Eddie Palmieri, groundbreaking Latin music legend, dies at 88
Eddie Palmieri, the avant-garde musician who was one of the crucial progressive artists of rumba and Latin jazz, has died. He was 88 years previous.
Fania Data introduced Palmieri’s dying Wednesday night. Palmieri’s daughter, Gabriela, advised The New York Occasions that her father died earlier that day at his dwelling in New Jersey after “an prolonged sickness.”
The pianist, composer and bandleader was the primary Latino to win a Grammy Award and would win seven extra over a profession that spanned almost 40 albums.
Palmieri’s household launched the next assertion:
“Eddie Palmieri, the legendary Puerto Rican pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader, handed away on August 6, 2025, on the age of 88, abandoning a transformative legacy in Latin jazz and salsa. A ten-time Grammy Award winner and the first-ever recipient of a Grammy for Latin music, Palmieri revolutionized the style along with his daring, percussive fashion and deep Afro-Caribbean roots, founding the groundbreaking band La Perfecta and mentoring generations of musicians over a exceptional seven-decade profession. He was predeceased by his beloved spouse of 60 years, Iraida, whom he lovingly referred to as ‘Mi Luz Mayor,’ and is survived by his kids, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and a worldwide group of buddies and collaborators who felt his ardour and generosity. Featured proudly in Spike Lee’s upcoming movie Highest 2 Lowest, Palmieri’s affect transcended music — his rhythm modified the world, and his spirit will stay on in each beat he impressed.”
“Being a piano participant is one factor. Being a pianist is one other.”
Palmieri was born in New York’s Spanish Harlem on Dec. 15, 1936, at a time when music was seen as a method out of the ghetto. He started finding out the piano at an early age, like his well-known brother Charlie Palmieri, however at age 13 he started enjoying timbales in his uncle’s orchestra, overcome with a want for the drums.
He finally deserted the instrument and went again to the enjoying piano.
“I am a annoyed percussionist, so I take it out on the piano,” the musician as soon as mentioned in his web site biography.
His first Grammy win got here in 1975 for the album “The Solar of Latin Music,” and he stored releasing music into his 80s, performing by means of the coronavirus pandemic through livestreams.
In a 2011 interview with The Related Press, when requested if he had something vital left to do, he responded along with his typical humility and good humor: “Studying to play the piano effectively. … Being a piano participant is one factor. Being a pianist is one other.”
Palmieri dabbled in tropical music as a pianist through the Fifties with the Eddie Forrester Orchestra. He later joined Johnny Seguí’s band and Tito Rodríguez’s earlier than forming his personal band in 1961, La Perfecta, alongside trombonist Barry Rogers and singer Ismael Quintana.
La Perfecta was the primary to characteristic a trombone part as a substitute of trumpets, one thing hardly ever seen in Latin music. With its distinctive sound, the band rapidly joined the ranks of Machito, Tito Rodríguez, and different Latin orchestras of the time.
Pioneering Grammy winner’s profession spanned a long time and genres
Palmieri produced a number of albums on the Alegre and Tico Data labels, together with the 1971 traditional “Vámonos pa’l monte,” along with his brother, Charlie, as visitor organist. Charlie Palmieri died in 1988.
Eddie’s unconventional method would shock critics and followers once more that yr with the discharge of “Harlem River Drive,” through which he fused Black and Latin kinds to provide a sound that encompassed components of salsa, funk, soul and jazz.
Later, in 1974, he recorded “The Solar of Latin Music” with a younger Lalo Rodríguez. The album grew to become the primary Latin manufacturing to win a Grammy.
The next yr he recorded the album “Eddie Palmieri & Pals in Live performance, Stay on the College of Puerto Rico,” thought of by many followers to be a salsa gem.
Within the Nineteen Eighties, he received two extra Grammy Awards, for the albums “Palo pa’ rumba” (1984) and “Solito” (1985). A number of years later, he launched the vocalist La India to the salsa world with the manufacturing “Llegó La India vía Eddie Palmieri.”
Palmieri launched the album “Masterpiece” in 2000, which teamed him with the legendary Tito Puente, who died that yr. It was a success with critics and received two Grammy Awards. The album was additionally chosen as probably the most excellent manufacturing of the yr by the Nationwide Basis for Well-liked Tradition of Puerto Rico.
Throughout his lengthy profession, he participated in concert events and recordings with the Fania All-Stars and Tico All-Stars, standing out as a composer, arranger, producer, and orchestra director.
In 1988, the Smithsonian Institute recorded two of Palmieri’s concert events for the catalog of the Nationwide Museum of American Historical past in Washington.
Yale College in 2002 awarded him the Chubb Fellowship Award, an award normally reserved for worldwide heads of state, in recognition of his work in constructing communities by means of music.
In 2005, he made his debut on Nationwide Public Radio because the host of this system “Caliente,” which was carried by greater than 160 radio stations nationwide.
He labored with famend musicians equivalent to timbalero Nicky Marrero, bassist Israel “Cachao” López, trumpeter Alfredo “Chocolate” Armenteros, trombonist Lewis Khan, and Puerto Rican bassist Bobby Valentín.
In 2010, Palmieri mentioned he felt a bit lonely musically because of the deaths of lots of the rumberos with whom he loved enjoying with.
As a musical ambassador, he introduced salsa and Latin jazz to locations as far afield as North Africa, Australia, Asia and Europe, amongst others.
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Former Related Press Author Sigal Ratner-Arias is the first writer of this obituary.
