Willie Rosario (born May 6, 1924), is a musician, composer and bandleader of salsa music. He is also known as Mr. Afinque.

Early years

Rosario (birth name: Fernando Luis Rosario Marín) was born and raised in

Coamo, Puerto Rico Coamo (, ) is a town and municipality founded in 1579 in the south-central region of Puerto Rico, located north of Santa Isabel; south of Orocovis and Barranquitas; east of Villalba and Juana Díaz; and west of Aibonito and Salinas. Coamo i ...

, into a poor, but hard working family. His parents realized that as a child Willie was musically inclined and had him take

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

lessons at the age of six. He received his primary and secondary education in his hometown. His mother also had him take

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

classes; however, what he really was interested in was the conga. In 1946, he formed a band called Coamex but, a year later when he was 17 years old, his family moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, United States. The family rented an apartment in a

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, ...

known as

Spanish Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, F ...

. Rosario came into contact and played the conga for various orchestras. After he graduated from high school, he continued his education and studied journalism and public relations. On one occasion Rosario visited the

Palladium Ballroom The Palladium Ballroom was a New York City night club. The US mambo craze that started in 1948 began at the Palladium Ballroom. On March 15, 1946, it opened at the northeast corner of Broadway and 53rd Street.''New York Post'', March 14, 1946; p ...

in New York, where

Tito Puente Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. (April 20, 1923 – June 1, 2000), commonly known as Tito Puente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, and record producer of Puerto Rican descent. He is best known for dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz ...

was playing the

timbales Timbales () or pailas are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing. They are shallower than single-headed tom-toms and usually tuned much higher, especially for their size.Orovio, Helio 1981. ''Diccionario de la música cubana: biográfico ...

. This was the beginning of his love affair with that instrument. He was 22 years old when he took classes with

percussionist A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

Henry Adler.

Rosario's first band

In 1959, Rosario organized his first band and played for three years in the Club Caborrojeño in New York. When not playing, he worked as a disc jockey for WADO, a Spanish speaking radio station in New York. In 1962, he signed with the Alegre Records label and traveled and performed with his band in Venezuela, Panama, Colombia, Mexico, Curaçao, U.S. Virgin Islands and all over the United States. In the 1980s he opened the Tropicana Club in Puerto Rico, in association with fellow Puerto Rican musician

Bobby Valentín Roberto "Bobby" Valentín (born June 9, 1941), is a musician and salsa bandleader. He is known as "El Rey del Bajo" (King of the Bass). Early years Valentín was born in Orocovis, Puerto Rico. He was taught by his father to play the guitar at ...

Compositions

Among his best-known compositions and arrangements are "De Barrio Obrero a la Quince" ("De Barrio Obrero a la Quince" was written by Trinidad Clemente), "El Timbal de Carlitos", "Mi Amigo el Payaso" ("My Friend the Clown") with lyrics by Luis Antonio Ruiz, "El Revendón", "Lluvia" ("Rain"), "Cuando No Hay Cariño" ("When There's No Love"). Plus, he also composed the following

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

tunes "Flip, Flop", "Stop and Go" and "My Favorite Thing". Rosario also produced the following songs with the participation of

Gilberto Santa Rosa Gilberto Santa Rosa Cortés, nicknamed "El Caballero de la Salsa" (The Gentleman of Salsa) (born August 21, 1962), is a Puerto Rican bandleader and singer of salsa and bolero. He is a six time Grammy Award winner and has sold over three million ...

Tony Vega Tony Vega Cesar, known professionally as Tony Vega (born July 13, 1957) is a Puerto Rican salsa music, salsa singer. Early years Vega was born in the town of Salinas, Puerto Rico, where he received his primary education. He was born into a f ...

, Papo Lucca and Bobby Valentín; "Latin Jazz Go-Go-Go", "El Bravo soy Yo" ("I'm the Tough Guy"), "Too Too Much" and "Willie Rosario y su Ritmo".

Awards and recognitions

Among the awards and recognitions bestowed upon Rosario are a nomination in 1987 for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

for his song "Nueva Cosecha" ("New Harvest"), various gold and platinum Records, the Agüeybaná de Oro Award, ACE, Diplo and Paoli Awards. In 2000, the Puerto Rican Senate paid tribute to Rosario in recognition of his 40 years in the field of music. In 2002, he was inducted into The

International Latin Music Hall of Fame The International Latin Music Hall of Fame (ILMHF) was an annual event established in 1999 and held in New York City to honor artists who have largely contributed to the Latin music genre. In addition to the induction into the Hall of Fame, the a ...

. Rosario's last production was "La Banda Que Deleita". He continues to play many venues all around Puerto Rico, including the prestigious Puerto Rican World Salsa Congress and many times at "Dia Nacional de la Salsa" or the National Salsa Day in Puerto Rico. He has also played minor venues, such as Shots Bar & Grill in the Isla Verde Mall in late October 2006. Since his October 2006 performance, Willie Rosario and his band also performed for the Puerto Rican Medical Doctors' Association of El Paso (Texas) Gala in December 2007.

Discography

* ''El Bravo Soy Yo!'' (1963) * ''Fabuloso y Fantástico'' (1966) * ''Latin Jazz a Go-Go-Go'' (1967) * ''Two Too Much'' (1967) * ''Haida Huo'' (1968) * ''Boogaloo y Guaguancó'' (1968) * ''El Bravo de Siempre'' (1969) * ''De Donde Nace el Ritmo'' (1971) * ''Más Ritmo'' (1972) * ''Infinito'' (1973) * ''Otra Vez'' (1975) * ''Gracias Mundo'' (1977) * ''From the Depth of My Brain'' (1978) * ''El Rey del Ritmo!'' (1979) * ''El de a 20 de Willie'' (1980) * ''The Portrait of a Salsa Man'' (1981) * ''Atízame el Fogón'' (1982) * ''The Salsa Machine'' (1983) * ''Nuevos Horizontes'' (1984) * ''Afincando'' (1985) * ''Nueva Cosecha'' (1986) * ''A Man of Music'' (1987) * ''The Salsa Legend'' (1988) * ''Unique'' (1989) * ''Viva Rosario!'' (1990) * ''The Roaring Fifties'' (1991) * ''Tradición Clásica'' (1993) * ''¡Sorpresas!'' (1995) * ''Back to the Future'' (1999) * ''La Banda Que Deleita'' (2006) * ''Evidencia'' (2016)

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosario, Willie 1930 births Living people People from Coamo, Puerto Rico Puerto Rican musicians Puerto Rican composers Puerto Rican male composers Salsa musicians People from East Harlem