Palmas (some Eddie Palmieri)

Latin jazz & salsa legend Eddie Palmieri

Eddie Palmieri made a guest appearance on Ozomatli's Street Signs album, which I posted about last week. On Wednesday, Palmieri won a Grammy (his eighth) for Listen Here.

Palmieri has been a major figure in salsa and Afro-Cuban jazz for more than 50 years. A pianist who started out playing the timbales as a kid, Palmieri brings, as he calls it, a frustrated percussionist's mentality and aggressiveness to the piano. He was also deeply influenced by McCoy Tyner and Thelonius Monk (Willie Bobo called him "the Latin Monk").

Palmieri started out playing in a few of New York's major Afro-Cuban Orchestras in the 1950's, including those of his brother Charlie and Tito Rodriguez, before forming his own band, the "Conjunto La Perfecta," in 1961. La Perfecta featured an unorthodox instrumentation, including two or three trombones in place of trumpets. The group became known as "the band with the crazy roaring elephants" (listen to "Campesina," below). Palmieri later played Charanga, Latin boogaloo and what he would call "hard core salsa" in the '60s and '70s. He also experimented by mixing salsa with rock and R&B (see, e.g. "African Twist").

So here's a little taste of Palmieri over the years. Starting with my favorite album, the Latin Jazz masterpiece Palmas. One thing I love about Palmieri's playing is that, like Keith Jarrett, Eddie often "sings" or "hums" along, in a nasal buzz, to his solos. Check Palmas' title track, along with the Nuyorican Soul piece, below, to hear what I mean. I've also thrown in a couple salsa tracks from way back, collected on 1974's Lo Mejor de Eddie Palmieri.

Palmas -- Palmas (1994)

Campesina -- Lo Mejor De Eddie Palmieri

Mi Mambo Conga -- " . . . " (1974)

And as a bonus, here's one of the two tracks featuring Palmieri on Masters at Work's (the production/remix team of Kenny 'Dope' Gonzales and Little Louie Vega) great Nuyorican Soul album. The Nuyorican Soul project fused and mixed Latin and acid jazz, salsa, and house music, and featured a shitload big name jazz and Latin musicians, including Roy Ayers, Tito Puente, Dave Valentin, George Benson, and Hilton Ruiz, to name a few. Oh, and DJ Jazzy Jeff. Buy this album if you don't already have it.

Habriendo El Dominante -- Nuyorican Soul (1997)

p.s. Speaking of the Grammys . . . Sly Stone, despite the blond mohawk, looked surprisingly old and frail hunched over the keyboard. He also seemed disengaged, tentatively playing the chord patterns, as if thinking about just splitting mid-medley. I still enjoyed the performance, even though the whole thing came off a bit sloppy with awkward transitions b/t performers. I'm also glad they included my favorite Sly track, "If You Want Me to Stay." As for Kelly Clarkson winning two Grammys (WTF!?!), just shows that Chubb Rock's critique still applies after all these years.

UPDATE: Sunny (Brooklyn) has links to clips of the Grammy's Sly tribute, as well as some classic '70's performances. Also check (Brooklyn's) hilarious post on the music accompanying the Olympics opening ceremony. As Ak718 notes, did anybody else pick up on this??
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