Artists and followers are remembering the legacy of radio large and music promoter Polito Vega, who was identified to generations of listeners and thought of instrumental to the rise of salsa and Latin music.
Vega, who was born in Puerto Rico, died Thursday at age 84. A funeral Mass was held Monday within the iconic St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, the town that turned Vega’s house in 1959 and the place he went on to turn into a trailblazer within the Latin music scene. Vega was often known as “el rey de la radio,” or the king of radio.
“If you discuss radio historical past, and the start of salsa and being a DJ and promoter at similar time, that was Polito Vega,” leisure reporter Jack Rico advised NBC Information.
His loss of life was introduced by La Mega 97.9, the Spanish-language radio station that Vega, one in all New York Metropolis’s best-known radio personalities, helped catapult to success as program director and host for over 5 a long time.
“Vega’s significance to Latin music can’t be overstated,” wrote Billboard’s Leila Cobo, creator of “Decoding ‘Despacito’: An Oral Historical past of Latin Music.”
“He was probably the most influential tastemaker within the nation’s prime market relationship again to when tropical music first turned common within the metropolis within the Nineteen Sixties and Seventies and stretching all the way in which to the twenty first century,” Cobo wrote.
Rico famous that Vega was particularly instrumental in selling salsa music within the Seventies. Vega gave a giant platform to legendary musician Johnny Pacheco, whose Fania All-Stars turned synonymous with salsa music and who recorded with icons such because the late Celia Cruz and Hector Lavoe by means of his label Fania Information.
On-line, artists and followers marked his legacy. Latin Grammy-winning band Grupo Area of interest tweeted in Spanish that Vega put the Latin music sound on the earth’s capital, referring to New York.
Vega was additionally a trailblazer in the way in which that he blended DJ and stay occasions, Rico stated, similar to his salsa concert events at Madison Sq. Backyard.
“You’ll be able to name him the godfather of younger Latin musicians — that was a template that a variety of younger individuals began emulating,” Rico stated.
However Vega’s attain prolonged to Latin pop and different genres. As Cobo famous for Billboard, a 2012 live performance at Citi Discipline in New York Metropolis to mark Vega’s 53 years on the air included superstars like Gloria Estefan, Daddy Yankee and Juanes.
