Rafael Ithier, a legend of salsa music, dies at 99

Rafael Ithier, founder of the emblematic salsa group El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, has died at age 99. The pianist, composer and arranger — who served as the orchestra’s longtime musical director — spent more than six decades turning El Gran Combo into one of the premier salsa institutions of Latin America and beyond.

“Today we bid farewell to not only a great musician, but the architect of a sound that marked generations,” reads a statement shared on the orchestra’s social media accounts on Sunday. “A leader whose discipline, vision and love for salsa forged the history of El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico and of Latin music in the world.”

Born in San Juan in 1926, Ithier began playing guitar when he was 10 years old. According to the Puerto Rican nonprofit Fundación Nacional Para La Cultura Popular, Ithier was forced to drop out of school at 14 in order to financially support his family. But he continued picking up new instruments: the Cuban tres, the double bass and eventually the piano, which would become his signature instrument for the remainder of his career.

In 1952, Ithier was drafted by the U.S. Army and stationed in Korea. In a 2016 interview with the newspaper Primera Hora, he remembered how much he initially struggled there.

“I have to confess that I cried when I was sworn in as a soldier, because I did not want to be a soldier,” he told the newspaper. “It was obligatory service. Every time I remember, I think about how wrong I was. I’m eternally grateful because I learned the discipline of the Army; I learned to be a man and to obey an order. That discipline is what I apply to my life, and what I base my life on.”

Ithier never left music far behind. After his service, he joined a New York City group called The Borinqueneers Mambo Kings — named after the segregated, all-Hispanic unit of the U.S. Army — and later moved back to his home island, where he began playing with Cortijo y Su Combo. The salsa orchestra, led by percussionist Rafael Cortijio, nearly imploded when renowned lead singer Ismael Rivera was arrested for drug possession in 1962. But El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico rose in its place, with Ithier at the helm.

As salsa was reaching its golden age into the 1970s — combining elements of mambo, Afro-Cuban rumba and jazz in New York City studios and clubs — El Gran Combo became the voice of the genre in Puerto Rico. The 1975 song “Un Verano en Nueva York” paid tribute to the flourishing Nuyorican diaspora on the mainland (and would get a second life in Bad Bunny‘s 2025 hit “NUEVAYoL”). On the 1979 classic “Brujeria,” a booming brass section merges with the rhythmic texture of the congas and timbales as vocalist Charlie Aponte cheekily accuses a lover of using witchcraft on him.

For decades, El Combo served as an informal training ground for dozens of salsa musicians, leading to the nickname “la universidad de la salsa” (the university of salsa), which was also the title of a 1983 album. But even as the group’s lineup changed, Ithier remained its faithful leader, recording dozens of albums and performing on stages around the world. In 2015, El Gran Combo received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Latin Grammys.

Following news of Ithier’s death, musicians, collaborators and politicians took to social media to share their condolences. “Ithier leaves behind an eternal legacy in salsa,” wrote the Latin Recording Academy. “Thank you, maestro, for a life dedicated to music.”