Herald Staff Report

 A Who's Who of salsa greats gathered this week in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, to bid
 goodbye to singer Pete ``El Conde'' Rodríguez, who died Saturday in the Bronx,
 N.Y., of a heart attack. He was 67.

 Johnny Pacheco, Cheo Feliciano, Bobby Valentín, Ismael Miranda, Marvin
 Santiago, Eddie Pérez and Papo Lucca were some of the many music greats
 who paid their respects to the late singer.

 ``We're celebrating Pete's life, not his death,'' Feliciano said. ``Today, we're
 thanking him for being an unequaled, inimitable sonero.''

 Bandleader and entrepreneur Pacheco, whose Fania Records served as
 Rodríguez's launching pad in the 1960s and '70s, said he felt ``as if I had lost a
 brother. To me, he was the world's best sonero. I'll truly miss him.''

 Pedro Juan Rodríguez was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, but spent most of his life
 in New York, where he met Pacheco in the 1960s and joined his Fania All Stars
 band as a percussionist and singer.

 For professional reasons, he adopted the name Pete Rodríguez but added the
 nickname ``El Conde'' so as not to be confused with a boogaloo pianist of the
 same name.

 He is remembered for his performances of Catalina la O, Los compadres,
 Borinquén tiene montuno, Esencia del guaguancó, Víralo al revés, and
 Convergencias, many of them recorded during the ``golden age'' of salsa, about 30
 years ago.

 Singer Celia Cruz and Pacheco joined him in the 1980 album Celia, Johnny and
 Pete.

 His most recent appearance was this year in the Tito Puente album Obra maestra
 (Masterpiece). The album reached Billboard magazine's Top 10 Latin hit list in
 August.

 Gerson Borrero, editor of the New York daily El Diario-La Prensa, remembered
 him as a self-effacing man who was well aware of his talent.

 Rodríguez is survived by his wife, Frances, and children Cita and Pedro Emilio.

 This report was supplemented with information from the San Juan El Nuevo Día.