<\/p>\n
\n \n American salsa legend Willie Col\u00f3n, the pioneering trombonist, vocalist and composer, died on Saturday at age 75, his family said in a statement.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWhile we grieve his absence, we also rejoice in the timeless gift of his music and the cherished memories he created that will live on forever,\u201d the family said on Colon\u2019s Facebook page.\n <\/p>\n \n The cause of death was not disclosed.\n <\/p>\n \n Born in the Bronx to Puerto Rican parents, Col\u00f3n recorded dozens of albums including La Gran Fuga (The Big Break) in 1970 and El Juicio in 1972, according to Fania Records, a label that promoted salsa music.\n <\/p>\n \n He signed with Fania at age 15 and two years later, in 1967, released his first album El Malo, which has sold more than 300,000 copies, according to his biography on the LA Philharmonic website.\n <\/p>\n \n Col\u00f3n\u2019s music combined elements of jazz, rock and salsa, incorporating the rhythms of traditional music from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Brazil, and Africa, the biography said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cA significant overarching theme in Col\u00f3n\u2019s music\u2014which draws from many cultures and several different styles\u2014is an exploration of the competing associations that Puerto Ricans have with their home and with the United States,\u201d it said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cHe uses his songs to depict and investigate the problems of living in the U.S. as a Puerto Rican and also to imply the cultural contributions that Puerto Ricans have to offer.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n In 2004, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.\n <\/p>\n \n A longtime social activist, Col\u00f3n was a member of the Latino Commission on AIDS and the United Nations Immigrant Foundation and was a board member at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, according to the biography.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.celebrity.land.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Reuters \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 American salsa legend Willie Col\u00f3n, the pioneering trombonist, vocalist and composer, died on Saturday at age 75, his family said in a statement. \u201cWhile we grieve his absence, we also rejoice in the timeless gift of his music and the cherished memories he created that will live on forever,\u201d the family said on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2293110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2293109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Willie-Colon-American-salsa-legend-and-pioneering-trombonist-dies-at.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2293109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2293109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2293109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2293111,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2293109\/revisions\/2293111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2293110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2293109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2293109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2293109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\n Reuters<\/span>
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0
\n <\/cite>\n<\/p>\n