Willie Colón, Architect of Urban Salsa Music, Dies at 75

During his decades-long career, the trombonist, composer, arranger and singer has produced more than 40 albums that have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. He has collaborated with a wide range of artists including Fania All Stars, David Byrne and Celia Cruz.

His famous collaboration with Rubén Blades, “Siembra,” became one of the best-selling salsa albums of all time, and the duo was known for addressing social issues through the genre.

Colón’s family and manager confirmed his death through social media posts.

“Willie didn’t just transform salsa; he expanded it, politicized it, imbued it with urban histories and took it to previously unheard of scenes,” manager Pietro Carlos wrote. “His trombone was the voice of the people, the echo of the Caribbean in New York, a bridge between two cultures.”

Colón, who was nominated for 10 Grammys and one Latin Grammy award, composed famous songs such as “El gran varón”, “Sin poderte hablar”, “Casanova”, “Amor verdad” and “Oh, qué será”.

Blades said on social platform X that he confirmed “what I didn’t want to believe” and expressed his condolences to Colón’s family.

The path to trombone and fame Born in the Bronx borough of New York, Colón was raised by his grandmother and aunt; From an early age, his grandmother and aunt nourished him with traditional Puerto Rican music and rhythms typical of the Latin American repertoire, including Cuban son and tango.

At the age of 11, he entered the world of music, first with the flute, then with the trumpet, trumpet and finally with the trombone, and stood out in the then emerging salsa genre.

His interest in the trombone arose after he heard Barry Rogers play the trombone on Mon Rivera’s song “Dolores,” which he co-wrote with Joe Cotto.

“It looked like an elephant, a lion…an animal. Something so different that as soon as I heard it, I said to myself: ‘I want to play this instrument,'” he recalled in an interview published in the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo in 2011.

At the age of 17, he joined the group of artists who formed the famous record label Fania Records, led and created by Jerry Masucci and Johnny Pacheco. Fania was largely responsible for the new sound produced in New York’s Latin world that would later be called “salsa.”

Colón’s main characteristic as a musician was the fusion of rhythms; He harmonized jazz, rock, funk, soul and R&B with Cuba’s old Latin school of cha-cha-cha, mambo and guaracha, adding the nostalgia of the traditional Puerto Rican sound encompassing jíbara, bomba and plena music.

In 2004, the Latin Recording Academy awarded Colón a special Grammy award for his career and contributions to music.

Community leader and activist As a community leader, Colón fought for civil rights, mostly in the United States. He was part of the Hispanic Arts Association, the Latino Commission on AIDS, the Arthur Schomburg Coalition for a Better New York, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, among others.

In 1991, he was honored with a Chubb fellowship from Yale University; This award was also given to names such as John F. Kennedy, Moshe Dayan, Rev. Jesse Jackson and Ronald Reagan.

In the political arena, he served as special assistant to New York’s first black mayor, David Dinkins, and was later appointed special assistant and advisor to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

But Colón had little chance of running for public office. He unsuccessfully challenged then-U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel in the 1994 Democratic primary and finished third in the 2001 Democratic primary for New York’s public defender.

He supported Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2008 but told the Observer he voted for Donald Trump in 2016.

Colón experienced clashes between artists and politicians and the public. His friendship with Blades soured when Colón filed a lawsuit for breach of contract regarding the “Siembra… 25 years later” concert held in Puerto Rico in 2003. He also sparked controversy when he described then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as “rotten” in a social network.

Colón has appeared in films such as “Vigilante,” “The Last Fight” and “It Could Happen to You” and on television in “Miami Vice” and “Demasiado Corazón.” He recently appeared in Bad Bunny’s music video “NuevaYol”.

He is survived by his wife and four sons.