After years of playing hot, percussive piano in other people's Latin bands, Eddie Palmieri formed his own group in 1961. In battles of the bands in dance clubs like New York's famed Palladium, Palmieri's always came out on top. He called his band La Perfecta for one reason: It was perfect.
Since then, Palmieri has continued to hotwire Cuban polyrhythms with the latest jazz techniques in one revolutionary band after the next. He brings his unique vision of Latin jazz and his latest all-star band to Tokyo at the end of this month.
In spite of purists who long for precise definitions of their musical categories, his groups have again and again kept the Latin jazz flame burning, while heaping on colorful pyrotechnics. Palmieri meticulously wraps together compact layers of musical influences like that other "la perfecta," the finest of Cuban cigars. His piano style blends modern jazz with Latin rhythms, the tensile strength of McCoy Tyner and Thelonius Monk rolls up tightly with the combustibility of charanga and salsa.
Palmieri's current band features saxophonist Donald Harrison, trumpeter Brian Lynch and trombonist Conrad Herwig, all of whom have their own bands, yet happily abandon them to play with Palmieri. This relatively stripped-down touring band -- three horn players and a three-piece rhythm section -- on either side of his center-of-gravity piano, will allow plenty of time for soloing, whether percussive or melodic -- or in the case of Palmieri's piano -- both.
Palmieri's stature in Latin music and his brilliant piano-playing are reason enough to go hear him. As a force of nature that can swing a club with intricate jazz and hard-core salsa, he is not to be missed.