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Ed Palermo has been leading his own big band for more than 25 years, an accomplishment all by itself. Prior to that he had performed or recorded with
Aretha Franklin,
Tito Puente,
Eddie Palmieri,
Celia Cruz,
Lena Horne,
Tony Bennett,
Mel Tormé,
Lou Rawls,
Melba Moore,
Debbie Gibson,
the Spinners, and many others. He has also written and arranged for The Tonight Show,
Maurice Hines, and Eddy Fischer, and his arranging talents were singled out by master arranger
Gil Evans: "I first heard
Ed Palermo's music in a small club in the SoHo section of Manhattan. He was using the instrumentation of a traditional 'big band' yet his arrangements and songs were anything but that. When I thought the music was going a certain direction, it would suddenly turn a corner.
Ed has the ability to keep that important balance between cohesiveness and unpredictability.
Ed Palermo's music is alive and represents now."
Palermo has done arrangements of composers ranging from
Jimi Hendrix and
the Beatles to
Shostakovich and
Milhaud. However, he is probably best known for his arranging of the music of
Frank Zappa for his big band, which has been performing the
Zappa repertoire steadily for two decades. In 1997 he released the critically acclaimed The Ed Palermo Big Band Plays the Music of Frank Zappa on Astor Place, featuring the band with guest musicians
Mike Stern and
Mike Keneally.
In July 2002,
the Ed Palermo Big Band played at the Zappanale Festival in Bad Doberan, Germany, and a year later a Swedish version of the band performed at the Umeå Internationella Kammarmusik Festival in Sweden with guests
Napoleon Murphy Brock and
Keneally.
Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance, their second recording of
Zappa material, was released in May 2006. Three years later,
Palermo and company returned with another
Zappa-themed big-band effort,
Eddy Loves Frank.
Oh No!! Not Jazz!! Followed in 2014. In 2017 he delivered
The Great Un-American Songbook, Volumes I & II, which featured jazz reworkings of songs by British rock acts including
the Beatles,
Cream,
the Rolling Stones,
Radiohead, and more. ~ Sean Westergaard