Overview

• Palmieri died at his New Jersey home on August 6 following an extended illness, his daughter Gabriela and Fania Records confirmed.
• Born in Spanish Harlem in 1936, he mastered piano and percussion before forging a style that fused Afro-Caribbean rhythms with American jazz.
• In 1961, he formed La Perfecta and introduced a trombone-led ensemble that transformed salsa orchestration.
• He became the first Latino to win a Grammy in 1975 for The Sun of Latin Music and ultimately collected eight awards across nearly 40 albums.
• A vocal advocate for Latin artists, he helped secure the Grammy’s Best Latin Jazz Album category in 1995 and continued recording and livestreaming into his 80s.