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"Generations of Latin Jazz"

Eddie Palmieri & David Sanchez Duo

Friday, May 18 • 8pm

"Eddie Palmieri. . .has been the most consistently innovative artist in Afro-Cuban music in the United States for the past 30 years." — Boston Globe

Program Notes

The pairing of Eddie Palmieri and David Sanchez is inspired. Reaching across the generational gap, the two trailblazing musicians pay tribute to the robust history of jazz while pushing the music’s boundaries in fascinating new directions.  

It is fitting that Palmieri was the inaugural recipient of the "Best Latin Jazz" Grammy. For over half a century he has been a tireless innovator, combining his Caribbean and Spanish Harlem–based musical traditions into a mixture that is quintessentially American. His 30+ albums have been consistently well received, earning the legendary pianist nine Grammy awards and counting; his latest recording with trumpeter Brian Lynch, Simpático, was a 2007 Grammy-winner for "Best Latin Jazz Album."

Palmieri had an innovative streak from the outset. His first band, Conjunto La Perfecta, replaced the traditional trumpets of Afro-Cuban jazz with trombones, leading some to describe the band as "the one with the roaring elephants." La Perfecta, which Palmieri led from 1961-1968, launched the career of singer Ismael Quintana and is considered one of the most important Latin orchestras ever. The ’70s saw Palmieri record with his organist brother Charlie, win that first Grammy (for The Sun of Latin Music, 1975), and continue to draw inspiration from his jazz heroes Art Tatum, Horace Silver, McCoy Tyner, and Herbie Hancock, while always referring back to his Latin roots. "Cuban music provides the fundamental from which I never move. Whatever has to be built must be built from there. It's that cross-cultural effect that makes magnificent music."

Sanchez has built a stellar reputation in his 15-year career. After receiving Dizzy Gillespie's stamp of approval, Sanchez worked with jazz luminaries Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, and Charlie Haden, and released a string of acclaimed albums including 2005's Latin-Grammy-winning Coral. As the late, great Bay Area jazz critic Phil Elwood said of Sanchez's 1998 appearance at the San Francisco Jazz Festival: “He has combined his remarkable, inspired, saxophone talent—both on soprano and tenor—with his devotion to all manner of Latin music....The results of Sanchez's enthusiasm are memorable performances emphasizing the artistic freedom of jazz expression as well as the rhythms and beauty of the Latin American music idiom.”