October 9, 2024 • 28 mins
In this episode of Becoming an Icon, we dive into one of Latin music’s most legendary partnerships: it’s time for the Bad Boys. We’ll explore the unforgettable music shared between Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe, only to confront the heartbreaking effects of their separation. But the fallout didn’t stop Colón’s rise—collaborations with Celia Cruz and Rubén Blades were just around the corner.
Lilliana Vazquez and Joseph Carrillo are the hosts of Becoming An Icon with production support by Nick Milanes, Santiago Sierra, Rodrigo Crespo, Evelyn Uribe and Edgar Esteban of Sonoro Media in partnership with iHeart Radio's My Cultura Podcast network.
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Follow Lilliana Vazquez on Instagram and Twitter @lillianavazquez
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
I've got a spicy question to kick us off today.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Oh I love spicy. Give me them school bos.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Okay, as besties, what is the biggest fight that you
and I have had that we're willing to share publicly?
We're recording, remember this is a podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I can tell you the biggest fight we've had that
I'm willing to talk about on the mike.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
That was not the question. I think the biggest fight
we've ever gotten into is what do you define as
orange on a lip? I define as orange on a yeah, yes, yes,
you're right.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
It's are our fights, you know, because we really do
get along and we actually know how to communicate as friends.
But I feel like our fights are definitely make up related,
like your eyeliner placement and you want it longer and thicker.
And if this is red, then what's orange? Our quotes
I've heard you say so, yeah, it's lipstick, it's lipstick.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
In line of grass, I will say that we are
both perfectionist when it comes to our craft, and even
though Joseph is technically the expert at makeup and skincare,
I do consider myself an elevated applicator. You are you
know what you are and I'm pretty good at doing makeup.
We end up.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Collabing really well because you usually just give in exactly.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Joseph. When we do get in a fight, which is
rare and usually about stupid shit like what color lipstick
I want to wear on TV that day? How would
you describe yourself in a sight? Are you the aggressor
do you retreat?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
You know, I guess when I'm really in the moment,
it's my ego talking and I've just determined what I'm
going to use, right, because I feel like we're really
good communicators. I feel like after I've just kind of
settled down and you're just kind of like, I know
what you're saying, and it's in this light and blah
blah blah, I can kind of see the bigger picture,
and I don't admit defeat because then I will understand
(02:04):
what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Now, I'm just trying to convince you to wear what
I want. Yeah, I was it. You definitely do not.
To somebody that doesn't know you, it would appear that
you are backing down, but you're actually not. You're like string,
You're only strengthening your position, right, And then you're doing
like some kind of weird circumventing to get me to
believe what you said is right, and then I think
(02:26):
I'm actually right. But no, you guys, it was just
Joseph all along. Yeah, it was like some might call
that gas lighting.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
I'm a beauty gas lighter. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
One hundred percent. Anyway, the reason we're digging up old
graves here isn't for any nefarious purposes.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Oh no, that's a wrong kind of spicy ew I said,
nefarious purposes.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Anyway. The point is besties we fight. I mean, sometimes
we just get on each other's nerves.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
And sometimes you get so close that when you do
butt heads it becomes life or death.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
And when we last left Wrikolon, he found not just
a front man for his Latin jazz orchestra.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
But something of an artistic soulmate, h the Nikki Jam
to his daddy Yankee.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Exactly, and together they would release nine full length albums
over six years. Basically, they were the secret Sauce to
Funya success, ushering in the age of Salsa.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
But sometimes when you change the game, you end up
wanting to be the only.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Player, especially when the game gets to your teammate's head.
Today we're taking a look at how Willie and Hector
redefined Latin music before going their separate ways.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
We better not separate, which we're for Eva, We're bad
girls for life.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I'm your host Lillianavoskar and I'm Joseph Carrio and this
is Becoming an Icon a weekly podcast where we give
you the rundown on how today's most famous latinv stars
have shaped pop culture and given the world some extra level.
Sit back and get comfortable.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Because we are going in the only way we know how,
with Buenas, Bibas.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Junasriesas, some and a lot of opinions as we relive
their greatest achievements on our journey to find out what
makes them so iconic. Hector Martinez knew he would end
(04:44):
up being kind of a big deal. He was born
in Ones in nineteen forty six to a very musical family.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
His mother sang, his uncle played the trece, his father
sang and played guitar, and big fans his grandfather saying
controversial protests.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
His father was a mechanic, His father was a mechanic.
His father's sister was a mechanic. Like when Hector cried
as a baby. He did it in key, so no surprise.
When he was a teenager, his music teacher could tell
he had what it takes and took him under his wing.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Teach taught him the meaning of stage presence, and by
age seventeen, Hector had ditched school and was singing in
a ten piece band.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
In nineteen sixty three, he and the band chased their
dreams to New York, where mambo mania was still in
full effect. That's where he met Willie Colonne at the
Ponces Social Club, named for the very city Hector hailed from,
and after joining the band and signing to Fania Records,
Hector dond his stage name Hector Lovo, a play on lavos.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Labo you know that Puerto Rican Spanish where you leave
off to the ends of the words like labo labos.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Y'all, I heard you saying weeppa in episode one. You're
one of us now. And by the way, we are
not the only people that do that, but yes, one
hundred percent, that is totally why.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
So Lavon Polonne formed a duo. Levo brought lavos and
Cologne brought danois.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Or at least that's how the old guard of Latin
jazz felt about the duo's music. AKA. While most Latin
jazz orchestras up until that point were more or less
purest Gologne took the jazz part to its logical conclusion.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
He kept things modern and mixed little bits of rock,
funk and soul and R and B into his band's.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Repertoire, along with distinctly Puerto Rican sounds such as Kibara,
bomba and Lena.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
There was still plenty to satisfy long time Latin jazz listeners,
but mambo Mania pretty much got killed by Beatlemania. Case
in point, the legendary Palladium Ballroom closed that year after
losing its liquor.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
License, which meant it was time for something new, and
with their fusion approach to Latin jazz, Willi and Hector
established themselves decisively as the next generation of Latin musicians
in the United States.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Starting with nineteen sixty seven's e La Malo and nineteen
sixty eights The Hustler.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
These albums did two things right away.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
First, they debuted the duo's mafioso steeze.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I highly encourage you guys to look up these covers online.
We're looking at the pictures right now, and on first
glance you're like, wait a second, what is this? Is
this like a mafia Godfather gone Puerto Rican?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Wait?
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Do you know what? We need? This?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Me and you red shurtleneck, black blazers. We're going that's it.
This is our new becoming an icon season three cover.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Or we should just go dressed as weely go On
and Hector Levau for Halloween. Shut your butt, that's what
we're doing. It's very, very good.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
So the cover for Hustler has Wheeli, Hector and members
of the band crowded around this pool table and dapper suits.
It looks like they're maybe so Frank Sinatra. It's very
the god Okay, Godfather, Yeah, it's very Godfather. They're holding
SIGs maybe Wait is that a lot of cash? It is?
(08:08):
I think they're betting. All bets are on here. So
these cover looks are iconic. But the second defining feature
of these albums was Boogloo, a precursor to salsa and
the direct results of that fusion approach that Willy brought
to the table.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Boogleoo combined the call and response vocals of Cuban Son
with the harder, faster rhythms of soul.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Example, I like it like that. In Layman's terms, it
was easy to sing along to and even better, easy
to dance to, which is exactly what you want to
set off a dance craze.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
And just for a minute, that's exactly what Boogleloo did.
The genre formed common ground between Latino and Black American
club goers in the sixties, giving the old guard of
Latin jazz a run for their money.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
So much so that, rumor has it, the old heads
tried to keep boogaloo down as the style and the
younger musicians playing it started to crowd out the mambo bands.
Those old Latin artists supposedly pressured booking agents and promoters
to blacklist the younger bands from music venues. Why do
old people hate young people so much, you know what?
(09:19):
Because it enforces change. And ultimately Boogoloo was short lived,
but Willie and Hector and Fania along with them, rode
the boololo wave to chart climbing success. Despite being virtual unknowns,
these first two records sold big.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
And with their next album, nineteen sixty nine Guisandro, they
heralded the coming of Salza.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Now we've talked about what makes salsa salsa on the
show before back in our Celia Cruz Trio. Celia Cruz
herself said, salsa is Cuban music with another name. It's mambo, chacacha,
rumba son all the Cuban rhythms under one name.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
People have also argued over whether satsa actually describes a
genre or if it's just a marketing term.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Oh my god, I was so young back then.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
In April of this year twenty twenty four has been
long bitch, I.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Could not agree more so anyway, og Sansa is musically
not so far off from the Latin jazz that came before.
That's why elder statespersons of Latin music like Diepo and
Celia Cruz could slot so easily into the salsa revolution.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
But there's one thing that sets satsa apart from the
crowd pleasing big bands of Latin jazz. Yester years attitude
grit category is street life realness.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Ooh, I want to see what you come up with
for that. The Latin jazz of the post war years
was all glitz and glamour, not unlike a Havannah nightclub.
But Salza she was from the streets. The Puerto Rican
music journalist Jamie Torres writes this the Colonna valduo outlined
a sound of their own, a revolutionary salta in which
(11:14):
the smell of garbage accumulated in the corner of the ghetto,
the aroma of marijuana captivating damn like sounds like my house.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
He also wrote that you could hear the screams of
naked children in the alley, sex workers clapping back at
their pimps, and the wish for happiness among the Bourrigua diaspora.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
If you listen to our episode on Los Digres del Norte,
there's actually a bit of similarity with Corridos. Many of
Willy and Hector's songs were just stories about what was
going on around them. Like the title track of Guisando.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Hector sings about a pickpocket named Vincent who sticks his
hand in a purse and finds not a wallet but
a mouse trap, and Hector basically tells him, you're doing amazing, sweetie.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
He sings, keep sticking your hand where it doesn't belong,
and who knows what you'll find next. It's very sassy,
and they get just as real on Noma. Then Candela
a song about neighborhood gossip and the evil eye child.
Did you grow up hearing about El Maldeo?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think like everyone well I don't
know everyone knew that, but yes, and Maldo Woe people
would wear evil eyes like all that good stuff.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
It does go to show you how connected Really and
Hector were to the culture of New York and that
connection would deepen over four more albums, Go Sandestra, Why
are you going to Have? Saw Christmas? La Grande Fuga,
and El Huisio. They also kept up the Mafioso Steve.
Let's talk about these covers. These covers are giving straight
(12:52):
up criminal, maybe organized criminal, but criminal. Nonetheless, Joseph has
nothing to say for the first time in his life.
That's the assault on Christmas album cover. Just we're not
going to talk about that. That is just hilarious. I
(13:13):
will say I am in love with some of the
font choices here because obviously what's old is now new
and like you could make some money on Canva with
these font choices.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Yes, but also you know what, the one, the super
Mafioso one, I mean that kind of looks like a
Tom Ford campaign.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
The one where he's basically holding up what looks like
a bag that would hold over yeah with go sanuestra.
You guys, he's literally standing under what is the Brooklyn Bridge?
I'm not sure. It looks like a bridge in New York.
Let's just call it a Brooklyn bridge. He looks like
he's standing under a bridge with a body that he
just pulled out from the East River.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
And then about we're about to throw down because there's
a weight and you see that.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Oh shit, he's about to throw that motherfucker in the river.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, what kind of message were they sending? Do not
come for us unless we send for that ass.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Willi and Hector were the biggest names in salsa, which
made it all the more shocking when they decided to
go their separate ways. After a string of genre defining albums,
(14:27):
Willi and Hector released nineteen seventy three's Lomato, their eighth
album as a duo and their fourth album to reach
gold certification.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
By this record, everything had fallen into place musically. Hector's
vocals were living up to his stage name. On record
and on stage, he was playful, acrobatic, and unmistakable.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
The same could be said of released trombone playing, he
could lay down distinctive hooks like the iconic horn line
on La Murga and find the perfect way for different
styles of salsa music to fold into a each other.
And whereas Boogaloo ended up being a passing craze, Sadza
had become an undisputed force in Latin music.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
But between Willie and Hector things were turning sour, and
you could hear it on the record. The Bad Boys
always had some dark lyrics, but the backstreet tales on
Lomato were a little less playful and a little more grim.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Whereas Guisando told a tale of come up ins for
a petty thief, Gaye Luna Gaya Sol presented the barrio
as a place where no one lives peacefully, where you
have to watch your words and keep your eyes ahead
to keep your life fun. Fact, this wasn't a song
about New York, but about two streets in La Perla,
the same poor neighborhood in San Juan, where a little
(15:46):
under two decades later, Puerto Rican b Regaton would hatch
at a little club called The Noise.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
These parallels are wild, y'all, But let's talk about the
album cover Willie's holding a sleepy Yehito at gunpoint. The
full title says, I'll kill him if you don't buy
this record.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
The story here is that this is actually a reference
to a famous National Lampoon magazine cover where a dog
is held at gunpoint. If you don't buy this magazine,
We'll kill this dog. And they say comedy doesn't a twelve.
I mean all of this shit is dark. Yeah right.
The album is dark, The comedy is dark, the magazine
cover is dark. But perhaps the most revealing track on
(16:28):
it might be Dodo piennes sufinad. Everything has its ending.
The lyrics describe a wilting carnation, a world champion losing
that which is dear to him, personal loss, and personal attacks.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Everything has its ending, and the Bad Boys partnership was
about to end in bad blood.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Since the day Willie met him, Hector Levau had been
a playful, somewhat childlike person, maybe even a little immature,
some might say. And in the music business of the seventies,
let alone just New York in the seventies, a person
like Hector, he.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Didn't stand a chance. As coke became the drug of choice,
both on the streets and behind the closed doors of
the record label offices, Hector fell into the trap.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Addiction turned the playful singer with whom Willy had formed
a close bond into a hostile, unpredictable person.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
You could kind of see it from the jump, the
whole oh you don't want me to join the band thing.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
But the drugs amplified all of Hector's worst qualities. According
to Willy, quote he didn't want the party to end.
He wanted to go on and on and on and on,
quote unquote. Friends started arriving with gifts, saying try this,
try that.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Not that Willy abstained completely. This is el Malow we're
talking about. But some people just can't say no. And
Hector was one of those people.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
And by nineteen seventy four, Hector no showed at several concerts,
were pissed and sober. Concert promoters, many of whom had
direct connections with the mob.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Those good fellow ass record covers weren't just for Steeze.
The music biz had mafiosos up plenty, and if you
lost them money, they'd make sure you lost something of.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Yours, anything from a prize belonging to a loved one
to a limb and what's more, the music was suffering.
Hector couldn't be counted on to show up to rehearsals.
Willy rehearsed with the orchestra on his own, and when
Hector showed up to record, they just went with the
first take and hurried him out.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Real talk, though it says a lot that he could
just nail the first take and move.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
On absolutely, and that's probably why Willy and Hector managed
to continue on as long as they did. His talent
was second to none, but his absence from concerts was
a straw that ultimately broke the camel's back.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Because the mafia probably threatened to break Willie's back.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
That and the fans were happy, and so was everyone
who worked with him. Hector and Willie would co build
just one more album, nineteen seventy five's The Good, the
Bad and the Ugly.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
And as we learned with Daddy Yankee, just because you
got in the booth to lay down vocals, doesn't mean
you were in the same room with.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
The other guy, right. And as Willy expanded his footprint
as a producer over the seventies, he would still produce
Hector's albums to great sonic and commercial success, but personally
he kept his distance. Still, Willy had sympathy for Hector
decades later, in two thousand and six, when the much
hated Hector level biopic El Cantante dropped, starring j Loo
(19:38):
and Mark Anthony, Willi would say the real story of
the film would have been Hector fighting with his charisma
and talent against the obstacles of an industry that takes
advantage of the artist. Instead, they made another movie about
two Puerto Rican drug addicts. Oh shit, I know that
people don't like this movie. No, I know, yes, people
(20:00):
pay in the movie. They don't like the movie. I
actually enjoyed Alan. I might be the only person on
the planet that rented it or whatever, bought it on demand.
I watched it over the pandemic. Funny enough, I was
very bored, and I watched it again and I thought
it was really good. Patrick my husband could not sit
through it. He was like, no, no, no, no, this is awful.
(20:22):
But I really liked it. And it was very much
you know, art imitating life imitating art imitating life. Situation
with Jylo and Mark Anthony in it. She's also good
in it. Girl who she No, don't don't she's good
in it.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
I have known you to be a lot of things,
but a liar. You are not a mena.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
I'm not a Menidos, but I am a stan whatever whatever.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
But actually I would tell you this, I would like
to have seen the story of Hector, like against the
obstacles of the industry, you know, I would have liked
to see that, because that really is you need to
go through those challenges and you know, like highlighting the
drug aspect, like yeah, that was a big part of it,
but there was just so much more.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Totally. It is not easy to exist and grow up
in the music industry in any decade. Every every decade
has its own devils, right, And for the sixties and
seventies when they were growing up, it was drugs and mafia,
and that was kind of the end for that. You know.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
I just wonder, like, how can you distance yourself from
a friend or collaborator and still like how can you
still work with someone and still care about them?
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Okay, so let's pretend we're in a therapy session. If
you were telling me about an abusive boyfriend. Damien. His
name is not dam I e n. He lives at
eighty seven Park Place, New York, New York. That's a
fake address, by the way. What I'm saying is how
(21:51):
I think you have to do it for yourself, right,
I think you say listen, like, I'm on my own game.
I can't bring all this chaos and catastroph into my
own life. It's what does my therapist tell me, Not
your problem to fix. Yeah, somebody's mad at you. You
take accountability for whatever you did, but it is not
your problem to fix how they feel about you. It
(22:12):
is your problem to work on yourself and accept accountability.
So I think that's how you do it. You and
with some people they just got to go. Like I
do believe in that too, Like some people just they
get the cut like bye bye.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
It's just, you know, I sometimes think it's just so hard,
especially when you've had to come up with someone like
really you know, they learn so much about each about themselves,
and you know, just leaving that behind, or like having
to leave someone you came up with behind, it's just
so it's your past, it's who you also are.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Yeah, I know, but you know what. Michelle Obama I think,
has a super famous quote about this where even though
they grew up with you came up with you. Not
everybody is ready for the ride, right, Like, not everyone
is ready for the ride. And if you want to
get to where your ultimate success and destination is, not
everyone is in the car. Sorry, you're in my car.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
I know.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Maybe we're in a coop. It's two seeds. That's it.
That's it. So after the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,
the Bad Boys were no more.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Oh but some of Willy Colan's most iconic collaborations were
still ahead.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Far from being lost with that as longtime collaborator, Willie
found a new fire after the Bad Boys parted ways,
and nineteen seventy seven ended up being a big year
for him. The year we went Big Willi Style. Yes,
let's go with that, okay. So the Willy Colon sound
aka a gleeful mix of musical styles and instrumentations from
(23:52):
all over Latin America smushed into the framework of Afro
Cuban rhythms, shall now be referred to as Big Willie Style.
Does that work for you? So happy?
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Nineteen seventy seven the year that Cologne shared the wealth
of his Big Willi Style with a bunch of different
vocalists on the final label.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Resulting in some of the most exciting salsa recordings to
come out of that era. If you listen to our
Celia episodes, you'll remember the audaciously titled only They could
Have made This.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Album, an album where La Rena ditched the classic cavana
big band sound for the smoother, more eclectic styles that
Willy had developed over the decade.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Cologne skills as an arranger and producer empowered Celia to
show a different side of her powerhouse vocals. There were
excursions into samba and Panamanian thambod along with classic bolero,
merengue and more.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
This record was Willy's biggest creative challenge yet, but not
just for musical reasons. He was working with the real
life legends straight from La Isla.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Thematically, so much of Willy Colon's music had dealt with
the relationship between New yorka on the island of Puerto Rico,
a geographic gap more than fifteen hundred miles wide and
for a second generation mainlander like Cologne, several fathoms deep.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Celia, meanwhile, was approaching her second decade of exile following
the nineteen fifty nine Cuban Revolution. These two came from
different worlds, and yet they shared a common feeling of estrangement.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
No surprise then, that these two penn Latinos and estadosunidos
a call for unity among us bound Latinos. Seriously, if
you haven't yet, please go back and listen to our
Celia episodes for more on this incredible movement in the culture.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Celia and Willie would produce three albums together in total.
Not only that, Willi and Celia would come to see
each other as family after send Us passing decades later
in two thousand and three, it was Willie who organized
her massive funeral in NYC.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
But this wasn't the only partnership that Willi formed after
he parted ways with fellow bad boy Hector Leveau.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
After recording one track for nineteen seventy fives to Good
Debat and the Ugly Pannumanian singer Ruben Blades decided to
keep working with Willie.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
He had big shoes to fill after willie string of
albums with Hector, but Rubin and Willie's collaborations would turn
out to be some of both artists defining work.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Between nineteen seventy seven and nineteen eighty two, the two
would release four albums Mentien do Mano, Ciembra, concerne Es,
Sola de los Abrios, and The Last Fight not the
Last One in English the Last Fight.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
These albums are the epitome of salsa dura's socially conscious lyrics.
Because remember nineteen seventy seven. Is it just the year
of Willy Colann's creative zenith. It's also the year of
New York City's lowest point.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
The burning of the South Bronx, citywide blackouts, the Son
of Sam murders, the Apple was rotting, and unities like
Willie's were hit the hardest.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
These albums told it like it was. Ciambra in particular
is a bona fide classic of the genre. The scent
ripples beyond New York and all throughout the Americas, especially
it's standout track, Pedro Navaja.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
The story of a knife wielding killer with a gold
tooth who gets the jump on a call girl, only
for the call girl to pull a gun on him
that you end up killing one another, only for a
beggar to come by and take the knife and pistol
along with two dollars.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Wow. Musically, the song is full of key changes, the
sound of police sirens and an ironic West Side Story
reference out of contacts. The song's refrain La Vida de
da Pressa's basically, life comes at you fast. Sounds like
something your abuela might tell you in a calming type
of way, but in.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
The song, it sounds like a warning. You don't know
what's coming around the next corner.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
And maybe Uruben and Willie didn't know what was coming
when the song got so big across the Americas that
it spawned two feature films and a stage musical, and.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
They sure didn't know the album Cimra would end up
causing it another beef decades later between Willy and a singer.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
But that's next time, y'all. The beef must wait on
the next. Becoming an Icon, Willi Colonne flies solo in
more ways than one. Becoming an Icon is presented by
Sonoo and Iheart's Michael Duda podcast Network. Listen to Becoming
(28:37):
an Icon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
you get your podcast
I've got a spicy question to kick us off today.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Oh I love spicy. Give me them school bos.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Okay, as besties, what is the biggest fight that you
and I have had that we're willing to share publicly?
We're recording, remember this is a podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I can tell you the biggest fight we've had that
I'm willing to talk about on the mike.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
That was not the question. I think the biggest fight
we've ever gotten into is what do you define as
orange on a lip? I define as orange on a yeah, yes, yes,
you're right.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
It's are our fights, you know, because we really do
get along and we actually know how to communicate as friends.
But I feel like our fights are definitely make up related,
like your eyeliner placement and you want it longer and thicker.
And if this is red, then what's orange? Our quotes
I've heard you say so, yeah, it's lipstick, it's lipstick.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
In line of grass, I will say that we are
both perfectionist when it comes to our craft, and even
though Joseph is technically the expert at makeup and skincare,
I do consider myself an elevated applicator. You are you
know what you are and I'm pretty good at doing makeup.
We end up.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Collabing really well because you usually just give in exactly.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Joseph. When we do get in a fight, which is
rare and usually about stupid shit like what color lipstick
I want to wear on TV that day? How would
you describe yourself in a sight? Are you the aggressor
do you retreat?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
You know, I guess when I'm really in the moment,
it's my ego talking and I've just determined what I'm
going to use, right, because I feel like we're really
good communicators. I feel like after I've just kind of
settled down and you're just kind of like, I know
what you're saying, and it's in this light and blah
blah blah, I can kind of see the bigger picture,
and I don't admit defeat because then I will understand
(02:04):
what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Now, I'm just trying to convince you to wear what
I want. Yeah, I was it. You definitely do not.
To somebody that doesn't know you, it would appear that
you are backing down, but you're actually not. You're like string,
You're only strengthening your position, right, And then you're doing
like some kind of weird circumventing to get me to
believe what you said is right, and then I think
(02:26):
I'm actually right. But no, you guys, it was just
Joseph all along. Yeah, it was like some might call
that gas lighting.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
I'm a beauty gas lighter. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
One hundred percent. Anyway, the reason we're digging up old
graves here isn't for any nefarious purposes.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Oh no, that's a wrong kind of spicy ew I said,
nefarious purposes.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Anyway. The point is besties we fight. I mean, sometimes
we just get on each other's nerves.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
And sometimes you get so close that when you do
butt heads it becomes life or death.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
And when we last left Wrikolon, he found not just
a front man for his Latin jazz orchestra.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
But something of an artistic soulmate, h the Nikki Jam
to his daddy Yankee.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Exactly, and together they would release nine full length albums
over six years. Basically, they were the secret Sauce to
Funya success, ushering in the age of Salsa.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
But sometimes when you change the game, you end up
wanting to be the only.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Player, especially when the game gets to your teammate's head.
Today we're taking a look at how Willie and Hector
redefined Latin music before going their separate ways.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
We better not separate, which we're for Eva, We're bad
girls for life.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I'm your host Lillianavoskar and I'm Joseph Carrio and this
is Becoming an Icon a weekly podcast where we give
you the rundown on how today's most famous latinv stars
have shaped pop culture and given the world some extra level.
Sit back and get comfortable.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Because we are going in the only way we know how,
with Buenas, Bibas.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Junasriesas, some and a lot of opinions as we relive
their greatest achievements on our journey to find out what
makes them so iconic. Hector Martinez knew he would end
(04:44):
up being kind of a big deal. He was born
in Ones in nineteen forty six to a very musical family.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
His mother sang, his uncle played the trece, his father
sang and played guitar, and big fans his grandfather saying
controversial protests.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
His father was a mechanic, His father was a mechanic.
His father's sister was a mechanic. Like when Hector cried
as a baby. He did it in key, so no surprise.
When he was a teenager, his music teacher could tell
he had what it takes and took him under his wing.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Teach taught him the meaning of stage presence, and by
age seventeen, Hector had ditched school and was singing in
a ten piece band.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
In nineteen sixty three, he and the band chased their
dreams to New York, where mambo mania was still in
full effect. That's where he met Willie Colonne at the
Ponces Social Club, named for the very city Hector hailed from,
and after joining the band and signing to Fania Records,
Hector dond his stage name Hector Lovo, a play on lavos.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Labo you know that Puerto Rican Spanish where you leave
off to the ends of the words like labo labos.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Y'all, I heard you saying weeppa in episode one. You're
one of us now. And by the way, we are
not the only people that do that, but yes, one
hundred percent, that is totally why.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
So Lavon Polonne formed a duo. Levo brought lavos and
Cologne brought danois.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Or at least that's how the old guard of Latin
jazz felt about the duo's music. AKA. While most Latin
jazz orchestras up until that point were more or less
purest Gologne took the jazz part to its logical conclusion.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
He kept things modern and mixed little bits of rock,
funk and soul and R and B into his band's.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Repertoire, along with distinctly Puerto Rican sounds such as Kibara,
bomba and Lena.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
There was still plenty to satisfy long time Latin jazz listeners,
but mambo Mania pretty much got killed by Beatlemania. Case
in point, the legendary Palladium Ballroom closed that year after
losing its liquor.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
License, which meant it was time for something new, and
with their fusion approach to Latin jazz, Willi and Hector
established themselves decisively as the next generation of Latin musicians
in the United States.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Starting with nineteen sixty seven's e La Malo and nineteen
sixty eights The Hustler.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
These albums did two things right away.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
First, they debuted the duo's mafioso steeze.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I highly encourage you guys to look up these covers online.
We're looking at the pictures right now, and on first
glance you're like, wait a second, what is this? Is
this like a mafia Godfather gone Puerto Rican?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Wait?
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Do you know what? We need? This?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Me and you red shurtleneck, black blazers. We're going that's it.
This is our new becoming an icon season three cover.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Or we should just go dressed as weely go On
and Hector Levau for Halloween. Shut your butt, that's what
we're doing. It's very, very good.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
So the cover for Hustler has Wheeli, Hector and members
of the band crowded around this pool table and dapper suits.
It looks like they're maybe so Frank Sinatra. It's very
the god Okay, Godfather, Yeah, it's very Godfather. They're holding
SIGs maybe Wait is that a lot of cash? It is?
(08:08):
I think they're betting. All bets are on here. So
these cover looks are iconic. But the second defining feature
of these albums was Boogloo, a precursor to salsa and
the direct results of that fusion approach that Willy brought
to the table.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Boogleoo combined the call and response vocals of Cuban Son
with the harder, faster rhythms of soul.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Example, I like it like that. In Layman's terms, it
was easy to sing along to and even better, easy
to dance to, which is exactly what you want to
set off a dance craze.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
And just for a minute, that's exactly what Boogleloo did.
The genre formed common ground between Latino and Black American
club goers in the sixties, giving the old guard of
Latin jazz a run for their money.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
So much so that, rumor has it, the old heads
tried to keep boogaloo down as the style and the
younger musicians playing it started to crowd out the mambo bands.
Those old Latin artists supposedly pressured booking agents and promoters
to blacklist the younger bands from music venues. Why do
old people hate young people so much, you know what?
(09:19):
Because it enforces change. And ultimately Boogoloo was short lived,
but Willie and Hector and Fania along with them, rode
the boololo wave to chart climbing success. Despite being virtual unknowns,
these first two records sold big.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
And with their next album, nineteen sixty nine Guisandro, they
heralded the coming of Salza.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Now we've talked about what makes salsa salsa on the
show before back in our Celia Cruz Trio. Celia Cruz
herself said, salsa is Cuban music with another name. It's mambo, chacacha,
rumba son all the Cuban rhythms under one name.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
People have also argued over whether satsa actually describes a
genre or if it's just a marketing term.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Oh my god, I was so young back then.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
In April of this year twenty twenty four has been
long bitch, I.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Could not agree more so anyway, og Sansa is musically
not so far off from the Latin jazz that came before.
That's why elder statespersons of Latin music like Diepo and
Celia Cruz could slot so easily into the salsa revolution.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
But there's one thing that sets satsa apart from the
crowd pleasing big bands of Latin jazz. Yester years attitude
grit category is street life realness.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Ooh, I want to see what you come up with
for that. The Latin jazz of the post war years
was all glitz and glamour, not unlike a Havannah nightclub.
But Salza she was from the streets. The Puerto Rican
music journalist Jamie Torres writes this the Colonna valduo outlined
a sound of their own, a revolutionary salta in which
(11:14):
the smell of garbage accumulated in the corner of the ghetto,
the aroma of marijuana captivating damn like sounds like my house.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
He also wrote that you could hear the screams of
naked children in the alley, sex workers clapping back at
their pimps, and the wish for happiness among the Bourrigua diaspora.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
If you listen to our episode on Los Digres del Norte,
there's actually a bit of similarity with Corridos. Many of
Willy and Hector's songs were just stories about what was
going on around them. Like the title track of Guisando.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Hector sings about a pickpocket named Vincent who sticks his
hand in a purse and finds not a wallet but
a mouse trap, and Hector basically tells him, you're doing amazing, sweetie.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
He sings, keep sticking your hand where it doesn't belong,
and who knows what you'll find next. It's very sassy,
and they get just as real on Noma. Then Candela
a song about neighborhood gossip and the evil eye child.
Did you grow up hearing about El Maldeo?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think like everyone well I don't
know everyone knew that, but yes, and Maldo Woe people
would wear evil eyes like all that good stuff.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
It does go to show you how connected Really and
Hector were to the culture of New York and that
connection would deepen over four more albums, Go Sandestra, Why
are you going to Have? Saw Christmas? La Grande Fuga,
and El Huisio. They also kept up the Mafioso Steve.
Let's talk about these covers. These covers are giving straight
(12:52):
up criminal, maybe organized criminal, but criminal. Nonetheless, Joseph has
nothing to say for the first time in his life.
That's the assault on Christmas album cover. Just we're not
going to talk about that. That is just hilarious. I
(13:13):
will say I am in love with some of the
font choices here because obviously what's old is now new
and like you could make some money on Canva with
these font choices.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Yes, but also you know what, the one, the super
Mafioso one, I mean that kind of looks like a
Tom Ford campaign.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
The one where he's basically holding up what looks like
a bag that would hold over yeah with go sanuestra.
You guys, he's literally standing under what is the Brooklyn Bridge?
I'm not sure. It looks like a bridge in New York.
Let's just call it a Brooklyn bridge. He looks like
he's standing under a bridge with a body that he
just pulled out from the East River.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
And then about we're about to throw down because there's
a weight and you see that.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Oh shit, he's about to throw that motherfucker in the river.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, what kind of message were they sending? Do not
come for us unless we send for that ass.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Willi and Hector were the biggest names in salsa, which
made it all the more shocking when they decided to
go their separate ways. After a string of genre defining albums,
(14:27):
Willi and Hector released nineteen seventy three's Lomato, their eighth
album as a duo and their fourth album to reach
gold certification.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
By this record, everything had fallen into place musically. Hector's
vocals were living up to his stage name. On record
and on stage, he was playful, acrobatic, and unmistakable.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
The same could be said of released trombone playing, he
could lay down distinctive hooks like the iconic horn line
on La Murga and find the perfect way for different
styles of salsa music to fold into a each other.
And whereas Boogaloo ended up being a passing craze, Sadza
had become an undisputed force in Latin music.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
But between Willie and Hector things were turning sour, and
you could hear it on the record. The Bad Boys
always had some dark lyrics, but the backstreet tales on
Lomato were a little less playful and a little more grim.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Whereas Guisando told a tale of come up ins for
a petty thief, Gaye Luna Gaya Sol presented the barrio
as a place where no one lives peacefully, where you
have to watch your words and keep your eyes ahead
to keep your life fun. Fact, this wasn't a song
about New York, but about two streets in La Perla,
the same poor neighborhood in San Juan, where a little
(15:46):
under two decades later, Puerto Rican b Regaton would hatch
at a little club called The Noise.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
These parallels are wild, y'all, But let's talk about the
album cover Willie's holding a sleepy Yehito at gunpoint. The
full title says, I'll kill him if you don't buy
this record.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
The story here is that this is actually a reference
to a famous National Lampoon magazine cover where a dog
is held at gunpoint. If you don't buy this magazine,
We'll kill this dog. And they say comedy doesn't a twelve.
I mean all of this shit is dark. Yeah right.
The album is dark, The comedy is dark, the magazine
cover is dark. But perhaps the most revealing track on
(16:28):
it might be Dodo piennes sufinad. Everything has its ending.
The lyrics describe a wilting carnation, a world champion losing
that which is dear to him, personal loss, and personal attacks.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Everything has its ending, and the Bad Boys partnership was
about to end in bad blood.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Since the day Willie met him, Hector Levau had been
a playful, somewhat childlike person, maybe even a little immature,
some might say. And in the music business of the seventies,
let alone just New York in the seventies, a person
like Hector, he.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Didn't stand a chance. As coke became the drug of choice,
both on the streets and behind the closed doors of
the record label offices, Hector fell into the trap.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Addiction turned the playful singer with whom Willy had formed
a close bond into a hostile, unpredictable person.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
You could kind of see it from the jump, the
whole oh you don't want me to join the band thing.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
But the drugs amplified all of Hector's worst qualities. According
to Willy, quote he didn't want the party to end.
He wanted to go on and on and on and on,
quote unquote. Friends started arriving with gifts, saying try this,
try that.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Not that Willy abstained completely. This is el Malow we're
talking about. But some people just can't say no. And
Hector was one of those people.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
And by nineteen seventy four, Hector no showed at several concerts,
were pissed and sober. Concert promoters, many of whom had
direct connections with the mob.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Those good fellow ass record covers weren't just for Steeze.
The music biz had mafiosos up plenty, and if you
lost them money, they'd make sure you lost something of.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Yours, anything from a prize belonging to a loved one
to a limb and what's more, the music was suffering.
Hector couldn't be counted on to show up to rehearsals.
Willy rehearsed with the orchestra on his own, and when
Hector showed up to record, they just went with the
first take and hurried him out.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Real talk, though it says a lot that he could
just nail the first take and move.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
On absolutely, and that's probably why Willy and Hector managed
to continue on as long as they did. His talent
was second to none, but his absence from concerts was
a straw that ultimately broke the camel's back.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Because the mafia probably threatened to break Willie's back.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
That and the fans were happy, and so was everyone
who worked with him. Hector and Willie would co build
just one more album, nineteen seventy five's The Good, the
Bad and the Ugly.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
And as we learned with Daddy Yankee, just because you
got in the booth to lay down vocals, doesn't mean
you were in the same room with.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
The other guy, right. And as Willy expanded his footprint
as a producer over the seventies, he would still produce
Hector's albums to great sonic and commercial success, but personally
he kept his distance. Still, Willy had sympathy for Hector
decades later, in two thousand and six, when the much
hated Hector level biopic El Cantante dropped, starring j Loo
(19:38):
and Mark Anthony, Willi would say the real story of
the film would have been Hector fighting with his charisma
and talent against the obstacles of an industry that takes
advantage of the artist. Instead, they made another movie about
two Puerto Rican drug addicts. Oh shit, I know that
people don't like this movie. No, I know, yes, people
(20:00):
pay in the movie. They don't like the movie. I
actually enjoyed Alan. I might be the only person on
the planet that rented it or whatever, bought it on demand.
I watched it over the pandemic. Funny enough, I was
very bored, and I watched it again and I thought
it was really good. Patrick my husband could not sit
through it. He was like, no, no, no, no, this is awful.
(20:22):
But I really liked it. And it was very much
you know, art imitating life imitating art imitating life. Situation
with Jylo and Mark Anthony in it. She's also good
in it. Girl who she No, don't don't she's good
in it.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
I have known you to be a lot of things,
but a liar. You are not a mena.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
I'm not a Menidos, but I am a stan whatever whatever.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
But actually I would tell you this, I would like
to have seen the story of Hector, like against the
obstacles of the industry, you know, I would have liked
to see that, because that really is you need to
go through those challenges and you know, like highlighting the
drug aspect, like yeah, that was a big part of it,
but there was just so much more.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Totally. It is not easy to exist and grow up
in the music industry in any decade. Every every decade
has its own devils, right, And for the sixties and
seventies when they were growing up, it was drugs and mafia,
and that was kind of the end for that. You know.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
I just wonder, like, how can you distance yourself from
a friend or collaborator and still like how can you
still work with someone and still care about them?
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Okay, so let's pretend we're in a therapy session. If
you were telling me about an abusive boyfriend. Damien. His
name is not dam I e n. He lives at
eighty seven Park Place, New York, New York. That's a
fake address, by the way. What I'm saying is how
(21:51):
I think you have to do it for yourself, right,
I think you say listen, like, I'm on my own game.
I can't bring all this chaos and catastroph into my
own life. It's what does my therapist tell me, Not
your problem to fix. Yeah, somebody's mad at you. You
take accountability for whatever you did, but it is not
your problem to fix how they feel about you. It
(22:12):
is your problem to work on yourself and accept accountability.
So I think that's how you do it. You and
with some people they just got to go. Like I
do believe in that too, Like some people just they
get the cut like bye bye.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
It's just, you know, I sometimes think it's just so hard,
especially when you've had to come up with someone like
really you know, they learn so much about each about themselves,
and you know, just leaving that behind, or like having
to leave someone you came up with behind, it's just
so it's your past, it's who you also are.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Yeah, I know, but you know what. Michelle Obama I think,
has a super famous quote about this where even though
they grew up with you came up with you. Not
everybody is ready for the ride, right, Like, not everyone
is ready for the ride. And if you want to
get to where your ultimate success and destination is, not
everyone is in the car. Sorry, you're in my car.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
I know.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Maybe we're in a coop. It's two seeds. That's it.
That's it. So after the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,
the Bad Boys were no more.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Oh but some of Willy Colan's most iconic collaborations were
still ahead.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Far from being lost with that as longtime collaborator, Willie
found a new fire after the Bad Boys parted ways,
and nineteen seventy seven ended up being a big year
for him. The year we went Big Willi Style. Yes,
let's go with that, okay. So the Willy Colon sound
aka a gleeful mix of musical styles and instrumentations from
(23:52):
all over Latin America smushed into the framework of Afro
Cuban rhythms, shall now be referred to as Big Willie Style.
Does that work for you? So happy?
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Nineteen seventy seven the year that Cologne shared the wealth
of his Big Willi Style with a bunch of different
vocalists on the final label.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Resulting in some of the most exciting salsa recordings to
come out of that era. If you listen to our
Celia episodes, you'll remember the audaciously titled only They could
Have made This.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Album, an album where La Rena ditched the classic cavana
big band sound for the smoother, more eclectic styles that
Willy had developed over the decade.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Cologne skills as an arranger and producer empowered Celia to
show a different side of her powerhouse vocals. There were
excursions into samba and Panamanian thambod along with classic bolero,
merengue and more.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
This record was Willy's biggest creative challenge yet, but not
just for musical reasons. He was working with the real
life legends straight from La Isla.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Thematically, so much of Willy Colon's music had dealt with
the relationship between New yorka on the island of Puerto Rico,
a geographic gap more than fifteen hundred miles wide and
for a second generation mainlander like Cologne, several fathoms deep.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Celia, meanwhile, was approaching her second decade of exile following
the nineteen fifty nine Cuban Revolution. These two came from
different worlds, and yet they shared a common feeling of estrangement.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
No surprise then, that these two penn Latinos and estadosunidos
a call for unity among us bound Latinos. Seriously, if
you haven't yet, please go back and listen to our
Celia episodes for more on this incredible movement in the culture.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Celia and Willie would produce three albums together in total.
Not only that, Willi and Celia would come to see
each other as family after send Us passing decades later
in two thousand and three, it was Willie who organized
her massive funeral in NYC.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
But this wasn't the only partnership that Willi formed after
he parted ways with fellow bad boy Hector Leveau.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
After recording one track for nineteen seventy fives to Good
Debat and the Ugly Pannumanian singer Ruben Blades decided to
keep working with Willie.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
He had big shoes to fill after willie string of
albums with Hector, but Rubin and Willie's collaborations would turn
out to be some of both artists defining work.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Between nineteen seventy seven and nineteen eighty two, the two
would release four albums Mentien do Mano, Ciembra, concerne Es,
Sola de los Abrios, and The Last Fight not the
Last One in English the Last Fight.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
These albums are the epitome of salsa dura's socially conscious lyrics.
Because remember nineteen seventy seven. Is it just the year
of Willy Colann's creative zenith. It's also the year of
New York City's lowest point.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
The burning of the South Bronx, citywide blackouts, the Son
of Sam murders, the Apple was rotting, and unities like
Willie's were hit the hardest.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
These albums told it like it was. Ciambra in particular
is a bona fide classic of the genre. The scent
ripples beyond New York and all throughout the Americas, especially
it's standout track, Pedro Navaja.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
The story of a knife wielding killer with a gold
tooth who gets the jump on a call girl, only
for the call girl to pull a gun on him
that you end up killing one another, only for a
beggar to come by and take the knife and pistol
along with two dollars.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Wow. Musically, the song is full of key changes, the
sound of police sirens and an ironic West Side Story
reference out of contacts. The song's refrain La Vida de
da Pressa's basically, life comes at you fast. Sounds like
something your abuela might tell you in a calming type
of way, but in.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
The song, it sounds like a warning. You don't know
what's coming around the next corner.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
And maybe Uruben and Willie didn't know what was coming
when the song got so big across the Americas that
it spawned two feature films and a stage musical, and.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
They sure didn't know the album Cimra would end up
causing it another beef decades later between Willy and a singer.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
But that's next time, y'all. The beef must wait on
the next. Becoming an Icon, Willi Colonne flies solo in
more ways than one. Becoming an Icon is presented by
Sonoo and Iheart's Michael Duda podcast Network. Listen to Becoming
(28:37):
an Icon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
you get your podcast
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Lilliana Vazquez
Joseph Carrillo
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