Guest Artists Michael Brecker, Regina Carter, Christian McBride, Nicholas Payton, David Sanchez and John Scofield Join the Maestro of Salsa and Latin Jazz
The world has long admired the Harlem-born, six-time GRAMMY® Award-winning
Eddie Palmieri as one of the foremost Latin musicians of the last half-century.
His ability to fuse the rhythms of his Hispanic, Puerto Rican heritage with
the jazz influences of Thelonious Monk and McCoy Tyner made him an immediate
hit when he played New York's Palladium Ballroom in the 1950s and '60s and a
maverick threat to that period's "Big Three" -- Tito Puente, Machito
and Tito Rodriguez.
Palmieri has continued to roll on with stylistic innovations over the years,
creating classic Tico albums and later mixing salsa with R&B, pop, rock,
Spanish vocals and more jazz improvisation. Now 68, the pianist -- who in 2005
celebrates an amazing 50-year career as a professional musician -- simply revolutionized
the sound of Latin music, an accomplishment that alone would ensure his place
in the music pantheon.
To mark his half-century as a working musician and his 45th year as one of Latin
music's foremost bandleaders, Eddie Palmieri releases "Listen Here!"
on June 14, 2005.
Palmieri, for the first time in his career, arranged four jazz classics, "Nica's
Dream," "In Walked Bud," "Tin Tin Deo" and the title
track, as well as composed six original tracks for the date. The piano maestro
and his co-producer Richard Seidel also assembled an all-star cohort of guest
soloists -- Michael Brecker, Regina Carter, Christian McBride, Nicholas Payton,
David Sanchez and John Scofield -- to join Brian Lynch, Conrad Herwig and Donald
Harrison, bassist John Benitez, Cuban traps master Horacio "El Negro"
Hernandez, and master conguero Giovanni Hidalgo, all veterans of various Palmieri
ensembles. Together, they inspire Palmieri to uncork some of his greatest solos
on record.
Eddie Palmieri will be touring in 2005 to promote "Listen Here!"
A complete list of tour dates is available at www.concordrecords.com
Concord Picante, home to such Latin jazz greats as Charlie Byrd, Tania Maria,
Tito Puente, Cal Tjader, Mongo Santamaria, and Poncho Sanchez, celebrates its
25th anniversary in 2005. Palmieri's "Listen Here!" is just one of
the Latin jazz projects planned as part of the label's year-long celebration.
Other releases include: "Explorations: Classic Picante Regrooved,"
a 13-track collection of hip new mixes and live takes of seminal Picante tracks;
"Concord Picante 25th Anniversary Collection," a 4-CD box set of Picante
artists; Diane Schuur's collaboration with Dave Samuels featuring the Caribbean
Jazz Project, "Schuur Fire"; and, a new release from conguero Poncho
Sanchez, featuring The Tower of Power.
Related:
Jazz Music Production
