Background
Orestes López was born in Old Havana on August 29, 1908.
Orestes López was born in Old Havana on August 29, 1908.
As a pre-teenager he studied piano, cello, violin and the five-key ebony flute.
Early life and career In 1924, at age 16, he played cello with maestro Pedro San Juan"s Philharmonic Orchestra. A few years later, he was playing bass for Miguel "El Moro" Vázquez"s charanga. Arcaño y sus Maravillas In the 1930s he was the musical director of three dance orchestras: López-Barroso, Orquesta de Orestes López and Louisiana Unión, before joining Antonio Arcaño y sus Maravillas in 1937 as a founding member.
López, a multi-instrumentalist, composed and orchestrated danzones, most notably "Camina Juan Pescao", "El truco de Regatillo", "Los tres bailadores" and "Mambo", which launched a new style of danzón, the so-called danzón-mambo.
Subsequently, the syncopated bass in the tune gave rise on the one hand to the dance genre known as mambo popularized by Pérez Prado, and on the other hand to the cha-cha-chá, created by Enrique Jorrín. In the late 1930s, the danzón had three movements: the introduction, el paseo (the walk in a circle), and la comparsa (the main theme, in which dancers faced each other and danced).
López"s danzón-mambo, also called danzón de nuevo ritmo, changed the third movement when he substituted a montuno (based on the syncopated beat of the son-playing treseros from Oriente). López"s montuno of two to four beats took on a special syncopated character and was given the generic name of mambo.
Later years and death He died in Havana on January 16, 1991.
López is also the father of bassist Orlando "Cachaíto" López, who gained fame as the ever-present performer for the Buena Vista Social Club. López was posthumously inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame in 2000.