Late Wednesday night (Aug. 6), it was introduced that Latin music pioneer Eddie Palmieri had handed away at his dwelling in Hackensack, New Jersey, after what his youngest daughter Gabriela mentioned was a “extended sickness.” He was 88 years previous. The passing of Palmieri marks the tip of a prolonged and noteworthy life for the pianist, composer and bandleader whose expertise raised the profile of Afro-Caribbean music and led to a storied interval in New York Metropolis the place salsa music dominated, significantly in Spanish Harlem the place he was born.
Having gotten into music at an early age with the affect of his older brother, Charlie, Eddie Palmieri would play with numerous bands earlier than setting out on his personal in 1960 to hone his distinctive sound along with his band, La Perfecta. The ensemble would put their stamp on the music scene with the fiery signature jam, “Azúcar.” Palmieri’s music spanned six many years, seeing him win eight Grammy Awards (being the primary Latin musician to win a Grammy) and “Azúcar” being added to the Nationwide Information Registry in 2009 along with being an affect on jazz and Hip-Hop artists and receiving the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts Jazz Grasp Award.
Palmieri’s affect on Hip-Hop stems immediately from Harlem River Drive, the debut album from the ensemble he and his brother Charlie shaped within the early Seventies. The album would grow to be a traditional with its fusion of booming funk bass traces, soul trombone and trumpets, and hard-charging Latin rhythms, exhibiting a musical solidarity between Black music and Latin music. Hip-Hop historian Bobbito Garcia has usually cited Palmieri as an inspiration, with the 2 collaborating on his 2013 baskeball documentary Doin’ It within the Park and the 2018 undertaking Rock Rubber 45s, that includes Dres of Black Sheep and Robert Glasper.
Palmieri was also called somebody who wasn’t afraid of combating for justice, going up towards report firm executives within the Sixties. Palmieri would grow to be concerned with actions devoted to Puerto Rican statehood and Black liberation, collaborating with the Younger Lords Celebration extensively together with doing a tour of prisons in New York State. He additionally famously took on the Recording Academy for his or her therapy of Latin artists on the Grammy Awards.
Palmieri is being fondly remembered for his innovation and music with tributes from Questlove of the Roots to DJ Tony Contact. Famed director Spike Lee shared a picture of himself and Palmieri in a scene on the set of Lee’s upcoming movie, Highest 2 Lowest. The bandleader has two new songs on the movie’s soundtrack, “Da Lowdown” and “Puerto Rico.”
