[Deathwatch] Isreal "Cachao" Lopez, Mambo pioneer, 89

[Deathwatch Central]

Mambo pioneer Cachao dies at 89
http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/22/obit.cachao.ap/index.html

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- Cuban bassist and composer Israel "Cachao"
Lopez, who is credited with pioneering the mambo style of music, died
Saturday at age 89, a family spokesman said.

 Known simply as Cachao, the Grammy-winning musician had fallen ill in
the past week and died surrounded by family members at Coral Gables
Hospital, spokesman Nelson Albareda said.

Cachao left communist Cuba and came to the United States in the early
1960s. He continued to perform into his late 80s, including a
performance after the death of trombonist Generoso Jimenez in September
2007.

Cachao was born in Havana in 1918 to a family of musicians. A
classically trained bassist, he began performing with the Havana
Philharmonic Orchestra as a teenager, working under the baton of
visiting guest conductors like Herbert von Karajan, Igor Stravinsky and
Heitor Villa-Lobos during his nearly 30-year career with the symphony.

He also wrote hundreds of songs in Cuba for bands and orchestras, many
based on the classic Cuban music style known as son.

He and his late brother, multi-instrumentalist Orestes Lopez, are known
for the creation in the late 1930s of the mambo, which emerged from
their improvisational work with the danzon, an elegant musical style
that lends itself to slow dancing.

"The origins of `mambo' happened in 1937," Cachao said in a 2004
interview with The San Francisco Chronicle. "My brother and I were
trying to add something new to our music and came up with a section
that we called danzon mambo. It made an impact and stirred up people.
At that time our music needed that type of enrichment."

The mambo was embraced early on and Cuban composers and jazz musicians
have tweaked it over the years. It also influenced the development of
salsa music.

In the 1950s, Cachao and his friends began popularizing the descarga
("discharge" in Spanish), a raucous jam session incorporating elements
of jazz and Afro-Cuban musical approaches.

Cachao left Cuba in 1962, relocating first to Spain, and soon afterward
came to New York where he was hired to perform at the Palladium
nightclub with the leading Latin bands.

In the United States, he collaborated with such Latin music stars such
as Tito Puente, Tito Rodrigues, Machito, Chico O'Farrill, Eddie
Palmieri and Gloria Estefan.

He fell into obscurity during the 1980s after he moved to Miami, where
he ended up playing in small clubs and weddings.

But his career enjoyed a revival in the 1990s with the help of
Cuban-American actor Andy Garcia, who made a 1993 documentary about the
bassist's career, "Cachao ... Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos" (Like His
Rhythm There Is No Other) and also produced several CDs, including the
Grammy-winning album "Ahora Si!" in 2004.

Cuban-born reed player and composer Paquito D'Rivera said Cachao made
friends everywhere he went with his affable personality and good sense
of humor. D'Rivera said he was working on a piece he had written for
the multiple Grammy winner when he heard about the death.

"He was what a great musician should be. He represented what true
versatility in music is all about," D'Rivera told The Associated Press
in a telephone interview.

Many thanks to TheLenGuy for posting this obituary