About Me
Born in New York City's El Barrio into a Puerto Rican musical family, Colon was a versatile musician, learning guitar, saxophone, piano and bass while in his teens. He discovered Latin Jazz in part through musician Cal Tjader, and became a well recognized pianist, composer and arranger. He directed the East Harlem Music School and strongly supported musical education of youth in El Barrio. As pianist and musician George Haskins observes, Johnny Colon was at the forefront of the "Boogaloo" movement. His work, "Boogaloo Blues", for example, set the tone for this era and survives today as the anthem for this period in Latino music history. In 1972, at the height of his recording career, Johnny founded the East Harlem Music School, the first and only music school in the world devoted totally to the teaching of "Salsa." After 14 years the school had an enrollment of 1,500 students. Over the years the school has had many students from other countries. It has provided classes to over 20,000 students in piano, bass, guitar, flute, saxophone, trombone, voice, bongo, conga and timbales. The school has produced six orchestras over the years.
