Manuel ‘Puntillita’ Licea

‘Puntillita’ began singing at the age of seven and joined the ‘Orchestra Liceo’ in 1941. A star of the golden era of the big bands of the 1940s & 1950s, he sang with several of Havana’s finest orchestras, including those led by Adolfo Guzman, Roberto Faz and Cascarito. He also sang with the legendary Sonara Matancera (with whom Celia Cruz also once sang). In the mid-1990s Juan de Marcos González asked him to join the Afro-Cuban All Stars and he also appeared on Buena Vista Social Club™, taking the lead vocal on La Bayamesa and singing with Ibrahim Ferrer and Eliades Ochoa on El Cuarta De Tula. He died in 2000 at the age of 73.