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Willie Colón, the Grammy-nominated architect of city salsa music and social activist, died Saturday. He was 75.
Over his decades-long profession, the trombonist, composer, arranger and singer produced greater than 40 albums that bought greater than 30 million copies worldwide.
He collaborated with a variety of artists, together with the Fania All Stars, David Byrne and Celia Cruz.
His celebrated collaboration with Rubén Blades, “Siembra,” turned one of many bestselling salsa albums of all time, and the pair have been recognized for addressing social points by way of the style.
Colón’s household and supervisor confirmed his loss of life by way of social media posts.
“Willie didn’t simply change salsa; he expanded it, politicized it, clothed it in city chronicles, and took it to levels the place it hadn’t been heard earlier than,” supervisor Pietro Carlos wrote. “His trombone was the voice of the folks, an echo of the Caribbean in New York, a bridge between two cultures.”
Colón, who was nominated for 10 Grammys and one Latin Grammy, made well-known songs comparable to “El gran varón,” “Sin poderte hablar,” “Casanova,” “Amor verdad” and “Oh, qué será.”
Blades stated on the social platform X that he confirmed “what I used to be reluctant to consider” and supplied his condolences to Colón’s household.
The trail to the trombone — and fame
Born in New York’s Bronx borough, Colón was raised by his grandmother and aunt, who from a younger age nurtured him with conventional Puerto Rican music and the standard rhythms of the Latin American repertoire, together with Cuban son and tango.
At age 11 he ventured into the world of music, first with flute, then bugle, trumpet and eventually trombone, with which he stood out within the then-nascent style of salsa.
His curiosity in trombone arose after listening to Barry Rogers taking part in it on “Dolores,” Mon Rivera’s track with Joe Cotto.
“It appeared like an elephant, a lion … an animal. One thing so totally different that, as quickly as I heard it, I stated to myself: ‘I wish to play that instrument,’” he recalled in an interview revealed within the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo in 2011.
At 17, he joined the group of artists that shaped the well-known document label Fania Information, led and created by Jerry Masucci and Johnny Pacheco.
Fania was largely chargeable for the brand new sound that was produced within the Latin world of New York and would later be known as “salsa.”
Colón’s principal attribute as a musician was the fusion of rhythms, as he harmonized jazz, rock, funk, soul and R&B with the previous Latin faculty of Cuban son, cha-cha-cha, mambo and guaracha, including the nostalgia of the normal Puerto Rican sound that encompasses jíbara, bomba and plena music.
In 2004 the Latin Recording Academy awarded Colón a particular Grammy for his profession and contributions to music.
Group chief and activist
As a group chief, Colón fought for civil rights, largely in the US. He was a part of the Hispanic Arts Affiliation, the Latino Fee on AIDS, the Arthur Schomburg Coalition for a Higher New York and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, amongst others.
In 1991 he was honored with the Chubb fellowship from Yale College, a public service recognition additionally awarded to the likes of John F. Kennedy, Moshe Dayan, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Ronald Reagan, amongst others.
Within the political enviornment, he served as particular assistant to David Dinkins, New York’s first Black mayor, and was later appointed particular assistant and adviser to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Colón had little luck working for public workplace himself, nonetheless. He failed in a problem to then-U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel within the 1994 Democratic major, and in 2001 got here in third within the Democratic major for New York’s public advocate.
He backed Hillary Clinton’s presidential marketing campaign in 2008, however he instructed the Observer that he voted for Donald Trump in 2016.
Colón had public clashes with artists and politicians. His friendship with Blades ruptured after Colón sued for breach of contract over the 2003 live performance “Siembra … 25 years later,” held in Puerto Rico.
He additionally sparked an argument when he known as the then-president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, “rotten” on a social community.
Colón acted in movies comparable to “Vigilante,” “The Final Combat” and “It May Occur to You,” and on TV in “Miami Vice” and “Demasiado Corazón.” Extra not too long ago he appeared in Unhealthy Bunny’s music video for “NuevaYol.”
He’s survived by his spouse and 4 sons.
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