Spanish
San Juan.- The legendary Puerto Rican musician Rafael Ithier, one of the founders of El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, passed away this Saturday at the age of 99 due to health complications, confirm several artists on their social media.
He is survived by his wife Carmen Soto and his children Carlos and Pedro, and his daughters Thelma, Mérida, Ivonne and Maritza.You may be interested in: http://Fallece el merenguero Rubby Pérez tras quedar atrapado en los escombros del derrumbe en el Jet Set
Don Rafa's legacy in popular music surpasses any feat of other groups, since the "elder mulatto" established a formula with exclusive identity and sonority, as well as a work system that for more than half a century has made the orchestra a reference within salsa. It is not in vain that they are known as the "University of Salsa". In addition to being a musical director, Ithier was an arranger, pianist, and composer. But it was his administrative vision that made the orchestra a true workshop for the musicians who have passed through its ranks. It was precisely the failures at that level that motivated him to leave Rafael Cortijo's Combo and found his own orchestra in 1962 with Rogelio "Quito" Vélez, Martín Quiñones, Miguel Cruz, Eddie Pérez, Héctor Santos, and Roberto Roena. Since then, along with his musicians, he became a narrator of hundreds of stories with which he told everyday life and set the pace of Puerto Rico. Stories that we enjoy here and that hundreds of thousands of people on six continents have enjoyed ever since. The discography of El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico exceeds 70 record productions, with "Alunizando", released in August 2016, being the most recent. Although his work pace had slowed since 2007, delegating several of his functions to pianist and arranger Willie Sotelo, Ithier always remained at the head of the orchestra. So much so, that some of the musical arrangements of the recent production "Alunizando" were made by him.
