Willie Colón, trombonist and pioneer of salsa music, dies at age 75

Salsa music pioneer Willie Colón, trombonist and bandleader behind songs like El Malo, Oh, Qué Sera, Talento de Televisión and Gitana, has died at the age of 75, US media report.

The Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter “passed away peacefully” Saturday morning, “surrounded by his loving family,” his family said on social media. No cause of death was provided.

“While we mourn his absence, we also rejoice in the timeless gift of his music and the cherished memories he created that will always be remembered,” they said.

The Puerto Rican musician, who sang in Spanish and whose career spanned nearly 60 years, was named one of the most influential Latin artists of all time by Billboard magazine.

U.S. media attributed Colón’s death Saturday to a statement posted by his family on Facebook and a tribute posted by his longtime manager, Pietro Carlos.

The BBC has contacted representatives of Colón.

Colón – who was also an arranger and producer – explored “the competing associations that Puerto Ricans have with their country and with the United States,” according to a biography posted on the LA Philharmonic website.

“He uses his songs to describe and investigate the issues of living in the United States 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 immigration, street life and Caribbean music as the sound of salsa emerged in the American state in the 1960s, the BBC World he says, mixing jazz, mambo, jíbara and chachachá music.

“Today we lose an architect of New York sound, a trombonist who made metal his standard and wrote eternal chapters in the history of music,” said his manager Pietro Carlos in a statement on social networks.

“From ‘El Malo’ to the anthems that defined generations, his work wasn’t just music, it was identity, neighborhood, consciousness and resistance.”

Carlos said Colón expanded and politicized salsa music, bringing it to stages where it had never 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 verified in Nuevayol by Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny and briefly appeared in the song’s music video.

Bad Bunny paid tribute to Colón in the song’s lyrics, singing: “Willie Colón, they say I’m bad, ’cause the years come and I still hit.”

William Anthony Colón Román was born on April 28, 1950 in the South Bronx, New York, to Puerto Rican parents. His grandmother Antonia taught him Spanish and reminded him of the most recognizable elements of Puerto Rican culture, according to a biography by the National Foundation for Popular Culture.

The famous trombonist began his musical career as a child, playing the trumpet at the age of 12, but later turned his attention to his iconic trombone, playing on neighborhood street corners.

In 1967, at age 16, he recorded his first album El Malo with Héctor Lavoe, forming an inimitable salsa duo for the Fania label that popularized the songs Calle Luna, calle Sol, Abuelita, Ah, ah, oh, no, Ghana’e, El día de miluck, La murga and Juana Peña.

In 1972, he released El Malo, one of the first albums to feature the “New York Sound,” which sparked a renewed interest in Latin music in the 1970s, according to his website.

He has also produced music alongside Rubén Blades, Celia Cruz and Ismael Miranda and, as a solo artist, has tirelessly continued to seek new musical fusions, such as El Gran Varón, Oh, Qué Séra and Amor Verdadero.

Throughout his career, the artist has accumulated more than 40 productions, 30 million copies sold, 15 gold records, five platinum records and 10 Grammy Award nominations.

In the 1970s, the bandleader appointed Panamanian singer-songwriter Rubén Blades to lead the band. In 1975, they released the album Metiendo Mano! – a collaboration considered 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 timpani on Plastico – delved deeper into politics and sold more than 3 million records worldwide, becoming a bestseller for its time and one of the genre’s most influential albums.

The Latin Recording Academy, the professional organization behind the Latin Grammy Awards, honored Colón on social media as a man whose legacy “transformed salsa into a global phenomenon, establishing a sound and aesthetic that defined an era and continued to inspire generations of artists.”

Colón received the Latin Grammys Musical Achievement Award – a lifetime achievement honor – in 2004.

With nearly 40 albums to his credit, Colón also became known as a prominent social activist who supported the Latin American Commission on AIDS and the United Nations Immigrant Foundation, and served as a board member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.

In 2014, he graduated from a New York police academy and was sworn in as a deputy sheriff for the Department of Public Safety.

Colón is survived by his wife, Julia Craig, whom he married in 1991, and their children.