Well-known Cuban percussionist and singer Orlando "Puntilla" Rios died at a New York hospital two days after undergoing a heart operation, his wife, Ileana, told Efe Wednesday. He was 60.
"I haven't come out of shock since the moment they told me," she said with sorrow in her voice.
Rios died Tuesday at New York's Montefiore hospital, where he was admitted two weeks ago.
His wife said the musician is survived by seven children -- six in Cuba and New York and another in France -- as well as a sister, Ramona, who lives in New York and was like a mother to him, "always at his side."
Teacher and writer Marta Moreno Vega, a friend of the musician, told Efe that his death "is a great loss."
Born in Havana on Dec. 26, 1947, Rios was considered a master of the different styles of Cuban music.
Before moving to New York, he was a percussion instructor at Cuba's Escuela Nacional Artistica between 1971 and 1978 and performed at some of Havana's most famous venues, such as the Tropicana and the Havana Riviera hotel.
In New York, he became a teacher and mentor for a number of important contemporary musicians.
His orchestra, known as Nueva Generacion, brings together young musicians and gives them a vehicle for reacquainting themselves with traditional Cuban music.
Source: Copyright (C) 2008. Agencia EFE S.A.