Pedro Knight

Gerónimo Pedro Knight Caraballo (September 30, 1921 – February 3, 2007) was a Cuban musician, and the husband and manager of singer Celia Cruz.

At age 23, he joined the Havana-based, Afro-Cuban conjunto band, La Sonora Matancera ("the sound of Matanzas", a port with a large black population), that produced, highly rhythmic dance music rooted in traditional, Africa-based styles of son and guaracha, as revived decades later by the Buena Vista Social Club.

By the 1950s the band's sophisticated arrangements and live radio performances had become part of the golden age of Cuban music, having appeared alongside American singers such as Nat King Cole and Sarah Vaughan.

[1] In July 1960, a year and a half after Fidel Castro came to power, La Sonora Matancera went to Mexico City to accept a two-year touring contract, but Martínez announced during a radio interview that he had no intention of returning to Cuba, a stance in which the rest of the band joined him.

By the mid-1990s, Cruz was an international star, and incorporated Knight into her performances, clasping him to her and referring to him as Mi cabecita de algodon (my little cottonhead) because of his halo of snow-white hair, and white mutton-chops.