A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Band leader and pianist Eddie Palmieri has died. His pounding rhythms forged a new style for Latin music. Palmieri died Wednesday. He was 88. NPR's Luis Trelles has our remembrance.
LUIS TRELLES, BYLINE: In the 1960s and early '70s, Eddie Palmieri released a string of albums with his orchestra, La Perfecta. They fused syncopated Afro-Caribbean beats and jazz stylings.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BILONGO")
EDDIE PALMIERI: (Singing in Spanish).
TRELLES: On NPR, the ever-warm and spirited Palmieri did not hesitate in describing his musical mix.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
PALMIERI: It's definitely going to excite you. I don't guess I'm going to excite you with my music. I know it.
(SOUNDBITE OF EDDIE PALMIERI SONG, "BILONGO")
TRELLES: Songs like "Bilongo" featured Palmieri's signature, highly percussive piano playing. His was a full-body technique with forearms and elbows, and even the occasional growl from the maestro himself. He had a knack for spotting legendary singers - Ismael Quintana...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CAFE")
ISMAEL QUINTANA: (Singing in Spanish).
TRELLES: ...Then Lalo Rodriguez.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "UNA ROSA ESPANOLA")
LALO RODRIGUEZ: (Singing in Spanish).
TRELLES: That collaboration yielded Palmieri's first Grammy-winning album, "The Sun Of Latin Music," from 1974.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "UNA ROSA ESPANOLA")
RODRIGUEZ: (Singing in Spanish).
TRELLES: Palmieri would win more than half a dozen Grammys over the course of his career.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "VAMONOS PAL MONTE")
PALMIERI: (Singing in Spanish).
TRELLES: Eddie Palmieri was born in New York City's Spanish Harlem to Puerto Rican parents. His brother Charlie would go on to become a celebrated salsa and Latin jazz musician. As the Puerto Rican diaspora grew in the 1950s, so did the circuit for Latin dance music. In an era marked by mambo, big bands and ballrooms, Palmieri soon found a home playing in Tito Rodriguez's orchestra.
(SOUNDBITE OF TITO RODRIGUEZ SONG, "DONDE ESTABAS TU")
TRELLES: Palmieri told NPR that history lay at the heart of his music.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
PALMIERI: In a 300-year span, there was approximately almost 12 million Africans that were brought to the New World. They were never allowed their drum - fear of communication, fear of revolt. And these complex rhythmical patterns united in a compositional form of jazz.
(SOUNDBITE OF TITO RODRIGUEZ SONG, "DONDE ESTABAS TU")
TRELLES: By the mid-1960s, Palmieri was branching off in new directions. He would go on to become an elder statesman of Latin jazz, holding forth on its history, a long cigar clasped in his hand.
(SOUNDBITE OF EDDIE PALMIERI SONG, "PUERTO RICO")
TRELLES: The Puerto Rican experience in New York City was for him a central theme. He protested against systemic inequalities in his seminal 1971 album, "Harlem River Drive." Palmieri told WHYY's Fresh Air in 1994 he wrote one of his best-known songs when he was broke.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
PALMIERI: But I found myself in Puerto Rico, walking on the beach and looking at those - that beautiful ocean. And that's what the lyrics say.
(Speaking Spanish).
You know, beautiful island with your blessed water surrounding you.
TRELLES: That song, "Puerto Rico," is an enduring anthem for salsa aficionados and a testament to the inspiration that Eddie Palmieri drew from his island roots throughout his storied career.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PUERTO RICO")
PALMIERI: (Singing) Puerto Rico. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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