On Dec. 15, pianist and NEA Jazz Master Eddie Palmieri will celebrate his 80th birthday with a concert at New York’s 92Y, located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The concert is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and will feature Palmieri’s octet.
Palmieri, who was born in Spanish Harlem and raised in the Bronx, “created a new sound by fusing the rhythm of his Puerto Rican heritage with the complexity of American jazz,” according to a press release. He has won 10 Grammy Awards, including one for his album The Sun of Latin Music, which received the first-ever Grammy for Best Latin Recording in 1975.
In 2013, Palmieri was named an NEA Jazz Master and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences. Earlier this year, at the Red Bull Music Academy Festival in New York, Palmieri performed his landmark 1971 album Harlem River Drive; that concert will be broadcast on Voice of America, also on Dec. 15.
For more information on Palmieri’s birthday concert, including discounted tickets for ages 35 and under, visit 92y.org.
