Rafael Ithier, the dynamic and congenial Puerto Rican pianist and bandleader who founded renown salsa band El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico and was its leader for decades, died Sunday (Dec. 7) in Puerto Rico. Ithier, who created El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico in 1962, was 99 years old.

Widely considered an institution not just in Caribbean and tropical music but in Latin music overall, Ithier, and the band indelibly associated with his name, gained renewed global attention this year with Bad Bunny’s acclaimed album Debí Tirar Más Fotos. The set’s opening track, “Nuevayol,” which sets the tone for the album’s over-arching homage to salsa and New York, samples El Gran Combo’s 1975 hit “Un Verano en Nueva York.”

Indeed, on December 8, Bunny’s entire Instagram stories’ feed was devoted to Ithier,

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