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"LATIN BOOGALOO IS HERE!" - that was the sound of the mid-60's. Johnny played an indelible part in the creation of this new style, cutting three superb albums in the late '60's and then 3 excellent post-boogaloo LPs in the '70's. But, unlike a lot of his boogaloo contemporaries, he was an extremely versatile multi-instrumentalist and singer. And such skill undoubtedly helped him record some of the most potent tracks of the era. Cotique became one of the finest Latin boogaloo/Latin soul labels in the second half of the 1960's and Johnny's first hit, Boogaloo Blues, undoubtedly helped them achieve this. This is the perfect blend of Latin soul and Jazz and, now as much as then, it is young, alive and swinging. Johnny was, quite rightly, catapulted into the driving seat of this new breed - the Latin boogalooers from NYC. And they caused a sensation, mixing Latin rhythms with an R&B sensibility and often singing in English, they broke out from the traditionalists' grip that was stifling Hispanic music in New York. For 3 hot years, these boogaloo conjuntos dominated the Latin scene in the metropolis, freaking out uptight reactionaries who really didn't know what was hitting them. As well as singing, young Johnny studied the trombone, piano, guitar, and double bass. One of his prime musical inspirations was Cal Tjader, especially his 2 1950's Ritmo Caliente LPs. "He came from something I could recognize and identify with, which was jazz, and he fused it with Latin rhythms." With a clutch of hot original compositions, he teamed up with vocalist Tito Ramos, trombonists Robert Lemus and Angelo Rodriguez, and a number of other musicians, to create the Johnny Colón Orchestra, born circa 1965. They soon built up a formidable live following. Johnny remembers, "Kids can relate (to boogaloo) 'cause it's got that groove, it's got that New York sound." Also, of course, the lyrics to Boogaloo Blues, which were in English, famously alluded to LSD. "It says L stands for love, S for sincere, D for divine. But we thought that LSD was appropriate because everyone was talking about LSD. It was a hook and a lot of people were doing it." It's pretty difficult, indeed impossible, to imagine members of the Latin old guard, like Xavier Cugat, Tito Puente or Perez Prado, writing a similar song. In 1975, he cut his final Cotique LP, and at this time, Johnny was moving away a recording career, busily establishing the East Harlem Music School, which he continues to run to this day.
