Eddie Palmieri, the pioneering Latin jazz pianist and composer who helped create the foundation of salsa music, died Wednesday, August 6, at his home in Hackensack, New Jersey, following an extended illness. He was 88 years old.
His youngest daughter, Gabriela Palmieri, confirmed the death to The New York Times, stating that her father had been battling illness for an extended period. The news was initially shared through an Instagram post.
Eduardo “Eddie” Palmieri was born December 15, 1936, to Puerto Rican parents in New York’s Spanish Harlem. His parents, Isabel, a seamstress, and Carlos, an electrician, emigrated from Ponce, Puerto Rico to New York City in 1926. Both parents emphasized the importance of music in their children’s development.
Palmieri learned piano at an early age alongside his older brother, Charlie Palmieri, who was also a pioneering pianist. At age 13, Eddie joined his uncle’s orchestra playing timbales, developing a passion for percussion. However, he eventually returned to piano, later describing himself as “a frustrated percussionist, so I take it out on the piano.”
His professional career began in the early 1950s with various bands, including Eddie Forrester, Johnny Segui’s, and the popular Tito Rodriguez Orchestra. In 1961, Palmieri formed his eight-piece band, La Perfecta, which revolutionized Latin music by steering the mambo scene toward more complex Afro-Cuban rhythms that would become known as salsa.
La Perfecta’s innovative approach included replacing trumpets with trombones, a move that mixed American jazz into Afro-Caribbean rhythms and surprised both critics and fans. This trombone-heavy setup sparked a movement within salsa music and became a signature element of Palmieri’s sound.
His monumental 1969 album, “Justicia,” combined elements of funk, soul, and psychedelic rock with Cuban dance rhythms and featured lyrics rallying against racism and colonialism. This album exemplified his boundary-pushing approach that consistently expanded beyond traditional genre constraints.
Despite his instrumental role in creating salsa music, Palmieri was always uncomfortable with the term “salsa” and preferred to refer to his music as “Afro-Cuban,” viewing it as part of a continuum mixing African rhythms with an expanding range of diasporic influences.
In 1976, Palmieri made history by becoming the first Latino to win a Grammy Award, taking the inaugural Best Latin Recording award for his album “Sun of Latin Music.” He won the same category the following year for “Unfinished Masterpiece” and accumulated eight Grammy Awards total throughout his career.
Palmieri successfully campaigned for the creation of the Best Latin Jazz Album category in 1995 and later fought to reinstate it after its deletion in 2012. His final solo studio album, “Listen Here!,” won the category’s 2006 award.
In the 1980s, Palmieri temporarily relocated to Puerto Rico to care for his mother, where he recorded three Grammy-winning albums. However, he found the experience difficult, later revealing that he felt completely oppressed there and struggled to gain acceptance from local musicians.
Upon returning to New York City in the late 1980s, Palmieri’s career continued to flourish. In 2013, the National Endowment for the Arts named him a Jazz Master, and the Latin Grammys awarded him a Lifetime Achievement Award. The Library of Congress and the Smithsonian also honored him by recording two of his live performances for their archives.
Throughout his career, Palmieri earned the nickname “the Madman of Salsa” for his confrontational business dealings with everyone from mob-backed industry executives to the Internal Revenue Service. He engaged in a notable battle with the IRS, refusing to pay taxes for several years after becoming influenced by economist Henry George’s theories about income tax being legal robbery. IRS agents eventually arrested him at concerts, though he later worked out a repayment agreement.
Despite his controversial stances, Palmieri maintained his reputation as a working-class insurgent while earning establishment respect. He became a regular performer at the legendary Monday night bills at New York’s Village Gate and continued performing well into his 80s.
Palmieri produced more than 30 albums during his nearly 40-album career and continued releasing collaborative records and touring until his final years. He had been living in Hackensack, New Jersey, since 2015, purchasing his four-bedroom home for $338,000 one year after his wife Iraida died following 58 years of marriage.
He is survived by his four daughters, Renee, Eydie, Ileana, and Gabriela, as well as his son Edward and four grandchildren.
