Musicians from the jazz and Latin worlds and beyond — from Marc Anthony, Sheila E and Bad Bunny to Questlove — are paying tribute to one of the pioneers of salsa, pianist, composer and bandleader Eddie Palmieri, who died this week at the age of 88.
Salsa legend Oscar d’Leon posted on Instagram, "With a broken heart, I say goodbye to a genius and legend, my great friend and teacher, Eddie Palmieri." Director Spike Lee posted a picture from his upcoming film Highest 2 Lowest, which includes a scene featuring Eddie Palmieri’s band. Afro-Cuban jazz master Chucho Valdés wrote, "One of the greatest of all time has left us…The man who revolutionized salsa and Latin jazz." Fania icon Willie Colón wrote, "Eddie’s unique ability to mix rhythms and melodies transformed the musical panorama and he introduced innumerable listeners to the rich cultural tapestry of Latin sounds."
Willy Rodriguez, co-founder of the International Salsa Museum, tells GRAMMY.com, "Eddie Palmieri stood for social justice, the arts, and the power of staying true to one’s culture while learning from it, while also exploring other cultures and connecting to the world through music…The growls, yells, and emotion that poured from his heart into the mic were unlike anything the world had ever heard."
From his groundbreaking win at Music's Biggest Night to political lyrics and a defiance of genre constraints, read on for six ways Eddie Palmieri changed Latin music.
He Was The First Latino To Win A GRAMMY
In 1975, Palmieri made history as the first Latino to win a GRAMMY Award in the newly created category of Best Latin Recording with his album Sun of Latin Music. He was also the first recipient of a GRAMMY for Latin music, which came about because of Fania piano legend Larry Harlow’s efforts to get Latin music recognized by the Recording Academy. Palmieri won the award again the following year for Unfinished Masterpiece.
In total, Palmieri won eight GRAMMYs and was nominated 14 times; only a handful of Latin artists can boast that many wins. In 1984 the original Category was broken up into three awards: Best Latin Pop Album, Best Tropical Latin Performance, and Best Mexican/Mexican American Performance. Palmieri won the Best Tropical Latin Performance GRAMMY in 1985, 1986, and 1988.
As the Latin music Categories changed names and expanded over the years, Palmieri also took home golden gramophones in the Latin jazz and salsa album categories — reflecting the ways his music was in dialogue with various musical traditions. His last win, in 2006, was for Best Latin Jazz Album.
Palmieri was nominated for four Latin GRAMMYs during his career, taking home a golden gramophone for Masterpiece, which won Best Salsa Album at the 2nd Annual Latin GRAMMYs.
Palmieri Made Innovative Decisions About Instrumentation
Palmieri’s first band, La Perfecta, formed in 1961, was reportedly the first Latin band to incorporate a trombone rather than the four trumpets that were standard in the large dance bands of the 1950s. It was initially an economic decision — he couldn’t afford to pay the top trumpet players — so he brought in trombonist Barry Rogers, initiating a historic partnership.
In 2012, Palmieri told the Smithsonian, "My best musical buddy on the bandstand was Barry Rogers. He was a genius."
Palmieri soon brought in a flute player and a second trombonist alongside Rogers, as well as the Puerto Rican vocalist Ismael Quintana, for a trimmed down, eight-person band.The introduction of the trombone to the Latin ensemble would become one of the defining characteristics of salsa and the Fania sound, with Willie Colón as its most famous proponent. Colón viewed Rogers as a mentor and one of his primary musical inspirations. Palmieri’s early compositions, many of which were arranged by Rogers, are littered with the latter’s groundbreaking trombone solos.
Palmieri Refused To Be Boxed In By Genre
For over six decades, Palmieri straddled two primary musical worlds: Latin popular music, meant to serve dancers and thus requiring a strong, repetitive groove — and the more experimental, cerebral jazz of the post-bebop era. From early in his career, his salsa songs were much longer than those of his contemporaries, often seven to ten minutes long in order to give his instrumental soloists ample room to improvise.
But beyond his pioneering contributions in salsa and Latin jazz, Palmieri often experimented with other genres, including psychedelic rock and free jazz — notably apparent on the 1974 album Unfinished Masterpiece — and the 1960s Latin genre boogaloo, which fused mambo and Cuban son with R&B and soul. His 1968 hit "Ay Que Rico" is a classic example of boogaloo, featuring one of salsa’s greatest vocalists, Cheo Feliciano, and the legendary Cuban bassist Israel "Cachao" López.
Palmieri Injected Political Consciousness Into Latin Music
While part of salsa’s larger goal was to inspire pride and raise political consciousness among Latinos, Palmieri was instrumental in helping shape the genre into a platform for social critique. One of his most explicitly political songs was 1969’s "Justicia," featuring Ismael Quintana on vocals asking, "When will justice arrive?"
In 1971, along with his older brother and frequent collaborator Charlie, Palmieri embarked on a new, socially conscious project, Harlem River Drive, a soul- and free jazz-inspired collaboration with Black musicians that incorporated members of Aretha Franklin’s band. The title track of the resulting album Harlem River Drive commented on the social inequalities faced by Black and Latino communities in Harlem due to the building of the freeway of the same name that cut through their neighborhoods in order to allow wealthier New Yorkers to avoid driving through the ghetto/barrio.
Palmieri Championed Cuban Music
At a time when relations between the U.S. and Cuba were tense and musical exchange had virtually ceased, musicians like Palmieri and Tito Puente made sure that everyone knew that what was known as "salsa" was, at its core, Cuban music.
Alluding to the Afro-Cuban percussion and vocal genre rumba, Palmierie called himself "el rumbero del piano." As a teenager, he learned at the feet of the "mambo kings" — Machito, Tito Puente, and Tito Rodríguez — whose dance bands made the Palladium the hottest venue in 1950s New York.
In a 2021 interview, he said, "Cuba was the most incredible cultural exchange between the Spanish and the Africans. Out of that cultural exchange came the mulatto, and the mulatto put the world to dance with the drum. The drum is the pulse of my life." His deep knowledge of Cuban genres is evident in masterpieces like 1981's "Ritmo Alegre," which starts as an instrumental danzón, transitions into a sung bolero, and then into a salsa version of the oft-quoted rumba song "Consuélate Como Yo," by the prolific Afro-Cuban composer Gonzalo Ascencio, known as "Tio Tom."
Palmieri Had An Avant Garde Sensibility
Palmieri wasn’t your average salsa pianist banging out tumbaos as part of the salsa rhythm section; he approached his solos with harmonic daring, illustrating how influential jazz was on his style. One of his biggest hits, 1965’s "Azúcar," is a perfect example: Palmieri’s lengthy solo includes him holding down the tumbao groove in his left hand while experimenting harmonically with his right.
His 1981 song "El Día Que Me Quieras" is also bold, both formally and harmonically. Starting off as a cover of a Carlos Gardel tango and eventually transitioning into a brisk salsa dura sung by Cheo Feliciano, Palmieri gives us what is surely one of the most harmonically dissonant solos in the history of salsa.