Live Review: Melbourne International Jazz Festival - Eddie Palmieri Latin Jazz Septet

"That song was written for my wife who died two years ago from cancer," Eddie Palmieri speaks at the conclusion of the first song he plays on the baby grand onstage. "She managed to listen to it before she died. It's called Life." A romantic, soulful, at times rollicking lullaby punctuated by moments of thunderous strikes and wails from Palmieri, its delicate beauty intertwined with raw pain immediately hushes the crowd. Amid the heartfelt applause, he introduces each member of his Latin Jazz Septet who silently file on stage to join the bespectacled, grey-suited figure with the hot red pocket square in his breast pocket: Jonathan Powell (trumpet), Louis Fouche (alto sax), Luques Curtis (bass), Vincente 'Little Johnny' Rivero (congas), Camilo Molina (timbales), and Nicky Marrero (bongo/timbalitos). 

The first few rows of seating in front of the stage have been removed and the carpet pulled back to reveal a polished, oblong section of timber flooring. Palmieri's enthusiastic counting in of "one-two, one-two-three!" to match his claps immediately launch the septet into a heady, rambunctious rhythm that seizes hold of the auditorium. A young couple lose no time in launching themselves onto the dancefloor and a steady stream of audience members quickly follow, continually building up over the course of the night.

The 79-year-old arranger and composer's concoctions seamlessly blend African rhythms with jazz to produce joyously infectious, hip-shaking numbers. Despite his natural wit when recounting beguiling stories of his rich history - from his parents' move from Puerto Rico to the Hispanic neighbourhood of South Bronx, New York, to the worldwide craze over Afro Cuban and Afro Caribbean music in the 1950s - Palmieri is happy to let the music be the storyteller tonight. He does, however, give a cursory lesson in the history of Latin Jazz. "The music you hear tonight, it is the complex rhythmical patterns which make it so exciting. They come from Africa, brought by the African slaves to Spain. From something so cruel in human history, something beautiful was born. The mulattoes (persons of cross cultural heritage) put the world to dance!"

Both Powell and Fouche walk on stage and off, tirelessly, throughout each track, adding strong interplay to the hugely rhythm-driven numbers and often performing superb instrumental solos.

"My son, our manager, just said to me, 'Quit fooling around and start playing seriously!'" Palmieri quips midway through the set, before plugging a recent CD Doin' It In the Park. "It's about baseball," he deadpans. Unfailingly gracious or comically ironic, he keeps praising the dancing skills of the crowd before him, who by now are packed so tightly that it is impossible for them to do justice to his sweeping, hypnotic rhythms. Here's hoping MIJF organisers book in a venue with a more generous dancefloor next time the legendary Palmieri blesses us with a visit.