Urban salsa music pioneer Willie Colón to be remembered at New York funeral
Mar 8, 2026, 9:07 PM | Updated: Mar 9, 2026, 7:00 pm
FILE - Willie Colon plays the trombone while performing the song "La Murga" during a tribute concert in honor of the late salsa music pioneer Hector Lavoe in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Sept. 7, 2007. Colón, considered by many to be the "architect of urban salsa," died Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. He was 75. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton, File)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Andres Leighton, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Family, friends and fans will gather Monday morning in New York to pay tribute to Willie Colón, the Grammy-nominated architect of urban salsa music and social activist who died last month at 75.
A public funeral Mass will be held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in midtown Manhattan, following a weekend of private and public visitations. His burial will be private.
The trombonist, composer, arranger and singer died on Feb. 21. The cause was not publicly announced. His family said on social media that he passed away peacefully surrounded by relatives at a hospital in Westchester County, just north of New York City.
“While we grieve his absence, we also rejoice in the timeless gift of his music and the cherished memories that will live on forever,” his family said in a statement.
Born in New York City’s Bronx borough, Colón produced more than 40 albums that sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and collaborated with a wide variety of artists, including the Fania All Stars, David Byrne and Celia Cruz.
He was nominated for 10 Grammys and one Latin Grammy and was known for songs including “El gran varón,” “Sin poderte hablar,” “Casanova,” “Amor verdad” and “Oh, qué será.”
His manager, Pietro Carlos, wrote on social media that Colón not only changed salsa, but also “expanded it, politicized it, clothed it in urban chronicles, and took it to stages where it hadn’t been heard before.”
Colón was also a community leader who fought for civil rights, mostly in the United States. He further dabbled in politics, serving as a special assistant to New York City Mayors David Dinkins and Michael Bloomberg. In 1994, he lost his challenge to then-U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel in the Democratic primary.
