The salsa icon and Nuyorican pioneer’s bold trombone sound and landmark collaborations helped define a generation of Latin music.

The music that the world now knows as salsa would probably not exist if not for the vision of Willie Colón. While Eddie Palmieri’s La Perfecta had been plying the two-trombone sound for years, Colón ...

His career spanned 60 years and dozens of albums and had been named among the most influential Latino artists of all time.

A trombonist, singer, bandleader, composer and arranger, he collaborated with Rubén Blades on “Siembra,” a 1978 release that ...