This article from NYTimes.com
Eddie Palmieri has spent 50 years perfecting the art of
Jazz Review | Eddie Palmieri: A Force of Nature Accompanied by a Big Band of One
February 26, 2004
By BEN RATLIFF
making his piano ring out over forceful dance orchestras,
from the mambo era to the salsa era to the current time of
refinements in the relationship between Afro-Cuban music
and jazz. And the raw power of his playing, its cathartic,
almost therapeutic quality, is part of his musical
personality: he comes on like a force of nature.
But when he only has one other musician onstage with him,
he can obliterate his companion. In a duet performance with
the tenor saxophonist David Sanchez at Le Jazz au Bar on
Tuesday night, Mr. Palmieri went thunderously overboard,
for an hour of musical claustrophobia. His chords were
almost always two handed, without opening up into
single-note passages, and he kept the sustain pedal down
for an extraordinarily long time, building clouds of sound
and extra accents around a clave rhythm deep in the heart
of the music. He thinned out the sound only for a few short
stretches to expose a leaner montuno figure.
Mr. Sanchez did what he could: he followed Mr. Palmieri
intently, shadowing every chord change and playing a great
deal of fast notes to break through the barrage. Toward the
end of the set, he built up some momentum, showing a keen
sense of time through his improvisations, shifting around
the stresses in his rhythms between weak and strong beats.
But it was tough business.
Mr. Palmieri growled from the gut as he heaved the music
out, all of it at about the same overpowering volume. He
wasn't taking incoming calls.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/26/ar...e634ec59fe8d9b
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