Eddie Palmieri
Palmas

Soaked in a gloomy and early morning rain, whipped by the whims of a spring that still refuses to bestow its graces, the drivers heading to work in one of the many industrial areas of the industrious and uniform northeast, have been witnessing an unprecedented spectacle in recent days: a fellow motorist who, alone at the wheel, moves and contorts as if in the throes of St. Vitus's dance, turning the steering wheel and dashboard into makeshift and improbable congas, effectively becoming a danger to himself and others.

Perhaps these poor souls might be more lenient in judging yours truly if they could also hear the music coming from the CD in the car stereo: "Palmas" by pianist Eddie Palmieri, a living legend of Latin Jazz.

Don't be deceived by the jovial air of the dapper gentleman on the cover. Eddie Palmieri is actually one of the most notorious keyboard smashers around, having been kicked out of more than one band in his youth simply because he "played too loud", and for this reason nicknamed rompeteclas (key-breaker).

Born in New York to Puerto Rican parents, head of an orchestra from a very young age, Palmieri wasn't content with replicating the most popular salsa clichés of the moment, but, driven by his love for Jazz, sought to expand the language of Latin music in other directions. His historic orchestra La Perfecta was the first to introduce trumpets and trombones into Afro-Cuban music (which traditionally relied on flutes and violins) thus giving the ensemble a more jazz-infused sound. Over his more than fifty-year career, the pianist has written memorable pages in both Salsa and Latin Jazz, collaborating with figures of the caliber of Tito Puente and Phil Woods, developing a sound halfway between two worlds and managing to combine artistic demands and public success, since he has won a whopping nine Grammy Awards. More than just a rompeteclas, nowadays the nicknames are far more flattering: "The Miles Davis of Salsa", "The Mozart of Latin Music".

This 1994 album (along with the subsequent "Arete") is perhaps the most successful attempt by Eddie Palmieri to blend excellent Salsa with equally excellent Jazz. The orchestra unleashes on the listener tons of pure energy, but Palmieri always manages to insert a touch of class with complex and refined harmonic evolutions that elevate the music from merely accompanying the dance: listen to the almost Middle Eastern theme of "Mare Nostrum", or the seductive progression of "Doctor Duck", which wouldn't have displeased Dizzy Gillespie.

Adding fuel to the fire are the spirited soloists - Brian Lynch on trumpet, Donald Harrison on sax, Conrad Herwig on trombone: not just any random musicians - who seem to have a lot of fun improvising over the relentless montuno marked by the pianist, even engaging in white-hot duels, as happens between trumpet and saxophone in the concluding "Bouncer".

More often than not, as is his habit, Eddie uses the piano like a cannon, blasting volleys of notes with abandon ("You Dig"); but he is also capable of astonishing with his creativity and deep knowledge of his instrument, as revealed by the solo introduction of "Bolero Dos", teetering between jazz and avant-garde.

In short, Palmieri shows us how to offer earthy music, full of scorching and shattering fun, without necessarily leaving your brain at home.

The orchestra has been playing for just two minutes, and already there’s sweat. Inside, two glasses of good ron downed, and it's just the start of the evening... Try keeping still.