Cuban trumpeter Alfredo 'Chocolate' Armenteros dead at 87
NEW YORK (AP) - Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros, the talented Cuban trumpeter, died Wednesday from complications of prostate cancer. He was 87.
Armenteros died at the North Westchester Restorative Therapy and Nursing Center in Mohegan Lake, New York, and was cremated Thursday morning, spokeswoman Aurora Flores said.
Born Teodolo Alfredo Armenteros on April 4, 1928, Armenteros was raised on a farm in Santa Clara, Cuba. He earned the moniker "Chocolate" after he was mistaken for Cuban boxer Kid Chocolate. He was also known as the Cuban Louis Armstrong.
Armenteros backed Nat King Cole and even played on the legend's 1958 album, "Cole Espanol." Armenteros also performed with Tito Puente and Mongo Santamaria throughout his long career.
He compared his trumpet to his girlfriend.
"She's my girlfriend. She's my soul, my life, my heart," he told The Associated Press in 2013 about the old silver trumpet he'd been playing for over six decades.
"With my trumpet I always feel like I'm in kindergarten. Music is so vast that every day you learn something new," he added.
Armenteros' spokeswoman said he was married eight times and had seven children.