""We've lost an architect of the New York sound," said manager Pietro Carolos."
""Willie didn't just change salsa; he expanded it, politicized it, clothed it in urban chronicles and took it to stages where it hadn't been heard before.""
""I came from a really tough neighborhood," he once told music publication Billboard. "My father spent time in jail. Almost everybody went to jail... there was a lot of interaction between us and the police.""
Willie Colon, born William Anthony Colon Roman in 1950 in the Bronx, died peacefully on February 21 at age 75; no cause of death was given. He rose to prominence as a trombonist, bandleader, and producer who blended Puerto Rican musical traditions with New York jazz and expanded salsa's reach. He led a band by age 15 and released an album at 17, recorded hits with Hector Lavoe, and co-created the politically minded 1978 album Siembra with Ruben Blades. He continued performing through 2025 and was name-checked in Bad Bunny's 2025 hit "Nueva Yol."
Read at Le Monde.fr
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