Eddie Palmieri used to call himself ‘a frustrated percussionist who takes out his anger on the piano’. The founding father of salsa wasn’t completely wrong there. In the beginning of his career, after he had busted up another piano, a club owner made him choose: either you quit yourself, or the whole band goes. It may be clear that Palmieri has a powerful, percussive way of playing. This coryphaeus of Latin music, who was born in 1937 in Spanish Harlem, has, despite of his brutal approach, gathered an impressive collection of prizes. Next to the five Grammys he was awarded, Palmieri and his band La Perfecta had the honour to be recorded by the Smithsonian Institution, and now their music has found a place in the National Museum of American History. How many musicians can say that? The first edition of the influential band La Perfecta was founded in 1961. The legendary band, with a flute and two (sometimes three) trombones in the frontline, attracted the attention of American jazz musicians like Herbie Mann. At the festival Palmieri presents La Perfecta II, a new band that he will give the kiss of life.
