Willie Colón: 14 Essential Songs and Albums

Willie Colón, the trombonist, singer, bandleader, composer and producer from the Bronx, helped shape the sound now known as salsa. While Eddie Palmieri’s La Perfecta had used two trombones earlier, Colón made the instrument central, giving salsa an ornery, sometimes sarcastic voice that marked the Nuyorican generation’s countercultural moment.

He began leading a “kiddie band” that played bugaloo across the South Bronx, but his career shifted when Johnny Pacheco suggested he team up with Héctor Lavoe. The pair projected a gangster image on their album covers and fused Colón’s R&B and jazz-tinged arrangements with Lavoe’s jíbaro and bolero roots.

Lavoe’s limited English singing helped push Colón away from bugaloo and into the heart of Fania’s 1970s salsa explosion. Lavoe’s erratic lifestyle eventually produced a pseudo-breakup: Colón left his own band while continuing to produce its albums, and Lavoe remained the lead singer.

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