Willie Colon

Trombonist, composer, and bandleader Willie Colón ranks among the foundational figures in Latin American music while maintaining a prominent role as a social and political activist. Although it initially drew criticism, his album El Malo stood among the earliest releases to embody the "New York Sound," which helped revive widespread attention to Latin music throughout the 1970s. Colón played a decisive part in shaping the paths of Latin artists including Hector Lavoe—who performed as lead singer in his ensemble from the late '60s into the mid-'70s and thereby established an enduring model for New York salsa—alongside Rubén Blades and Celia Cruz. He also produced recordings by Ismael Miranda, Sophy, and Soledad Bravo. Beyond eleven Grammy nominations and a single Grammy win, Colón earned a CHUBB fellowship from Yale University, the highest honor conferred by that Ivy League institution. The Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences presented him with its Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award. Actor John Ortiz depicted him in the Hector Lavoe biographical film El Cantate, which featured Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez in starring roles. During 2006 he delivered his final Fania release, Legal Alien: Top Secrets/Altos Secretos. Two years afterward, his debut on Sonographica, El Malo, Vol. 2: Prisioneros del Mambo, reached the public. William Anthony Colón Román entered the world in New York’s South Bronx to parents born in the United States yet of Puerto Rican lineage, identifying unequivocally as a Nuyorican. Music surrounded him from childhood, yet his initial structured training centered on trumpet at age twelve, followed by a switch to trombone two years later. He entered the studio for the first time at fifteen in 1967 on Al Santiago’s Futura imprint, only to face setback when the company ceased operations. Greater fortune arrived once he joined Johnny Pacheco’s Fania roster; after Pacheco’s scheduled singer missed the initial date, the label head proposed Hector Lavoe as substitute. That partnership yielded immediate results, as the singles “Jazzy” and “I Wish I Had a Watermelon” from his opening pair of albums, El Malo and Guisando, achieved commercial success. Lavoe stayed integral to the group until the mid-'70s, when mounting drug dependency led him to skip or arrive tardily at multiple performances. Though their formal alliance concluded in 1975, Colón and Lavoe sustained occasional joint work, culminating in Colón’s production of Lavoe’s final album, Strikes Back, issued in 1987.

During 1975 Colón maintained leadership of the Latin Jazz All-Stars while pursuing coursework in music theory, composition, and orchestration. The added expertise produced swift dividends: in 1978 a readers’ poll by Latin New York named him Musician, Producer, and Trombone Player of the Year. That same year his adaptation of a Ghanaian children’s song, “Che Che Cole,” was incorporated by Ntozake Shange into the stage work For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf. Three years later Latin New York again honored him as Musician of the Year, and his album Fantasmas was selected Album of the Year. Further recognition followed when Canciones del Solar de los Aburridos received a Grammy in 1982.

Although they first crossed paths backstage at a Panama concert in 1969, Colón and Blades began sustained collaboration only six years afterward. While preparing The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, Colón selected Blades’ composition “El Cazanguero,” drawn from the songwriter’s observations as a law student inside a Panamanian prison, and invited him to perform the vocal. The outcome proved so rewarding that Blades joined Colón’s band full-time in Lavoe’s place. Their 1978 album Siembra became Fania’s highest-selling title. Success notwithstanding, Blades repeatedly clashed with label president Jerry Mascucci over compensation. Colón’s solo projects El Baquine de Angelitos Negros (1977) and Solo (1979), together with Blades’ own Maestra Vida (1980), never attained comparable commercial impact.

In 1981 the pair resumed work when Blades contributed coro to Colón’s solo album Fantasmas. The following year they again united on the Grammy-winning Canciones del Solar de los Aburridos, which produced the hit singles “Tiburon,” “Ligia Elena,” and “Te Estan Buscando.” Their alliance dissolved once more after completing the film The Last Fight, leading to an extended period of public discord that ended only with a joint concert at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan during March 1992. Although they later issued Tras la Tormenta in 1995, the two recorded their contributions separately. After another shared appearance at the Hollywood Bowl in 1997, Colón and Blades undertook additional joint performances.

Toward the close of the '80s Colón assembled the ensemble Legal Alien from younger players. Under contract with Sony the group released Color Americano in 1990 and Honra y Cultura in 1991.

Colón entered the 1992 race for the United States Congress, marking the first of several political campaigns. In 2001 he sought the office of Public Advocate of New York City and finished with a respectable showing. He also acted for more than a decade as Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s advisor and liaison to the New York City Latin Media Entertainment Commission. Throughout 2012 and 2013 he employed social media and additional channels to oppose Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, continuing the effort after Chávez’s death against successor Nicolás Maduro.

In 1993 Colón recorded Hecho en Puerto Rico with an all-star ensemble that included former Fania All-Stars members, Papo Lucca, and Bobby Valentin. After departing Sony because of insufficient promotional backing, he sustained an active schedule of stadium and concert-hall appearances across Latin America while issuing fresh material such as Experiencia in 2004, The Player three years later, and El Malo, Vol. 2: Prisioneros del Mambo in 2008. Beginning in 2010, Fania and Get on Down undertook remastering and reissues of his key catalog. Billboard magazine designated him one of the most influential “Latin Artists of All Time” in 2015. His autobiography, Barrio de Guapos (The Secret Life of Willie Colón), appeared in 2018, and he established the imprint Willie Colon Presents.