After bursting onto the Latin-music scene in the early '60s, Eddie Palmieri has spent the last four decades exploring Afro-Caribbean music, garnering a shelf-load of Latin Jazz Grammys along the way. La Perfecta II mixes t... more »he excitement of his early innovations in salsa, charange, mambo, and other idioms with the wide sonic spectrum of the modern recording studio. Exuding warmth and clarity, Palmieri's album mixes five older pieces with six new ones. The album takes its name from his La Perfecta ensemble, which disbanded in 1968. This reconvening, with a set of younger musicians, is based on fortuitous happenstance, as was the original band's chance encounter between Palmieri and the late Barry Rogers. Palmieri's delight in potent arrangements and compositions with ample room for improvisation sounds easy enough, but the ambitious change he brought to the music stills casts a long shadow today. This album is no mere rehashing, rather it is flush with its own vitality. --David Greenberger« less
After bursting onto the Latin-music scene in the early '60s, Eddie Palmieri has spent the last four decades exploring Afro-Caribbean music, garnering a shelf-load of Latin Jazz Grammys along the way. La Perfecta II mixes the excitement of his early innovations in salsa, charange, mambo, and other idioms with the wide sonic spectrum of the modern recording studio. Exuding warmth and clarity, Palmieri's album mixes five older pieces with six new ones. The album takes its name from his La Perfecta ensemble, which disbanded in 1968. This reconvening, with a set of younger musicians, is based on fortuitous happenstance, as was the original band's chance encounter between Palmieri and the late Barry Rogers. Palmieri's delight in potent arrangements and compositions with ample room for improvisation sounds easy enough, but the ambitious change he brought to the music stills casts a long shadow today. This album is no mere rehashing, rather it is flush with its own vitality. --David Greenberger
CD Reviews
Perfecta in every sense of the word.
Mark | New York | 05/05/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"When I read the article titled, "Latin Music Patriarch Stays Hungry" in the New York Times on April 30, 2002, by renowned music critic, Ben Ratliff, I was intrigued. When I heard the CD, I understood. Perfecta II speaks volumes for a genre that currently has difficulty completing a sentence. As I listen to the CD, I can only imagine the dancers at the Palladium trying to compete with the powerful and pulsating rhythms, of "Tirandote Flores" or "Cuidate Compay", which Mr. Palmieri and his original orchestra brought to life 40 years ago. This CD is a historiography of sorts, where only a genius like Mr. Palmieri deftly combines a variety of sounds spanning 40 years of his artistry.- from classic salsa to exploratory Latin jazz, such as "Chekere Agent Man". It is refreshing to see Mr. Palmieri persevere in his artform, and maintain his artistic integrity, while the genre he helped create is creatively destitute and commercial in the most tragic sense. Legendary scholar at Yale University, Dr. Robert Farris Thompson, even wrote in his dedication to Eddie for lifetime achievement, "You remind me of Aeneas, who lost Troy but found Rome. You closed the Palladium in 1966. And though we lost the Palladium, you found salsa....you teach us how to triumph over time." Thank you Eddie for showing us that salsa lives on, and that it lives on because of you. Vaya "Molestoso"!"
Perfecta Redux
Hector Reyes-erazo | 09/04/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I have many of the first wax pressings found on Perfecta II, a much awaited call and lesson in Eddie Palmieri's instructive and indelible musical lexicon. To hear these salsa classics freshly minted and improved with new voices and arrangements as well as much improved recording technology helps to validate Maestro Palmieri's lasting place and importance in our musical collective. You'll definitely kick back and reminisce or jump and grab the first dancing partner you can and go all out. Gracias Molestoso!"
Strong stuff from an old pro
Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com | ...in Middle America | 05/02/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This disc starts off with several good, old-fashioned salsa sizzlers, and gradually works its way into jazzier terrain. Even on the Latin Jazz tracks, Palmieri keeps a certain muscular aggressiveness to his work, super-swinging and melodically rich -- all in all, pretty nice stuff!"
Updated Perfecta
R. J. Marsella | California | 03/07/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The sound quality is crisp and the arrangements just jump out of the speakers and grab you. I have some of the original recordings of these tunes with the first edition of La Perfecta and they are among my favorites. This group that Eddie assembled stands firm in that comany and has produced a very strong recording that gives the tunes a fresh sounding quality and yet stays true to the original feel. Very fine recording."
Track Listings (11) - Disc #1