Singer Wilfredo "Pio" Leyva, a pillar of the Grammy-winning Buena Vista Social Club and one of Cuba's masters of 'son,' died in Havana aged 88, his family said.

Leyva died of a heart attack, his daughter Rosalinda Leyva said.

He started out singing and playing the bongo at the tender age of eight, and Leyva's big break as a musician came in 1932 in his native Camaguey province, with the Juanito Blez orchestra.

In 1953 he moved to Havana and launched a fast-track career singing with many of the country's greatest performers of the 20th century -- Benny Moré, Roberto Faz, and his good freind Francisco Repilado, better known as Compay Segundo, with whom he recorded his first hit, "Chan Chan".

In 1996 he got an unexpected boost to international renown with the Buena Vista Social Club, which brought together Cuba's top senior musical talent, produced a CD that became a Grammy winenr and an international smash hit.