Chocolate Armenteros

b. 4 April 1928, Ranchuelo, Santa Clara, Las Villas Province, Cuba, d. 6 January 2016, Mohegan Lake, New York, USA. Virtuoso trumpeter Armenteros - he also played flügelhorn, composed, arranged and produced - worked in the gamut of horn-led Latin ensembles and idioms: ranging from typical Cuban septetos and conjuntos (he was one of the true masters of the distinctive septeto style), rollicking big bands, a progressive salsa orquesta to a small Latin jazz group format. He even recreated the trumpet sound of the golden age of calypso. Armenteros began playing trumpet at the ...