Pianist Eddie Palmieri on Fresh Air

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April 19, 2002 - Through his first band, La Perfecta, labeled "the band with the crazy roaring elephants," Palmieri was credited with originating Latin jazz's trombone sound in New York during the sixties. In 1994, Palmieri's lobbying culminated in the announcement of a new Grammy Award category for Afro-Caribbean Jazz. "I proposed the category to give proper distinction to that segment of jazz music based on rythmical elements and instrumentation of Africa, as opposed to jazz which developed from blues, gospel and other expressions of African-Americans." His new recording is La Perfecta II.