Eddie Palmieri, the famous salsero, has died at the age of 88.

Legendary Puerto Rican salsa artist Eddie Palmieri, who revolutionized Latin music by blending it with other rhythms and engaging social messages, died Wednesday, August 6, in the United States at the age of 88, his family announced.

"The legendary pianist, composer, bandleader, and one of the most influential figures in the history of Latin music passed away at his home in New Jersey on August 6," the musician's Instagram account states.

The son of Puerto Ricans, Eddie Palmieri was born in New York City's Spanish Harlem neighborhood in 1936. The younger brother of renowned pianist Charlie Palmieri, he began his musical career early, playing piano and timpani in New York City bands during his teenage years and spending two years with Puerto Rican music legend Tito Rodriguez.

In 1961, he founded the group La Perfecta, which redefined salsa by replacing trumpets with trombones. Four years later, his song "Azucar Pa'ti" was a hit on dance floors.

The first Latin artist to win a Grammy Award for his album The Sun of Latin Music (he would receive ten in total during his lifetime), Palmieri is known for profoundly transforming Latin jazz and salsa over his more than seventy-year career, blending it with funk and soul.

He was also one of the first salseros to adopt a committed tone in his compositions. His 1969 album Justicia addressed the themes of inequality, social injustice and discrimination with the voices of Ismael Quintana and Justo Betancourt.

In one famous episode, he recorded a two-volume album live in the grim Sing Sing prison in New York State, whose population was predominantly Black and Latino, shouting, "For all mankind!" over a loudspeaker in the exercise yard.

“Known for his percussive piano style and bold, genre-defying compositions, he was a fearless innovator who paid homage to his Afro-Caribbean roots while pushing musical boundaries,” his loved ones wrote on his Instagram account.