This is the 77th birthday of Eddie Palmieri. The pianist, composer, arranger and bandleader moved with his family to New York from Puerto when he and his older brother Charlie were children. By the time Eddie was eight, he and Charlie were performing in talent contests. Both became major figures in the Latin jazz movement. As a teenager, Eddie Palmieri worked with experienced Latin bands, including that of Tito Rodriguez. At fourteen, he had his own band. In the early 1960s, his Conjunto La Perfecta became one of Latin music’s most influential ensembles. Palmieri’s La Perfecta II continues as a primal force in the music that is sometimes called Nuyorican.
Palmieri recorded two classic collaborations with his equally influential Latin jazz peer Cal Tjader. Here, thanks to a YouTube contributor named Ted Nelson, is “Pecadillo†from Tjader’s and Palmieri’s 1966 album El Sonido Nuevo. Palmieri, piano; Tjader, vibes; Barry Rogers, trombone solo.
The other joint effort by Palmieri and Tjader, Bamboleate—equally rewarding—seems to have gone out of print as a CD or LP, but is available as a digital download.
Feliz cumpleaños, Sr. Palmieri