Pio Leiva, the jovial Cuban singer who was part of the Grammy-winning Buena Vista Social Club, died yesterday of a heart attack. He was 88.

Buena Vista Social Club

The cigar-chomping crooner was best known as one of several singers in the all-star band on the Buena Vista Social Club album and Wim Wenders-directed movie that introduced Cuban music to a worldwide audience.

Leiva had suffered a brain hemorrhage last Sunday and had been receiving treatment at Havana's naval hospital since then.

Like many of the stars of the Buena Vista album and film, Leiva didn't find fame--or even a major record deal outside of Cuba--before the Grammy-winning album. Many of those artists had already been senior citizens by the time the movie came out in 1994, and several, including Ruben Gonzales, Compay Segundo, and Ibrahim Ferrer, passed away last August.

"He was a glory of Cuban music and of the world," Leiva's daughter and manager Rosalia Leiva said in a statement.

Leiva's last album, La Salud De Pio Leiva, was recorded in Havana and came out in 2005. He also starred in the 2004 documentary Musica Cubana, in which he traveled around Cuba looking for budding young musicians to form a new band.

Leiva was buried yesterday in Havana's famous Colón Cemetery.