Annotations for Sounds: Background--music--salsa

For over 30 years, pianist Eddie Palmieri has been pushing the creative limits of Latin music. His unorthodox experimental style has defied musical categories. [Background--Music--Piano] Reporter Alfredo Cruz of station WBGO in Newark recently spoke with Eddie Palmieri, the Musical Renegade, and he prepared this report.

[Background--Music--Piano] Like his music, Eddie Palmieri is intensely energetic. His piano solos have been known to go from delicate esoteric explorations to fist pounding accents, all within the same phrase. He has developed his own musical identity. When Eddie plays the sound of a note or a chord is immediately recognizable as unmistakably Palmieri. He admits however, he didn't always want to be a pianist.

Hector Lavoe was born Hector Juan Perez into a musical family of singers in Ponce, Puerto Rico in 1946. When he was barely six years old, he would sit by the radio, shouting out jibaro songs with singers like Daniel Santos, and Chuito El De Bayamon. [Background Music, Hector Lavoe] Eventually, he left for New York and was soon discovered by Johnny Pacheco of Fania Records who teamed him up with Willie Colon. Pianist Joe Torres worked with Hector Lavoe for 25 years. First in Willie Colon's band, then Lavoe's own orchestra.

Lavoe never quite recovered from his 1988 suicide attempt and his drug addiction. He spent his last years in hospitals with an amputated leg and living with AIDS. Lavoe was in the hospital listening to a radio tribute to his life and music when he suffered the first of two heart attacks that finally killed him. [Lavoe Music, background] After hearing of his old friend's death, Willie Colon said, "All of Latin America cried for the hero of poor people." He called him Salsa's Martyr, a monster we helped create. "Forgive us, Hector," he wrote in a statement from Spain.

[Background--Music--Salsa] Ever since 1898, when the island of Puerto Rico first became a US territory, Puerto Ricans have debated their relationship to the United States. 40 years after becoming a US commonwealth in 1952, the debate still continues with some Puerto Ricans favoring the status quo, others advocating the island become the nation's 51st state, and still others calling for Puerto Rico's independence. During his electoral campaign, Puerto Rico's governor Pedro Rosello promised to try to put an end to the eternal debate over status by calling for a plebiscite. That vote on November 14th may not be the last word on Puerto Rico's status, but Puerto Ricans are hoping it will force the US Congress to act. Latino USA's Maria Martin is in San Juan to report on the plebiscite.