Eddie Palmieri's musical career spans 37 years as a bandleader of salsa and Latin jazz orchestras. His discography includes more than 30 titles. He has been awarded five Grammys, including the first presentation in the Best Latin Album category for his 1975 release The Sun of Latin Music and the following year for Unfinished Masterpiece. Palo Pa' Rumba won in 1984, Solito in 1985 and La Verdad in 1987. He was awarded the Eubie Blake Award by Dr. Billy Taylor in 1991 and he is among the few Latin musicians recognized by the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico and the New York State Assembly. In 1988, the Smithsonian Institution recorded two of Palmieri's performances for their catalog of the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., a rare public honor.

The 1998 Heineken Jazz Festival in San Juan, PR, paid tribute to his contributions as a bandleader, bestowing him an honorary doctorate degree from the Berklee College of Music. As a member of the New York chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, he was instrumental in creating a new category for Latin Jazz in 1995. His 1994 album, Palmas, was among the nominees for the first award presented in that category in March 1995. In 1996, he was once again nominated for his album Arete.

Born in Spanish Harlem in 1936, Palmieri 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 the barrio. At age 11, he made his classical debut at 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 the 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 spent a year with the Tito Rodriguez Orchestra before forming his own band, the legendary "Conjunto La Perfecta," in 1961. La Perfecta featured a trombone section (led by the late Barry Rogers) in place of trumpets, something that had been rarely done in Latin music, and which demonstrated the early stages of Palmieri's unconventional means of orchestration. They were known as "the band with the crazy roaring elephants" for the configuration of two trombones, flute, percussion, bass and vocalist. With an infectious and soaring sound, Palmieri's band soon joined the ranks of Machito, Tito Rodriguez, and the other major Latin orchestras of the day.

Palmieri's influences include not only his older brother Charlie but Jesus Lopez, Chapotin, Lili Martinez and other Cuban players of the 1940sand jazz luminaries Art Tatum, Bobby Timmons, Bill Evans, Horace Silver, Bud Powell, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis. Equally important were influences derived from Palmieri's curiosity and incessant search to unearth his family's roots and seek out the origins of the music that profoundly inspired him. 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 that cross-cultural effect that makes magnificent music." His solid interpretation of Afro-Caribbean music and its confluence with jazz is evident in Eddie Palmieri's astute arranging skills, which assemble those components in dramatic and compelling compositions.

His accomplishments have taken him through Europe, Japan and Latin America, showcasing his assemblage of seasoned musicians and kaleidoscope of musical styles. He served as a consultant to Paul Simon on his 1990 release Rhythm of the Saints and in 1993 was appointed to the board of governors of the New York chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Science. His interest is in expanding recognition of Latin music in its diverse forms.

Palmieri remains a powerhouse of brilliance and sound that has stirred audiences for more than 37 years, continually and successfully seeking to captivate and elevate the senses, and taking them down paths of intensity to a place where there are no musical boundaries.

In his modern version of Arsenio Rodr?guez's classic "Oigan mi Guaguanco," Palmieri pays tribute to Rodriguez, the great Cuban tres player, one of the founding fathers of today's tropical music. Puerto Rican customs and culture are the centerpiece of the bomba tune "El Dueño Monte," in which the vocalists pay tribute to other legendary figures of Puerto
Rico's folk music, including singer Ismael Rivera and the musicians of the Cepeda family.

In "Donde Esta mi Negra," Palmieri gives new life to a genre known as "the people's newspaper"---the plena. This is the first plena Palmieri has composed and arranged. Another treat is a salsa version of "La Malagueña Salerosa," composed by Pedro Galindo and Elpidio Ramírez. The final track, "Para que Escuchen" is pure Palmieri, urging listeners to hear the talking drum.

Now that Tito Puente is gone, the Palmieri accepts the passing of the Latin music leader baton and is happy to consider himself a Latin jazz ambassador to the world.

?Tito helped extend this music to all parts of the world, and as long as I am still healthy and energetic, I will continue to record and tour to keep this wonderful legacy alive,? says Palmieri. ?The rhythms continue to excite because they keep evolving, just as they did when the African captives who started them were taken to the Caribbean. It?s a matter of finding new ways to utilize these complicated patterns and then create exciting new arrangements for my ensemble.?

?We?ve been together for many years and work like a good baseball team,? adds Palmieri of his band. ?What matters is how we take care of specific synchronizations, and a lot of that takes place first in my head. The structure is there, and I look at it sometimes as a mathematical equation. But then, it must translate to emotion, and that?s where the reaction of the audience comes in.? He jokes about choosing the title of his 2003 album, ?I like the sound of ?Ritmo Caliente on Concord Picante.? It is hot and spicy, like the music.? On the CD, Palmieri combines hard core salsa and hard Latin jazz with his classical and chamber string influences. ?Concord has been wonderful in offering me this ability to keep taking musical risks,? he comments.

La Perfecta (Alegre)

El Molestoso (Alegre)

Lo Que Traigo Es Sabroso (Alegre)

Mambo Con Conga Is Mozambique (Tico)

Palmieri &Tjader: El Sonido Nuevo (Tico)

Palmieri &Tjader: Bamboleate (Tico)

Champagne (Tico)

Justicia (Tico)

Superimposition (Tico)

Harlem River Drive (Roulette)

Live At Sing Sing - Vol 1 (Tico)

Live At Sing Sing - Vol 2 (Tico)

Sentido (Coco)

Live At The University Of Puerto Rico - Coco The Sun Of Latin Music (Coco)

Unfinished Masterpiece (Coco)

Lucumi Macumba Voodoo (Epic)

Eddie Palmieri (Barbaro)

Solito (Musica Latina)

La Verdad (Sonido)

Sueno (Intuition)

Lleg? La India Via Eddie Palmieri (Soho Sounds Palmas - Elektra/Nonesuch)

Arete (Tropijazz)

Vortex (Tropijazz)

El Rumbero Del Piano (Tropijazz)

Ritmo Caliente (Concord Records CCD-2180-2, 2003)