It’s so sad that we’ve not been in touch for a long time, and now the great Poli Palmer has died at the age of 82. Mostly known as a member of FAMILY in their classic period, who not only played vibes, ivories and flute and provided quite a few classics for the ensemble’s canon, most prominently on the “Fearless” album, Palmer’s creative reach always seemed much wider than that. Before joining Roger Chapman’s band, he used to help out another future colleague, Jim Cregan‘s group, BLOSSOM TOES, and even once he did join the ranks of the ensemble he’s associated with, Poli added memorable details to such important records as MATTHEWS’ SOUTHERN COMFORT’s eponymous platter and “Second Contribution” by Shawn Phillips.
Palmer’s instruments and vocals can be heard on Linda Lewis’ works, but Poli also produced “Illusion” by jazz-rockers ISOTOPE and engineered “As Close As You Think” for Kevin Ayers, and if his presence on STREETWALKERS’ longplays was predictable, his guesting on Peter Frampton’s “The Crying Clown” or Pete Townshend’s “All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes” was not. Connoisseurs may remember Palmer perform with DEEP FEELING ages ago, alongside Jim Capaldi and Luther Grosvenor, and his only solo endeavor, “Human Error” from 1985, which featured luminaried like John Surman, Geoff Whitehorn and Boz Burrell, and though lately John – that was Poli’s real name – didn’t grace a lot of albums, Joe Jammer’s "Headway" being a pleasant exception, he remained active, going up on stage from time to time and exploring music software. A wonderful person, he will be sorely missed by many.
