Héctor Lavoe

Born in 1946 in Ponce, Puerto Rico, Héctor Lavoe made his mark in New York by the mid-1960s in the landscape of Latino-Caribbean music, after leaving the island as an adolescent. His tenor voice, his very clear phrasing, and his sense of improvisation make him a central singer of New York salsa, with a style that blends Cuban sound, guaracha, guaguancó, Puerto Rican plena, and bolero. Héctor Lavoe began recording with Russell Cohen and the New Yorker Band before joining Willie Colón, with whom he formed one of the standout duos in the Fania catalog. Between El Malo (1967), Guisando (1969), Cosa Nuestra (1969), Asalto Navideño (1970), El Juicio (1972) and Lo Mato (1973), Lavoe contributed to the evolution of urban salsa—tense, rhythmic and strongly anchored in New York's Latino neighborhoods. In parallel, he regularly appeared with the Fania All-Stars on stage and in recording. His solo career began with La Voz (1975), followed by De Ti Depende (1976), Comedia (1978), El Sabio (1980), Qué Sentimiento! (1981), Reventó (1985) and Strikes Back (1987). Songs like Mi Gente, Periódico de Ayer or El Cantante firmly established Héctor Lavoe in the history of salsa. Weakened by serious health problems at the end of the 1980s, Héctor Lavoe died in New York in 1993.