Eddie Palmieri - Sabiduria

The Guardian 80

(Ropeadope)

Sabiduria translates as “wisdom” and, at the age of 80, this sapient elder statesman of NuYorican music is still expanding the vocabulary of Latin jazz. He’s always been good at taking listeners on epic historical voyages around the African diaspora. Wise Bata Blues, for instance, starts with a complex West African bata drum pattern, which slowly mutates into a fiery piece of hard bop; Samba Do Suenho is a beautifully written bossa nova that features vibraphonist Joe Locke; while The Uprising mixes a high-pressure Afro-Cuban drum groove with a New Orleans Mardis Gras call-and-response chant. Big-name guests include bassist Marcus Miller, violinist Alfredo de la Fé, and saxophonists Ronnie Cuber and Donald Harrison Jr, but the joy is hearing Palmieri’s core, four-piece rhythm section: a mini-orchestra that always sounds, thrillingly, as if it’s on the verge of descending into chaos.