{"id":14134,"date":"2026-02-22T13:53:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T20:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=14134"},"modified":"2026-04-27T13:56:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T20:56:50","slug":"willie-colon-gone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2026\/02\/22\/willie-colon-gone\/","title":{"rendered":"Willie Col\u00f3n Gone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pastemagazine.com\/music\/willie-colon\/r-i-p-willie-colon-salsa-legend-dead-at-75\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">from Paste<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">R.I.P. Willie Col\u00f3n: Salsa legend dead at 75<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHis music was not just heard; it was lived,\u201d Fania Records shared in a statement.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pastemagazine.com\/author\/matt-mitchell\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Matt Mitchell<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Grandes \u00c9xitos de Willie Colon , salsa vieja, salsa pesada\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/y5tRf-M5vmc?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Innovative composer, vibrant trombonist, bandleader, and salsa visionary Willie Col\u00f3n has died. On social media yesterday (February 21), his family confirmed the news. \u201cIt is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, and renowned musician, Willie Col\u00f3n,\u201d&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WillieColonOnLine\/posts\/pfbid02b8HF8KUKmQoPhvc7fqHBCa4Yh6GkFpK8iGZSMdd5M5wCPPApWXfL2ZQrVDMNCqTAl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">their statement read<\/a>. \u201cHe passed away peacefully this morning, surrounded by his loving family.\u201d Col\u00f3n was 75 years old.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Col\u00f3n\u2019s Puerto Rican grandmother exposed him to Latin sounds at a young age. In the Bronx, he heard guaracha, j\u00edbaro, tango, and Cuban music and, by 1961, he learned the flute, trumpet, and bugle before eventually settling on the trombone. It was Barry Rogers\u2019 playing on Mon Rivera and Joe Cotto\u2019s \u201cDolores\u201d that nudged him in the instrument\u2019s direction. At 15, after gigging at weddings under the stewardship of Rivera, the Fania label signed Col\u00f3n to a record deal. His first album, 1967\u2019s&nbsp;<em>El Malo<\/em>, sold over 300,000 copies, and Col\u00f3n later&nbsp; became one of the best-selling salsa artists of all time. His work combined funk, jazz, R&amp;B, Latin rhythms, and the political teachings of figures like Martin Luther King Jr. together. \u201cIt was rebellious music,\u201d he told the&nbsp;<em>Miami Herald&nbsp;<\/em>20 years ago. \u201cThe music wasn\u2019t explicitly political yet, but the music was a magnet that would bring people together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[ <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pastemagazine.com\/music\/willie-colon\/r-i-p-willie-colon-salsa-legend-dead-at-75\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">click to continue reading at Paste<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>from Paste R.I.P. Willie Col\u00f3n: Salsa legend dead at 75 \u201cHis music was not just heard; it was lived,\u201d Fania Records shared in a statement.&nbsp; By\u00a0Matt Mitchell\u00a0 Innovative composer, vibrant trombonist, bandleader, and salsa visionary Willie Col\u00f3n has died. On social media yesterday (February 21), his family confirmed the news. \u201cIt is with profound sadness [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14135,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14134\/revisions\/14135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}