Crazy Eddie

[Dr. Rat]

This article from NYTimes.com

Jazz Review | Eddie Palmieri: A Force of Nature Accompanied by a Big Band of One

February 26, 2004

By BEN RATLIFF

Eddie Palmieri has spent 50 years perfecting the art of

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/arts/mus...5e634ec59fe8d9b

What do folks here think of Mr. Ratliff, anyhow?

--eric