Salsa music pioneer Willie Colón, the trombonist and orchestra leader behind songs like El Malo, Oh, Qué Será, Talento de Televisión and Gitana, has died aged 75, US media reports.
The Grammy nominated singer-songwriter “passed away peacefully” on Saturday morning “surrounded by his loving family”, his family said on social media. No cause of death was provided.
“While we grieve his absence, we also rejoice in the timeless gift of his music and the cherished memories he created that will love on forever,” they said.
The Puerto Rican musician, who sang in Spanish and whose career spanned nearly 60 years, had been named among the most influential Latino artists of all time by Billboard magazine.
US media attributed Colón’s death on Saturday to a statement posted by his family on Facebook and a tribute posted by his long-time manager, Pietro Carlos.
The BBC has contacted representatives for Colón.
Colón – who was also an arranger and producer – explored “the competing associations that Puerto Ricans have with their home and with the United States,” according a biography posted on the LA Philharmonic website.
“He uses his songs to depict and investigate the problems of living in the U.S. as a Puerto Rican and also to imply the cultural contributions that Puerto Ricans have to offer.”
He grew up in New York in an environment marked by Latin migration, street life and Caribbean music as the salsa sound emerged in the US state in the 1960s, the BBC’s Mundo said, mixing jazz, mambo, jíbara music and chachachá.
“Today, We’ve lost an architect of the New York sound, a trombonist who made metals his banner and wrote eternal chapters in music history,” his manager Pietro Carlos said in a statement on social media.
“From ‘El Malo’ to anthems that defined generations, his work wasn’t just music, it was identity, neighborhood, consciousness, and resistance.”
Carlos said that Colón expanded and politicised salsa music, taking it to stages where it hadn’t been heard before. Colón, he explained, used his trombone to echo the sound of the Caribbean in New York and bridge the two cultures.
Recently, the salsa legend was name-checked in Nuevayol by Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny and briefly appeared in the song’s music video.
Bad Bunny paid homage to Colón in the song’s lyrics, singing: “Willie Colón, me dicen el malo, ey. Porque pasan los años y sigo dando palo,” which translates to “Willie Colón, they say I’m bad, because the years come and I’m still hitting.”
William Anthony Colón Román was born on April 28, 1950 in South Bronx, New York to Puerto Rican parents. His grandmother Antonia taught him Spanish and reminded him of the most recognisable elements of Puerto Rican culture, according to a biography from the National Foundation for Popular Culture.
The famed trombonist started his music career as a child, playing the trumpet at age 12, but later shifted to his iconic trombone, playing on street corners in the neighbourhood.
In 1967, at 16, he recorded his first album El Malo with Héctor Lavoe, forming an inimitable salsa duo for the Fania record label that popularised the songs Calle Luna, calle Sol, Abuelita, Ah, ah, oh, no, Ghana’e, El día de mi suerte, La murga and Juana Peña.
In 1972, he released El Malo – one of the first albums to feature the “New York Sound” that sparked a renewed interest in Latin music during the 1970s, according to his website.
He also produced music alongside Rubén Blades, Celia Cruz and Ismael Miranda, and, as a solo artist, continued to relentlessly pursue new musical fusions, such as El Gran Varón, Oh, Qué Será and Amor Verdadero.
Throughout his career, the artist accumulated more than 40 productions, 30 million copies sold, 15 gold records, five platinum records, and 10 Grammy nominations.
In the 1970s, the orchestra leader introduced Panamanian singer-songwriter Rubén Blades to lead the outfit. In 1975, they released the album Metiendo Mano! – a collaboration said to be his first foray into intellectual salsa that paved the way for the classic albums Maestra Vida and Canciones del Solar de los Aburridos.
Their second album Siembra – featuring disco rhythm, congas and timbales on Plastico – delved further into political fare and sold more than 3 million records worldwide, becoming a bestseller for the time and among the most consequential albums for the genre.
The Latin Recording Academy, the professional organisation behind the Latin Grammy Awards, paid tribute to Colón on social media as a man whose legacy “transformed salsa by making it a global phenomenon, establishing a sound and aesthetic that defined an era and continued to inspire generations of artists”.
Colón was recognised with the Latin Grammys’ Musical Excellence Award – a lifetime achievement honour – in 2004.
With nearly 40 albums to his credit, Colón also became known as a prominent social activist who supported the Latino Commission on AIDS and the United Nations Immigrant Foundation, and served as a board member at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.
In 2014, graduated from a police academy in New York and was sworn in as a deputy sheriff for the Department of Public Safety.
Colón is survived by his wife, Julia Craig, whom he wed in 1991, and their children.
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