Eddie Palmieri – Condiciones Que Existen
Eddie Palmieri – Puerto Rico
Eddie Palmieri – Cosas Del Alma
I run into this album from Eddie Palmieri a fair amount, I think both copies I’ve owned have come from Amoeba, first at Berkeley, more recently in Hollywood. It’s a bridge album in some ways for Palmieri, with his sound moving away from the more experimental and visionary work he’d been laying down with Harlem River Drive and his bands at the beginning of the 1970s and into a more refined salsa-jazz style. As such it features a bit of everything, but everything here is really quite fantastic.
“Condiciones Que Existen” sounds just like a outtake from the Harlem River Drive sessions, especially with its easy funky vibe. I know most DJs who pick up this album wish the whole album was full of latin-funk like this, but the fact that its not just make this track more expectional. Besides, if the album had been an all latin-funk jam, we wouldn’t have maybe the single best salsa anthem for Puerto Rico, “Puerto Rico.” I know there are other salsa tracks from this period of time that are more well known, but I’m not sure there’s one that’s more anthemic than this one. When those horns hit and start to swing I get chills every time. The song is so good I feel proud for Puerto Ricans even though I’m not even remotely Puerto Rican! No matter your ethnic affinity, it’s hard not to feel it once that chorus “Isla Linda y Preciosa, Fabulosa, Para Mi Casa” comes in. Fabulosa indeed.
I could have chosen the truly epic salsa-jazz number “Adoracion” but instead I’ve gone with what is probably more in the bolero style, “Cosas Del Alma.” Normally when bolero latin slow-jam tracks like this turn up on a record I can’t pick the needle up quick enough. “Alma” however has this really lovely opening, almost like something you’d expect on a Bud Shank/Laurindo Almeida record from 1960, just gorgeous stuff. The use of electric guitar in particular throughout the track keeps that feel going and elevates it above other similarly romantically styled songs. Great sound and great playing throughout from truly one of the greatest.
Cheers,
Michael