Sunday is jazz day, and today we celebrate the music of one of my favorite artists of any genre. There have been a lot of icons to die in the last month or so, but Eddie Palmieri holds a place in my life far above any of them. I have written about Palmieri before in this post, this post, and this post, so feel free to read what I have stated in the past. Here is what I wrote back on August 28, 2022.
Eddie Palmieri is one of the most successful Latin jazz musicians. He has been performing and recording for sixty years and is one of the primary influences on the modern sound of Latin jazz, including Pachanga, mambo, salsa, Mozambique, and other similar forms. Early in his career he created a new form of Pachanga music; the Pachanga was a dance craze in the ‘early ’60s and ruled the dance halls, much like the Twist explosion in the U.S. at the same time. Palmieri replaced the traditional violins of the style with trombones, and thus created what is now known as the Palmieri Sound. He continued to evolve his sound throughout the ’60s, adding more jazz elements as he went, and then in the ’70s his sound solidified into a new form of salsa and Latin jazz. This led to his groundbreaking 1974 album The Sun Of Latin Music, which won the first Grammy Award for Best Latin Recording. He has been a Latin Jazz legend since then, performing internationally for decades, winning seven more Grammy Awards (including for the fantastic album Masterpiece, recorded with Tito Puente in 2000), and receiving an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College of Music.
From a personal viewpoint, I have been a fan of Palmieri for about fifteen years. After Ms. Faux got me into Latin jazz in the early 2000s, The Sun Of Latin Music was one of the first albums I discovered and I have been listening to it regularly since. Palmieri did not record very much for Fania Records, which is where I go to find most of the Latin music I enjoy, but he is my favorite Latin jazz artist nonetheless.
Eddie Palmieri died on August 6, 2025. I have selected some tunes to showcase his wonderful music.
The Radio Faux Show 