Lavoe was given the opportunity of becoming bandleader to his own orchestra ; he and his band traveled the world on their own, and he would also be a guest singer for the Fania All-Stars.

Besides recording songs with the band, Lavoe was also present in three movies filmed and produced by Fania Records ; these were: Fania All Stars: Our Latin Thing, Fania All Stars: Salsa, and Celia Cruz with the Fania All Stars: Live in Africa.

He has also played and recorded with the Fania All-Stars, Hector Lavoe, Willie Colón, Celia Cruz, Johnny Pacheco, Bobby Valentín, Ismael Quintana, Gloria Estefan, Adalberto Santiago, Andy Montañez, Pablo Milanés, and Rubén Blades.

By the age of 17, Lavoe abandoned school and sang with a ten-piece band.

For the album sessions, Colón assembled a solid lineup that consisted of Willie's band, as well as Rubén Blades ( and in at least two songs, Héctor Lavoe ) as part of the vocal chorus section.

* In 1980, Héctor Lavoe performed " Para Ochún " on his album El Sabio.

Lavoe moved on to become a soloist and formed his own band, where he performed as lead vocalist.

Lavoe died on June 29, 1993, from a complication of AIDS.

Pacheco, co-owner of Fania Records and its recording musical director, suggested that Colón record Lavoe on a track of Colón's first album El Malo.

* As a producer, Willie Colón had Lavoe record what would become his signature song, the Ruben Blades-authored song " El Cantante " against Blades ' protests ( Blades wanted to record the song on his own .).

The impact of La Sonora Matancera is far-reaching, so much so that New York-based Latin musicians of the caliber of Machito y Su Orquesta ( his sister Graciela on lead vocals ), Tito Puente and His Orchestra, Tito Rodríguez and His Orchestra, Alegre All Stars, Eddie Palmieri and His Conjunto La Perfecta, Pacheco y Su Viejo Tumbao ( later on succeeded by Pacheco y Su Tumbao Añejo ), Willie Colón, Héctor Lavoe, Libre, Saoco ( Henry Fiol, co-founder of this particular conjunto, singing lead ), Ismael Miranda y Su Orquesta, Los Soneros de Oriente and Tito Allen have re-recorded some of its original musical numbers.

Always in demand, he has recorded and performed with a long list of the giants of salsa, jazz, pop, rock and beyond, including ; Willie Colón, Rubén Blades, Héctor Lavoe, Ray Barretto, Tito Puente, Machito, Fania All-Stars, Celia Cruz, Larry Harlow, Ismael Miranda, Eddie Palmieri, Cheo Feliciano, Johnny Pacheco, Tito Nieves, Soledad Bravo, Sophy, Fernandito Villalona, Arturo Sandoval, Billy Idol, Lenny Kravitz, Kirsty MacColl, Jon Lucien, Angela Bofill, Dave Valentin, Noel Pointer, Airto & Flora Purim, Harry Belafonte, Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Gilberto Santarosa, Olga Tañón, Jaci Velaquez, Mandy Moore, José Feliciano, Oscar D ' León, Gloria Estefan, Jon Secada, Franco De Vita, Ricardo Montaner, Amaury Gutiérrez, Cristian Castro, David Bisbal, Thalía, La India, Obie Bermúdez, Los Ilegales, Gaitanes, Gian Marco, Hector ' El Father ', Don Omar, and the list, ( much too long to list here ), goes on and on with hundreds of other world famous artist, both Latin and / or American.

With the Willie Colón band, Lavoe recorded several hit songs, including " El Malo " and " Canto a Borinquen ".

In late 1970, Colón and Lavoe recorded the first of two " Asalto Navideño " albums, featuring Puerto Rican folk songs such as Ramito's jibaro song " Patria y Amor " ( renamed " Canto a Borinquen ") and original compositions.

Lavoe recorded songs in fifteen different productions with the band serving as vocalist in twenty-three songs.

Lavoe survived and recorded an album before his health began failing.

While working with the Willie Colón band, Lavoe became addicted to drugs and began to be late habitually when scheduled to perform with the band.

These events, along with being diagnosed with HIV, affected Lavoe to the point of attempting suicide by jumping off the balcony of a hotel room.

Colón's band featured a raw, aggressive all-trombone sound that was well received by salsa fans, and Lavoe complemented the style with his articulate voice, talent for improvisation, and sense of humor.

According to Lavoe, it happened so fast he did not know how to cope with the sudden success.

During that year Lavoe started a romantic relationship with Carmen Castro.

Following this event, the couple married, and following a request by Roman, Lavoe kept the amount of contact with Castro and José Alberto to a minimum during their marriage.

Although Colón would eventually cut ties with him, he tried to help Lavoe seek assistance to try to quit his drug habit.

Another famous incident has a middle-aged audience member at a dance request a Puerto Rican danza from Colón's band, to which Lavoe responded with an insult.

The request was finally honored in a later Colón record, " El Juicio " ( The Trial ), when he added a danza section to the Rafael Muñoz song " Soñando despierto ", which Lavoe introduces with a deadpanned: "¡ Para tí, Motherflower!

The Colón band had other major hits, such as " Calle Luna, Calle Sol ", and the santería influenced " Aguanilé "; a Pacheco song recorded in the studio by the band, " Mi Gente ", was better known in a live version Lavoe later recorded with the Fania All Stars.

As part of these invitations, Lavoe was present at several shows with the group.

The event featured the top vocalists in Fania and Vaya records, Lavoe was included in the group along with Ismael Miranda, Cheo Feliciano, Justo Betancourt, Ismael Quintana, Bobby Cruz, Pete " El Conde " Rodriguez, Santos Colón, and Celia Cruz.

Blades has repeatedly acknowledged since then that, Lavoe raised his song to classic status and that Lavoe's performance was much better than what he would accomplish with it.

Lavoe followed the Santeria priest's advice and cut all communication with his family and friends for a period of two months.

Also, Lavoe was diagnosed with HIV, the virus that can progress to AIDS.

The group received the moniker La Universidad de la Salsa ( The University of Salsa ) in Colombia, due to the sheer number of famous salsa musicians and singers who developed their careers with it, who started with the group ( particularly Andy Montañez ), or who were occasionally backed up by the band ( including Celia Cruz, Héctor Lavoe and La India ).

In 1967, Lavoe joined Willie Colón's band and performed as the band vocalist.

Willie never officially asked Lavoe to join his band, but after the recording, Willie said to him, " On Saturday we start at 10 p. m. at El Tropicoro Club.

In 1978, Blades wrote the song " El Cantante "; Colón convinced him to give the song to Colón's former musical partner, Héctor Lavoe, to record, since Lavoe's nickname was already " El Cantante de los Cantantes " (" the singer of singers ").

As a soloist Lavoe recorded several hits including " El cantante ", " Bandolera " and " Periódico de ayer " (" El Cantante " was composed by Ruben Blades, " Bandolera " by Colón and " Periódico " by Tite Curet Alonso.

Given the good results, Colón had Lavoe record the rest of the album's vocal tracks.

When the All-Stars returned to Yankee Stadium in 1975, they included Celia Cruz, Héctor Lavoe, Cheo Feliciano, Ismael Miranda, Justo Betancourt, Ismael Quintana, Pete " El Conde " Rodríguez, Bobby Cruz and Santos Colón.

Lavoe recorded it that same year, and it became both a big hit and Lavoe's signature song ; a biographical film, El Cantante from Lavoe took the same title.

( The film El Cantante told a fictionalized version of this story, in which Blades tells Lavoe he wrote the song for him.

The first, El Cantante, is produced by two of the most prominent celebrities in the musical genre: salsa artist Marc Anthony, stars as Lavoe, and Jennifer Lopez as Hector's wife, Nilda ( known as " Puchi " by close friends ).

Manuelle's first foray into movie acting was his cameo role ( mostly singing ) as salsa legend Rubén Blades in El Cantante, the 2007 film biography of Héctor Lavoe, starring Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez.