Latin Jazz Legend Eddie Palmieri Brings His Salsa Orchestra to Eisenhower Auditorium

A veteran of the New York Latin music scene and leader of an intergenerational Afro-Cuban sound will continue his 60-year-plus legacy by leading a performance of his Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orchestra at Penn State.

Penn State ensemble Centre Dimensions will open the performance by the Latin jazz legend at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 23, in Eisenhower Auditorium.

Tickets — $48 for adults; $10 for University Park students, and $15 for individuals 18 and younger — are available for purchase online, by calling the Center for the Performing Arts Ticket Center at 814-863-0255 or in person from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays at Eisenhower Auditorium. A $4 fee is applied to online purchases only.

Known as one of the finest pianists of the past 50 years, Palmieri is a ground-breaking bandleader, arranger and composer of salsa and Latin jazz. His playing skillfully fuses the rhythm of his Puerto Rican heritage with soul, funk and the complexity of his jazz influences: Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock and McCoy Tyner.

Palmieri is the first Latin artist to receive the Grammy Award, and in 1988, the Smithsonian Museum of National History recorded two of his performances for its music archives.

In 2013, he was awarded the highest-honor Jazz Master award by the National Endowment of the Arts and a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.