Eddie Palmieri and the Afro-Caribbean Salsa Orchestra will be performing on April 15 at 8:00pm at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, New Jersey. [Pre-show entertainment provided by DJ Ralphie Mercado starting at 7:30pm on the Matthews stage.]

Grammy award-winning pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer Eddie Palmieri has been at the forefront of salsa and Latin jazz for most of his life. Born to Puerto Rican parents in the South Bronx, by the age of 11 Palmieri had already performed at Carnegie Hall. In 1961 his band La Perfecta revolutionized both jazz and Latin orchestras by swapping out trumpets in favor of trombones for his front line, innovating a new sound that wove American jazz into Afro-Caribbean rhythms, laying the foundation for the New York salsa sound. His 1971 record with his elder brother Charlie as Harlem River Drive initially flew under the radar but has since been minted as an underground Latin funk classic, a socially conscious album that spoke to the inequality experienced in El Barrio, Spanish Harlem.

Palmieri brings his salsa orchestra to McCarter, performing his greatest hits from a career spanning more than six decades.

For more information, see https://www.mccarter.org/season/2022-2023/eddie-palmieri/