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, with Leyva's big break as a musician coming 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 Mort.
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 and produced a CD that became a Grammy winner and an international smash hit.