a solo by a percussionist like Tito Puente could drive a pianist up the wall." With the passing of Tito Puente, the mantle of "Godfather" rests squarely on Eddie's shoulders.

Their CD together, Obra Maestra (RMM, 2000), recorded just before the great timbalero's death, is just that, a masterpiece of collaboration between two significant world artists. Eddie reflects on the landmark session. "The one who [had] played with Tito was my brother Charlie and they had a lifetime friendship...[for me to play with Tito] was unique...you are talking about one of the greatest percussionists we ever saw here...when I was a young man I wanted to play the timbales because of Tito Puente...he was the man...he was the pioneer that made everything happen...and he rose to the occasion in the recording." Additional recent releases, Ritmo Caliente (Concord, 2003) and La Perfecta II (Concord, 2002) are uniquely Eddie Palmieri and present the pianist in the context of the Latin Jazz that he rules. The former contains gems like the wonderfully intricate "Grandpa Semi-Tone Blues", "Billie" (a tribute to Lady Day), the gorgeous bolero "Tema para Reneé" and a title cut that is an in-your-face reworking of the original "Ritmo Caliente" from Eddie's 1962 classic LP, La Perfecta. The latter reprises the original "La Perfecta" concept but with the benefit of 40 years experience and maturation. The tunes are of course hot, featuring the powerful horns of trumpeter Brian Lynch and trombonist Conrad Herwig against a percussive onslaught. This results in serious music that retains the fun and power of the originals.

With seven Grammys, over 50 albums and a career that has seen him bring Latin jazz to the far reaches of the world, Eddie commented on the rhythmical reasons for the wide cross cultural appeal of Latin music. "The organism fluctuates between being restful and being restless and when you hear the Latin rhythms being played properly with a great orchestra with good arrangements and a good singer, whether you know the language or not, you can feel the beat...The bassist is playing in unison with the conga player...he is going: 1...2...3...boom boom...oom paka chaka...dun dun, the bassist is playing a tumbao, dee dee yu...bee been...dee dee dee...bee been and they are meeting in a certain time which gives them a synchronization and then the piano vamp and then the bongo and the timbales folding in because between the timbales and the bongo there is a question and answer. They all have specific jobs to do and different patterns to play but they are complementary to the degree that it synchronizes so well that it is a force coming at you that is going to excite you... It just grabs everyone because the rhythm is going to get you. The rhythm is the most exciting rhythmical patterns to me in the world....you can't miss." Mr. Palmieri's appearance at this summer's JVC Jazz Festival is indication that he is clearly right when he adds "You are either going to dance or you are going to be moving in your chair in a concert." From his premiere position in Latin jazz, he thankfully continues to be both "keeper of the flame" and musical innovator.

Recommended Listening:

· Eddie Palmieri - La Perfecta (Allegre-Fania, 1962)

· Eddie Palmieri - Mambo con Conga Is Mozambique (Tico, 1965)

· Eddie Palmieri - Molasses (Tico, 1967)

· Eddie Palmieri - The Sun of Latin Music (with Lalo Rodriguez) (Musical Productions-Charly, 1973)

· Eddie Palmieri - La Perfecta II (Concord Jazz, 2002)

· Eddie Palmieri - Listen Here! (Concord, 2005)

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Eddie Palmieri: Latin Jazz Standard-bearer

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