Willie Colón
The Wounding Trombone
Translated from Pablo Dintrans.
Published 08-31-2004

A  thin youth, often dressed as a gangster, with a wide brim hat and a case that guarded his most lethal weapon: his trombone. That was the image the was printed on the Fania records that immortalized Willie Colón.

This musician-grandson of Puerto Ricans, born in the terrible barrio of The South Bronx, changed the course and meaning of Salsa at the end of the decade of the 60's in New York City. At the age of 16 he started to experiment with the execution of the trombone imprinting a music with a raw sound.

They called him El Malo, music critics would wince at the sharp and very loud sound he would produce from his trombone in an orchestra. Colón accepted the nickname and introduced it into his lyrics as well as his music to the place which he directed his art and his life: the Latin Barrio. In New York City there has been the focus point for a great Puerto Rican migration, on March 17 1917, the U.S. Congress declared Puerto Rico an Unincorporated Territory, converting all Spanish citizens to American citizens.

The soul of the Boricua*, his fears and hopes were reflected in the sound of Salsa, a style that took Cuban son, afropuertorican rhythms like Bomba and Plena and combined them with jazzistic improvisations and arrangement inherited from African American musicians.

Willie Colón was also one of the leaders of the Salsa With Conciseness Movement with Ruben Blades. Their music and lyrics spoke to the feelings and everyday life of Latinos in the big cities.
 

The Gangster image opened the door for enemies of Salsa to criticize and associate it with "sociopaths and prostitutes". For his fans it was the reflection of a hero who would emancipate himself in a hostile, concrete jungle, the land of dream for immigrants.

Today Willie Colón continues composing and fighting for the defense of civil rights in The United States. He continues to compose and play his trombone. In these days he will be recognized by the Latin Academy  of Recording Arts and Sciences (LARAS) for his contribution to Latin American Music. This recognition will also be extended to the Brazilian
Singer Roberto Carlos, and the great Argentine singer and activist Mercedes Sosa.

Willie Colón has known how to interpret the sounds of our cities, he has photographed our streets and has fought for the rights of many Latin Americans that have fixed their destiny to a life in the United States.He has also recorded native rhythms of Puerto Rico like  the Bomba and the Plena, in Spanish like his grandfathers.

* Boricua is the name the Taino Indians gave to the inhabitants of Puerto Rico (Boriken in Taino)