Tito Puente Cause Of Death

American musician, songwriter, bandleader, and record producer of Puerto Rican descent, widely known for dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz compositions Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. commonly known as Tito Puente passed on after a show in Puerto Rico on May 31, 2000, suffered a massive heart attack and was flown to New York City for surgery to repair a heart valve, but complications developed, and he died on June 1, 2000, at 2:27 am.

Tito Puente was born on April 20, 1923, at Harlem Hospital Center in the New York borough of Manhattan, the son of Ernest and Felicia Puente, Puerto Ricans living in New York City’s Spanish Harlem.

He served in the Navy for three years during World War II after being drafted in 1942. He was discharged with a Presidential Unit Citation for serving in nine battles on the escort carrier USS Santee (CVE-29).

The GI Bill allowed him to study music at the Juilliard School of Music, where he completed formal education in conducting, orchestration, and theory.

During the 1950s, Puente was at the height of his popularity and helped to bring Afro-Cuban and Caribbean sounds like mambo, son, and cha-cha-chá, to mainstream audiences.

Puente played popular Afro-Cuban rhythms so successfully that many people mistakenly identified him as Cuban. Dance Mania, possibly Puente’s most well-known album, was released in 1958.

In 1969, he received the key to the City of New York from former Mayor John Lindsay. In 1992, he was inducted into the National Congressional Record, and in 1993 he received the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal from the Smithsonian.

In early 2000, Puente appeared in the music documentary Calle 54.