Eddie Palmieri's Latin Jazz Septet Coming to Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, 5/16

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College concludes its 60th Anniversary Season with a concert by Grammy Award winner Eddie Palmieri, performing with his Latin Jazz Septet on Saturday, May 16, 2015 at 8pm. Dubbed "the Latin Thelonius Monk" by famed jazz photographer Lee Tanner, Eddie Palmieri leads his septet with charismatic power and bold innovative drive. Tickets are $30-40 and can be purchased at BrooklynCenter.org or by calling the box office at 718-951-4500 (Tue-Sat, 1pm-6pm).

Eddie Palmieri has a musical career that spans over 50 years as a bandleader of Salsa and Latin Jazz orchestras. With a discography that includes 36 titles, Mr. Palmieri has been awarded 10 Grammy Awards. A first generation "Nuyorican," he is best known for combining jazz piano and instrumental solos with Latin rhythms. Born in Spanish Harlem in 1936, Eddie began piano studies at an early age, as did his celebrated older brother, the late Salsa legend and pianist, Charlie Palmieri. For Latin New Yorkers of Eddie's generation, music was a vehicle out of El Barrio. At age 11, he auditioned at Weil Recital Hall, which is next door to Carnegie Hall, a venue as far from the Bronx as he could imagine. Possessed by a desire to play the drums, Palmieri joined his uncle's orchestra at age 13, where he played timbales. Says Palmieri, "By 15, it was good-bye timbales and back to the piano until this day. I'm a frustrated percussionist, so I take it out on the piano."

He formed the band Conjunto La Perfecta in 1961, led by singer Ismael Quintana, and would go on to create an influential style and unique sound. He received his first Grammy Award in 1975 for his release The Sun of Latin Music, which is often considered the most historic, as it was the first time Latin Music was recognized by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS). Since then, he has toured the world many times over and received numerous awards, honors and accolades. In 2013, Mr. Palmieri received the Latin Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award as well as NEA Jazz Masters Award from the National Endowment for the Arts, the nation's highest honor in jazz.