Jerry González (June 5, 1949 – October 1, 2018) was an American bandleader, trumpeter and percussionist of Puerto Rican descent. Geraldo, his father, was a singer in a band and worked for Las Villas, a chain of stores selling Latin American products. Jerry, who liked the trumpet and studied it carefully, but also the congas was a member of Cal Tjader Callen Radcliffe Tjader Jr. an American Jazz musician, known as the most successful non-Latino of Latin Jazz. Together Jerry Gonzalez with his brother, bassist Andy González, played an important role in the development of Latin Jazz during the late 20th century. During the 1970s, both played alongside Eddie Palmieri and in Manny Oquendo‘s Conjunto Libre, and from 1980 to 2018 they directed The Fort Apache Band. From 2000 to 2018, Jerry González resided in Madrid, where he fronted Los Piratas del Flamenco and El Comando de la Clave. In October 2018, he died of a heart attack after a fire in his home in Madrid.

Jerry González was born in 1949 in Manhattan, on 158th Street and 3rd Avenue, and moved to the Edenwald Houses in the Eastchester section of the Bronx at the age of 4.