Hark back, if you can, to before students fled New England to hit the beach. Eddie Palmieri came to town with his band, La Perfecta II, and made the sold-out audience at Crowell Concert Hall forget about the freezing winter and midterms with a few hours of very fine Latin jazz. Prior to the concert, Palmieri discussed his origins and the development of his music in a pre-concert gathering at the World Music Hall.
Palmieri and accompanying band La Perfecta II, an eight-person ensemble that mixes veteran musicians and younger artists, treated listeners to a nine-song set, playing well past the two hours promised by the program.
The concert started off with a bang: a boisterous number that seemed to enchant the entire audience. The mood became mellower throughout the rest of the concert, but retained this initial joy.
“I’ve seen him before, playing music you dance to,” said Dustin Brockner ’09. “This was more like music you listen to.”
Long-time fans had a slight advantage at the concert. The program provided a biography of the artist, but failed to list pieces to be performed that evening. Palmieri only mentioned the name of a single piece onstage, his version of Thelonious Monk’s “In Walked Bud.”
Given the level of energy onstage, however, few audience members seemed to mind. After playing the melody of any given piece for a few bars, Palmieri passed the lead around to his rhythm section and the horns. His expert musicians performed their solos with enthusiasm: the drummers slapping, smacking, elbowing, and even kicking the drums; the horns squeezing every bit of breath out of their lungs; and Palmieri’s piano setting and keeping a steady rhythm.
Audience member Galen DeGraf ’09 praised the way Palmieri and La Perfecta II made music at once intricately choreographed and vibrantly spontaneous.
“It was amazing,” DeGraf said. “I was blown away by the combination of relaxation and precision.”
Palmieri shared his personal and professional experiences before the show. Born in Spanish Harlem to Puerto Rican parents, he described his ascent to the top ranks of the music world, bypassing even his own brother, Charlie, a famous musician in his own right.
Palmieri also described the Cuban music he grew up listening to and would later influence his own work.
“Cuba was the island [where it] was happening,” Palmieri said. “Cuba is, in my opinion, in the forefront of what they do [musically].”
The music lovers attending the pre-concert conversation took the opportunity to ask Palmieri about his approach to composing songs. While non-experts might have been mystified by discussions of esoteric musical terminology like transitionary dissonance or chromatic root movements, the uninitiated left the room with at least an appreciation for the variety of musical styles emanating from Cuba.
Palmieri was the first to include the name of the rhythm of each song in the liner notes of his albums, differentiating between such rhythmic styles as the pachanga, conjunto, charanga, bomba, mambo, and montuno.
“It’s due respect to the rhythmic patterns of those compositions, before, they were all put together under ‘salsa,’ which came from ‘ritmo con salsa,’” Palmieri said.
This vast knowledge of his art, combined with the passionate performances of Palmieri and his band, left many audience members stunned.
“I was blown away,” said Phil Benjamin ’09.
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