Chocolate Armenteros Brass & Winds – Artists

One of the great trumpeters of son: Chocolate Armenteros played with Arsenio Rodríguez and Beny Moré, and in New York with Machito, Eddie Palmieri, Cachao and the Sonora Matancera.

About

Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros (Santa Clara, 4 April 1928 – New York, 6 January 2016) started out in the Conjunto Los Astros of sonero and composer René Álvarez, and soon after joined Arsenio Rodríguez. He got his nickname when someone mistook him for the champion boxer Kid Chocolate. Because of his characteristic Afro-Cuban trumpet style and his long recording career, several studies of his music have been written.

  • Cuba: besides Arsenio he played with José Fajardo and Beny Moré, among others, and in 1957 on Generoso Jiménez's Ritmo.
  • New York: after the Cuban revolution he moved to New York, where he lived until his death. He played with Tito Puente, Machito, Johnny Pacheco, Charlie Palmieri, Cachao and Wynton Marsalis.
  • Salsa: he played on albums by Eddie Palmieri (Champagne, Justicia, Vámonos pa'l monte), by Orchestra Harlow on Fania and by the Grupo Folklórico y Experimental Nuevayorquino.
  • Sonora Matancera: he was a member from 1977 to 1980.
  • Own albums: among others Chocolate… en el rincón (1976), Prefiero el son (1980) and Chocolate and His Cuban Soul (1997).

After his death the corner of Third Avenue and East 122nd Street in East Harlem was co-named Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros Way. He lived there for 30 years.

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