As Eddie Palmieri’s tour continued Alma Del Barrio radio host Guido Herrera and I caught up with Eddie at A Mi Hacienda, in Pico Rivera, California in a rare performance with his Latin Jazz Sextet. While the crowd was expecting the Salsa orchestra the Latin Jazz band that consisted of Luque Curtis, Jonathan Powell, Johnny Rivero, Louis Fouche, Camilo Molina and Papo Rodriguez (guest bongocero) showed up and blew the roof off the venue with instrumentals of many popular Palmieri Salsa hits like “Adoracion” and “Pa’ Huele”. Fouche and Powell became the vocal pieces of all the performances. As event organizer, Ray Carrion, mentioned during his earlier set with his all-star band, this would be a night to witness one of our living legends in a format many had not seen here in LA since those present were mostly Salsa fans. What the fans experienced was Salsa dance music minus the vocalist. The night was true magic for the dancers, the folks gathered in front of the stage, Canto Tropical’s Hector Resendez and my radio guest DJ Ricky Campanelli who was visiting from Montreal.
Eddie Palmieri is, with a doubt, ‘Artist of the Year’ with his Latin Jazz recording “Sabiduria/Wisdom” at the end of last year, “Full Circle” with Herman Olivera earlier this year and now “Mi Luz Mayor” to end the year as we go into 2019.
Eddie has been an innovator since the 60’s when he had La Perfecta and was doing things contrary to what the industry dictated. The perfect example being the 1965 recording of 9 minute and 35 seconds, “Azucar”, in a time when commercial radio only aired 3 minute songs.
I see a Grammy win for Eddie Palmieri in 2019.