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Willie Col\u00f3n, a trombonist, bandleader, composer, and key architect of salsa music, has died. His family confirmed the news via social media<\/a> on February 21; although they did not share a cause of death, they wrote that Col\u00f3n \u201cpassed away peacefully\u201d surrounded by love ones. Col\u00f3n was 75.<\/p>\n Born in 1950 in The Bronx, Col\u00f3n was raised by his Puerto Rican grandmother, who introduced him early on to an array of Latin sounds, from Cuban son to guaracha to j\u00edbaro to tango. By age 11, he\u2019d begun making his own music, learning flute, bugle, and trumpet before finally landing on trombone. He first fell in love with the instrument hearing Barry Rogers play it on Mon Rivera and Joe Cotto\u2019s \u201cDolores.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt sounded like an elephant, a lion … an animal,\u201d Col\u00f3n told the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo<\/em> in 2011. \u201cSomething so different that, as soon as I heard it, I said to myself: \u2018I want to play that instrument.\u2019\u201d He cut his teeth playing at weddings and shadowing Rivera, who would become his mentor, at nightclub shows around the city. Col\u00f3n eventually signed with Fania Records<\/a> in 1967, at age 17.<\/p>\n At the label, Col\u00f3n proved essential in developing the then-nascent sound of salsa, which fused traditional Latin rhythms with funk, jazz, and R&B and coursed with distinct activist undertones. \u201cIt was rebellious music,\u201d Col\u00f3n told the Miami Herald<\/em> in 2006. \u201cWe were watching Martin Luther King walking into Selma and the dogs and water cannons. The music wasn\u2019t explicitly political yet, but the music was a magnet that would bring people together.\u201d<\/p>\n Col\u00f3n\u2019s first album, 1967\u2019s El Malo,<\/em> paired him with vocalist H\u00e9ctor Lavoe; the duo would collaborate on many more records over the years, including Cosa Nuestra<\/em> (1970), Crime Pays<\/em> (1972), and Lo Mato<\/em> (1973). Across his decades-long career, Col\u00f3n released more than 40 albums and earned an 11 combined Grammy and Latin Grammy nominations. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Latin Recording Academy in 2004, and joined the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2019.<\/p>\n During his life, Col\u00f3n also fostered fruitful partnerships with Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, David Byrne, and Rub\u00e9n Blades. Col\u00f3n and Blades\u2019 1978 album Siembra<\/em>\u2014which featured the \u201cMack the Knife\u201d-inspired \u201cPedro Navaja\u201d\u2014is widely considered a masterpiece, and remained the best-selling Latin album in history for decades after its release. Col\u00f3n and Blades also partnered on records like 1981\u2019s Canciones del Solar de los Aburridos<\/em>, but stopped regularly collaborating after a financial dispute in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n Col\u00f3n\u2019s career did not begin and end with music. He was involved in politics, running in a 1994 Democratic primary for a U.S. House seat representing the Bronx and lower Westchester County. In 2004, he worked with Mayor Michael Bloomberg\u2019s administration, serving as a liason between City Hall and New York\u2019s Latin Media and Entertainment Commission. He also appeared in the films Vigilante<\/em>, The Last Fight,<\/em> and It Could Happen to You;<\/em> the TV shows Miami Vice<\/em> and Demasiado Coraz\u00f3n<\/em>; and, more recently, Bad Bunny<\/a>\u2019s music video for \u201cNuevaYol.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n Later in life, Col\u00f3n became interested in the evolving reggaeton scene in his city, pointing out parallels between the genre\u2019s emergence and the birth of salsa. \u201cIt might have been said about some reggaeton beats that it\u2019s wrong \u2014 you can\u2019t do this,\u201d he told the Miami Herald<\/em> in 2006. \u201cBut if it feels good musically, you do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n