Eddie Palmieri – Unfinished Masterpiece (1975)

“The Runners-Up is a monthly column, which we first tried in 2013, wherein we will analyze an album that isn’t the consensus first choice or most canonical title by a given artist, but is one worthy of more attention than it’s received to date. The album we’ll look at this month is…Eddie Palmieri‘s 1975 album, Unfinished Masterpiece. A vast number of musicians appear on Unfinished Masterpiece: on most tracks, Palmieri is joined by Victor Paz on trumpet, Barry Rogers on trombone, Peter Gordon on French horn, Tony Price on tuba, Lou Marini (‘Blue Lou’ from the Blues Brothers band) on alto sax, Lou Orenstein on tenor sax, Mario Rivera on tenor and baritone saxes, Ronnie Cuber on baritone sax and flute, Alfredo de la Fe on violin, Andy Gonzalez on bass, Tommy Lopez Jr. on bongos, Eladio Perez and Jerry Gonzalez on congas, and Nicky Marrero on timbales. The lead vocals are handled by Lalo Rodriguez, with backing vocals by Ismael Quintana, Jimmy Sabater, and Willie Torres. Palmieri, who was a guest on the BA podcast in 2018 (listen to that here), jumped from label to label during Latin music’s heyday in the 1960s and 1970s. He started out on Alegre, then recorded a long string of albums for Tico, but also put out albums on Roulette and even Verve (a collaboration with vibraphonist Cal Tjader). By the early ’70s, he was mixing commercial success with political engagement and musical experimentation, making the album Justicia in 1969, forming the Latin-soul-funk band Harlem River Drive the following year and recording a concert at Sing Sing, the upstate New York prison. He also performed at the University of Puerto Rico during a riotous student demonstration. Between 1969 and 1971, he made a series of albums — Justicia, Superimposition, and Vamonos Pa’l Monte — that incorporated nearly avant-garde jazz improvisation and production techniques borrowed from psychedelic rock in order to break down the walls hemming Latin music in. The Sun of Latin Music, from 1974, was just as thrilling and exploratory. Unfinished Masterpiece was clearly intended to be the next step in Palmieri’s musical evolution. It’s a journey out. It begins with the churning, blaring ‘Un Puesto Vacante,’ which sounds like fairly traditional salsa, the horns blaring atop the slapping, rattling percussion and the lead and backing vocalists in full flight from the first note. Palmieri’s piano and Gonzalez’ bass are the engine driving it all, and while the energy level is in the red throughout, it doesn’t get crazy until almost the three-minute mark, when, after a timbale solo, the leader strikes a series of huge, clanging/crashing piano chords that almost sound like a metal shelving unit falling to the floor in the studio. That triggers a baritone sax eruption, even greater passion from the singers, and the whole thing ends with a blast of energy that should almost finish the album right there. But we’re just beginning. …”
The Runners-Up: Eddie Palmieri
Discogs (Video)
Pianist Eddie Palmieri is a true visionary of Latin music
YouTube: Unfinished Masterpiece    38:26