Eddie Palmieri sets Jazz at Lincoln Center afire

There was a lot to cheer: that Palmieri was playing Jazz at Lincoln Center for the first time, that the house for the first night of two was packed; that Herbie Hancock, progressive yet sometimes too cautious or mellow, was in a front row. But it was the music itself that turned us out. Afro-Carribean jazz as Palmieri designs it is greater than the sum of its parts but make no mistake, those parts are great. 

Herman Olivera, the tall lead singer, was well dressed and choreographed (they all were) but his vocal improvisations conveyed urgency as well as maturity. Nelson Gonsalez, the slight, graying guitarist, seemed stoic until he whipped out a chordal solo that burst all harmonic bonds. Trombonist Jimmy Bosch and trumpeter Brian Lynch (one of Palmieri's closest collaborators) took turns topping each other with scorching, meaty solos. Flutist Karen Joseph knew her idiom thoroughly, bounding over the multiple layers of rhythmic and melodic action. The sections' synchronization was tighter than the Rockettes', though each musician exuded their own personality.

And Palmieri's keyboard work, which has often seemed to me frustrated by the limits of his chops, instead was utterly accomplished. Latin jazz piano is a genre unto itself, with current wondermen including Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Chucho Valdez and Michel Camilo. What Palmieri played linked the montuno to New Orleans' rhythm 'n' blues, to Thelonious Monk, McCoy Tyner and Joe Zawinul. I heard both Ellington and Basie lead their orchestras live, but never with so much juice or juju. I hope Hancock took note. 

Too bad Wynton wasn't there to hear La Perfecta II, but he probably got a full report. He was preparing, no doubt, for his own concerts this week with Willie Nelson and Norah Jones. If those three could generate the heat and light provided by the Sun of Latin Music -- and I can't resist embedding the clip below of the Palmieri brothers during their Afro-Latin funk phase, circa 1972 -- they would put an end to any questions about the health and future of jazz.