William Anthony Colón, 28 April 1950, Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. Born of Puerto Rican parents, Colón, as a trombonist, singer, composer, producer, arranger and actor, organized his first band in 1964. He made his recording debut as a band leader on a self-produced single released on the Futura label, which was co-founded by Al Santiago. At the age of 17 he became one of the early signings to the young Fania Records label. Starting with his debut El Malo, which contained his first hit, the instrumental ‘Jazzy’, he cultivated a bad guy image that he sustained until the mid-70s. Puerto Rico born Héctor Lavoe, was Colón’s lead singer until 1974. The pianist on Colón’s second and third albums, The Hustler (1968) and Guisando-Doing A Job (1969), was the talented African-American, Mark ‘Markolino’ Dimond, who also wrote a track for each record.
The combination of Colón’s two trombones sound with Héctor’s jibaro (Puerto Rican country) singing style was a smash hit and they continuously played the salsa circuits in New York and Puerto Rico. Although he arrived on the scene during the era of the R&B/Latin fusion form called ‘boogaloo’, Colón built his success on a catalogue of songs, many self-penned or co-written with Lavoe, based on typical Puerto Rican and Cuban rhythms, as well as experimentation with West African, Panamanian, Brazilian and jazz elements. Cosa Nuestra (1970), was the first to go gold, followed by gold record awards for The Big Break - La Gran Fuga (1971), El Juicio (1972) and Lo Mato (1973). He hired Puerto Rican cuatro (small, 10-string guitar) virtuoso, Yomo Toro, for two jibaro-orientated Christmas albums: Asalto Navideño (1971) and Asalto Navideño Vol. 2 (1973), the first was nominated for a Grammy Award.
In 1974 Colón quit the club circuit and turned leadership of his band over to Héctor so that he could concentrate on producing and arranging. He produced Lavoe’s solo debut La Voz (1975) and made The Good, The Bad, The Ugly (1975), on which he shared lead vocals with Héctor and Rubén Blades (a member of Ray Barretto’s band at the time). Colón set up WAC Productions Inc. and in 1975 he collaborated with Mon Rivera, a pioneer of the trombone front-line and one of Willie’s early influences, on There Goes The Neighborhood/Se Chavó El Vecindario. He had already produced three albums by trumpeter, composer, arranger, singer, percussionist Ernie Agosto’s band La Conspiración: La Conspiración (1971), Ernie’s Conspiracy (1972) and Cada Loco Con Su Tema/Different Strokes (1974). A further two Agosto records were released under the WAC Productions banner: Afecto Y Cariño (1976) and Ernie’s Journey (1979), the latter was produced by Ernie. Colón produced an additional five albums by Héctor; wrote, arranged and produced the salsa ballet television film and soundtrack El Baquiné De Angelitos Negros (Chant Of The Black Angels) in 1977; produced the gold record winning two-volume concept Maestra Vida (1980) by Blades and produced Caribe (1982) by Venezuelan singer Soledad Bravo, which went double gold. Colón first met Rubén in Panama.
When they met again, years later, in a Bronx club, Blades (who was yet to join Barretto’s band) was dispirited and considering returning to Panama. Colón informed Fania boss, Jerry Masucci, of his ambition to record with Rubén, but a few years had to elapse before they were both free to work together. Metiendo Mano! was their first collaboration, in what proved to be, a highly successful series between 1977 and 1982. Colón also teamed up with legendary Cuban vocalist, Celia Cruz, to make three albums: Only They Could Have Made This Album (1977), Celia Y Willie (1981), which both went gold, and The Winners (1987).
Encouraged by the massive success of his second record with Rubén, Siembre (1978), Colón realized another ambition: the release of Solo (1979) on which he sang all lead vocals. The album, which went gold within three weeks of its release, was described as ‘deliriously over-produced’ and was largely to blame for a spate of salsa albums with obligatory grafted string orchestrations. The same year, he broke all the box office records at the Poliedro Stadium, Caracas, Venezuela. Fantasmas (1981), Colón’s second solo project as a lead singer, was his biggest seller to date, went platinum and won him ACE awards for Singer Of The Year and Album Of The Year. Colón’s penultimate collaboration with Blades, Canciones Del Solar De Los Aburridos (1981), was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1983. The previous year he had starred with Rubén in Jerry Masucci’s movie, The Last Fight, and released an album of the same title with Blades. He acted in the film, Vigilante, and shared lead vocals with Héctor Lavoe on the 1983 album of the same name.
Blades and Colón had formed an alliance to challenge Fania’s alleged non-payment of royalties. Blades hired an entertainment lawyer who managed to secure belated and incomplete payments for the two artists. From 1984, Colón began label-hopping. He signed to RCA Records International for Criollo, then switched to Sonotone for Especial No. 5 (1986). Meanwhile he released two English language fusion 12-inch singles: ‘Set Fire To Me’ (1986), a UK club hit and ‘She Don’t Know I’m Alive’ (1987) on A&M Records. He returned to Fania in 1989 for the distribution of Top Secrets, which was a Top 10 hit in the Billboard tropical/salsa chart and described as ‘... typically satisfying as a dance album as well as a virtuoso piece, full of the complexity that has made him salsa’s most restless and protean artist’ (quote from Enrique Fernández in Village Voice). He signed a long term contract with CBS Records in late 1989 and released American Color, which was nominated for a Grammy in 1991. He was a founder member of Fania All Stars in 1968 and recorded with them up to 1988. He made his UK debut with Fania All Stars in 1976 and, so far, his only solo UK appearance was in 1986. In 1991, Colón received a Chubb Fellowship from Yale University, which involved him delivering a lecture titled ‘Salsa: A Socio-Political Perspective’. He was the first US-born Puerto Rican descendent to receive the honour.
Source: http://www.oldies.com/artist-biography/Willie-Colon.html
