Israel López Valdés was a Cuban double bassist and composer. He is considered one of the most influential charanga bassists of all-time, the co-creator of the mambo and a master of the descarga (improvised Cuban jam sessions). He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and won several Grammy Awards from the 1990s. He is ranked number 24 on Bass Player magazine's list of "The 100 Greatest Bass Players".
Background
The youngest of three children, Israel Cachao López was born in Havana, Cuba, on September 14, 1918, at 102 Paula Street in the same house as Cuban patriot José Martí which is now a national monument. From the 1930s through the 1950s, more than 50 of Cachao's relatives were musicians in Cuba.
Education
The López family members were classically trained musicians who rehearsed on a daily basis, attracting an audience of neighbors outside their home. Considered a child prodigy, Cachao, who trained in Havana's Conservatory of Music, began playing bass at the age of five; by the age of 13 he had become a member of the Havana Philharmonic Orchestra at first standing on a box so he could reach and play his bass. Cachao played with the Philharmonic for over 25 years, while at the same time playing with popular music and radio studio bands. It was during this time his surname Cachao became his artistic name.
Career
Throughout the 1930s Cachao and his brother Orestes composed more than 3,000 danzones before creating their mambo compositions in 1938. They were members of the Arcaño y sus maravillas Orchestra, whose repertoire was largely made up of Orestes and Cachao's compositions. It was with this orchestra that Cachao composed his first hit song, "Resa del melton."
In 1962 Cachao left Cuba and settled in New York, where he played, wrote, and recorded with such artists as Tito Puente, Charlie Palmieri, Rolando Valdez, and Tito Rodriguez. He also spent two years performing with fellow citizen, musician, and bandleader Mario Bauzá. Cachao, by nature an extremely modest man, always kept a low profile and for many years was not well known outside Cuban music circles. Despite his significance and contributions as a musician, Cachao's Afro-Cuban-style music seemed not to be appreciated by the Cuban exile community particularly in Miami, where he has made his home for many years. Cachao believes they are indifferent to his Afro-Cuban music style because "they said it presented a false image of the Cuban population".
During the latter part of the 1970s and 1980s, Cachao survived financially by playing private parties and restaurant lounges. In the early 1990s Cuban American actor and producer Andy Garcia "rediscovered" this musician with his filmed account of Cachao's 1992 rehearsal and all-star historic concert in Miami, "Cachao: Mambo y Descarga." The film, Cachao: Como su ritmo no hay dos (Cachao: Like His Rhythm There Is No Equal), is both a tribute to and a documentary of the artist and was released to critical acclaim in 1993. Since the release of the film Cachao's popularity and recognition have risen.
He is seen as a world-class musician; his style of play is described as reminiscent of jazz musician Charles Mingus in both its improvisational quality and in his constant energizing of his players with shouts and gestures. Recent reviews of his shows describe concerts that begin with turn-of-the-century classical Cuban danzônes played with traditional flutes and strings, gradually being complemented by trumpets, trombones, and saxophones as well as with intense and extroverted drums and other percussion instruments that create sensuous and euphoric rhythmic beats engulfing the audience, who dap and rock in musical syncopation.
Cachao has played venues such as Lincoln Center and Radio City Music Hall to wide acclaim. In 1999 he participated in a star-studded concert at Washington's Kennedy Center celebrating the diversity of Latino culture, which was featured on PBS. He was among such mainstream artists as José Feliciano and Gloria Estefan for the grand finale "Descarga Cachao," a trademark mambo jam session.
Cachao's fusion of African rhythms with Cuban classical music created a new music form that has influenced the world and impacted the music of such masters as Copland, Stravinsky, and Gershwin. His influence can also be heard in the rhythms of rock legend Carlos Santana, who performed with him in 1989.
His March 2000 recording, Cuba Linda, was nominated for a Grammy Award, as was 2002's El Arte Del Sabor, recorded with the Bebo Valdés Trio and Carlos "Patato" Valdes. In September of that year Cachao premiered his new composi-tion, "Mambo Mass," at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Los Angeles, California. His musicianship has also been hailed, and he is considered one of the most influential twentieth-century bass players for having "pioneered several acoustic-bass techniques, including percussive bass-body playing and masterful danzón-style bowing" (Goldsby 2000, 28). In June 2000, together with Chico O'Farrill, Cachao was presented with the International Latin Music Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award. Cachao can be seen in Spanish director Fernando Trueba's jazz documentary feature film Calle 54, released in 2001. In 2003 Cachao's achievements earned him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Views
One of his most important musical innovations consisted of spicing up the danzón, transforming it into what eventually became the mambo. In fact, one of his first compositions in this new genre was titled "Mambo" (1938). This innova-tive song and its accompanying rhythm, which allowed drums and drumming to dominate, began a dance craze in the United States. His innovations were popularized when musicians such as Pérez Prado and Benny Moré incorporated this new form into their musical repertoires.
Cachao's music is based on traditional Cuban music, the danzón, which he transforms with the addition of mambo and cha chá rhythms. He was instrumental in reworking and fusing different music styles into what, during the 1950s, became known as descargas, which consisted of small groups of musicians playing Afro-Cuban music with the improvisational zest of North American jazz. He recorded his rehearsal sessions and popularized them. His 1957 recording Cuban Jam Session in Miniature Descargas sold over a million copies and became a Latin music milestone. Descargas were considered very innovative and were the precursor to the musical forms known today as salsa and Latin jazz.