Felix Contreras Salsa legend, Willie Colon, has died at age 75. Colon was a key part of salsa's development in the 1970's as an instrumentalist, songwriter and producer. EMILY KWONG, HOST: The salsa pioneer and legend Willie Colon has died at age 75, according to his statement from his family on one of his social media accounts. No cause of death was given. Willie Colon was a key part of Salsa's development in the 1970s as an instrumentalist, songwriter and producer. For more than six decades, he was one of the genre's most popular acts. NPR Music's Felix Contreras has this appreciation. FELIX CONTRERAS, BYLINE: In retrospect, Willie Colon was the ideal musician to reshape the sound of Afro-Caribbean dance music that became known around the world as salsa. He was born in the Bronx in 1950, and as a young teenager, he was soaking up the popular music of mid 1960s New York - R&B, rock and jazz - as well as Puerto Rican folk music that he heard during summer trips to the island to visit his grandparents.…