The nearly seventy-year-old pianist Eddie Palmieri first made a name for himself in the second half of the fifties in Tito Rodriguez’ band. With his style of playing, somewhere in between Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk and McCoy Tyner, he managed to draw the attention of the entire Latin jazz scene. In 1961 he started his own band, the influential ensemble La Perfecta. The woodwind section, which consisted of a flute and two or even three trombones, was remarked by famous American musicians like Herbie Mann. In that period Palmieri also successfully collaborated with the American vibraphonist Cal Tjader. Due to financial problems Palmieri had to disband La Perfecta. Meanwhile he had begun studying arranging and in the following year he started to interweave jazz, pop, R&B and Latin. In 2002 he formed La Perfecta II and recorded some great albums for the Concord label. At North Sea Jazz he will be accompanied by amongst others Brian Lynch (trumpet), Conrad Herwig (trombone), Horacio ‘El Negro’ Hernandez (drums) and Giovanni Hidalgo (congas). In May of this year Palmieri was awarded with the Concertgebouw Jazz Award 2006.
