Although nominated for multiple Grammy awards, Colón’s importance lay more in the confidence and structure he gave to what became the defining urban music for Latin Americans in the US. He was always bold, brassy — and bad. “For many people, I am still el malo, the bad one, but that’s because I really was,” Colón told Padura in a 1991 interview. “In my neighbourhood, if I wanted to keep the trumpet that my grandmother gave me, I had to defend it. But I was still robbed twice . . . that’s why I switched to the trombone: it’s bigger and harder to steal.”