Eddie Palmieri, the pioneering Latin jazz musician and composer who helped lay the foundation of salsa music, died Wednesday at his home in Hackensack, New Jersey, following an extended illness. He was 88.
Palmieri’s youngest daughter, Gabriela, confirmed her father’s death to The New York Times on Wednesday, August 6. The music legend passed away at his longtime New Jersey residence, where he had lived for the past decade after relocating from the New York area in 2015.
Born Eduardo Palmieri on December 15, 1936, in New York’s Spanish Harlem to Puerto Rican parents who had emigrated from Ponce in 1926, he became one of the most innovative and influential figures in Latin music. His parents, seamstress Isabel and electrician Carlos, placed heavy emphasis on the importance of music in their children’s development, raising Eddie and his brother Charlie in the South Bronx.
Palmieri began learning piano at an early age but initially gravitated toward percussion, joining his uncle’s orchestra at age 13 to play timbales. However, he eventually returned to piano, later describing himself as a “frustrated percussionist” who took it out on the piano.
His professional career took off in the early 1950s with various bands including Eddie Forrester, Johnny Segui’s, and the popular Tito Rodriguez Orchestra. In 1961, he formed his own eight-piece band, La Perfecta, which revolutionized Latin music by replacing traditional trumpets with trombones and mixing American jazz into Afro-Caribbean rhythms.
This innovative approach surprised both critics and fans, helping steer the mambo scene toward the more complex Afro-Cuban rhythms that would become salsa. His 1969 album “Justicia” combined elements of funk, soul, and psychedelic rock with Cuban dance rhythms and lyrics addressing racism and colonialism.
Palmieri made history in 1976 when he became the first Latino to win a Grammy Award, taking the inaugural Best Latin Recording award for his album “Sun of Latin Music.” He would go on to win seven additional Grammy Awards over his career, including the following year’s Best Latin Recording for “Unfinished Masterpiece.”
Throughout his career, Palmieri remained committed to pushing musical boundaries while maintaining his working-class roots. He became a regular performer at New York’s legendary Village Gate club and was known for his confrontational approach to business dealings with record labels and promoters, earning him the nickname “the Madman of Salsa.”
Despite his rebellious nature, Palmieri faced significant challenges with the music industry and even the Internal Revenue Service. After becoming influenced by economist Henry George’s theories that income taxes were legal robbery, he refused to pay taxes for several years. IRS agents eventually began appearing at his concerts and led him away in handcuffs, though he later worked out a repayment deal with the agency.
In the 1980s, Palmieri relocated to Puerto Rico for several years to care for his mother. During this period, he recorded three albums that each won Grammy Awards, though he later described the experience as difficult and oppressive, noting that local musicians would not allow him into their circles.
After returning to New York in the late 1980s, Palmieri’s career continued to flourish. He successfully campaigned for the creation of the Best Latin Jazz Album Grammy category in 1995 and fought for its reinstatement when it was deleted in 2012. His final solo studio album, “Listen Here!” won the Best Latin Jazz Album Grammy in 2006.
The musician’s contributions were recognized with numerous prestigious honors, including being named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2013 and receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences the same year. The Library of Congress and the Smithsonian also honored him by recording two of his live performances for their archives.
Palmieri produced more than 30 albums during his nearly 40-album career and continued touring well into his eighties. He remained dedicated to the South Bronx and its Latin community throughout his life, though he spent his final decade in the quieter setting of Hackensack, New Jersey.
The musician purchased his four-bedroom Hackensack home in 2015 for $338,000, one year after the death of his wife Iraida, to whom he had been married for 58 years. The property featured a sunlit music room and large deck for entertaining.
Palmieri is survived by his five children: daughters Gabriela, Renee, Eydie, and Ileana, and son Edward, as well as four grandchildren.
