Eddie Palmieri - Ep (1990)

Eddie Palmieri has come a long way from Harlem River Drive, the first band he formed upon getting to New York from Puerto Rico. Since that time, he's become a well-known of deep son and salsa bands, an arranger, a session musician, and even as a film composer. EP is a 1985 session with no musicians' credits and no notes, so all you can do is go on the merits of the music. It's a big band session, with cooking Latin rhythms and Afro-Cuban melodics, as well as a few vanguard compositional touches. The record smokes thoroughly from beginning to end, revealing that Palmieri has lost none of his fire since the mid-'70s, and is a stunning showcase of his abilities as an arranger and composer. "El Dia Que Me Quieras," which is a tango by Carlos Gardel, is adapted here by Palmieri for his large band. He begins with a pastoral string section into, playing glissando over miniscule changes in tempo and timbre. Next thing you know, the salsa enters and rocks it up with a host of singers in call-and-response mode before an oboe winds its way right though the mix to re-establish Gardel's theme. Another notable is the "Palo Pa Rumba," authored by Palmieri. Using classic form and shading the beats with a three-part harmonic horn choir augmented by a piano bridging the rhythms and melodies, the entire track turns into a dervish rhumba frenzy by moving the minor key figures into extended mode until they virtually cover the original melody while not departing from it. It sizzles and shakes with polyrhythmic fever whirling around the listener until it burns itself out seven-and-a-half minutes later. There is no let up or let down, and given that this is a 1985 session when a lot of the bands were disappearing, it's a welcome addition to the Latin big band catalog.~Thom Jurek