Israel López

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Known simply as "Cachao", he was a Cuban musician and composer. He became a legend of Cuban music with his masterful handling of the double bass and stood out for his musical performances in mambo and Latin jazz.

The passion of his family for music marked the life of Israel López from a very young age. At eight years old he was already composing musical pieces in the children's groups in which he played different instruments, although he soon settled on the double bass, due to the influence of his grandfather Aurelio López Cachao, from whom he would inherit his musical nickname, and his father. During those years he simultaneously studied classical music at the conservatory while working as an accompanist for silent films shown in Cuban cinemas, an activity he developed together with the young Ignacio Villa, who years later would become known by the nickname Bola de Nieve.

At thirteen years old he entered as a bassist in the Havana Philharmonic Orchestra, where he remained between the 1930s and 1960s, a period in which he played under the direction of prestigious guest conductors such as Herbert von Karajan and Igor Stravinski. During that time, Cachao combined classical music activity with his true passion, Cuban popular music, performing in the numerous orchestras of the night clubs in Havana. Between 1937 and 1949 he was part of the band Arcaño y sus Maravillas. During that period, together with his brother Orestes, he composed hundreds of songs that, based on the traditional foundations of Cuban music, sought new forms and styles.

In 1937, the López brothers composed Mambo, a piece that would give its name to a new Cuban musical style. It was a much faster variation of the danzón, a type of Cuban music with an elegant and leisurely style that invited slow dancing. The proposal by Cachao and his brother Orestes was not understood at first by the public, who did not see how to dance to those accelerated rhythms. It had to be Dámaso Pérez Prado who popularized the genre in the late 1940s, when he made it slower.

Creator and tireless seeker of new trends, Cachao continued in the 1950s with his musical activity, which led to jazz and African rhythms. From this fusion and from the late-night sessions he held with Cuban musicians in a studio, where he made innumerable recordings, the well-known "descargas" emerged, improvisations in the style of jam sessions, in which Cuban sones were fused with Black music.

His talent led him to win two Grammy Awards (in 1995 and 2005), a Latin Grammy in 2003, the title of Doctor Honoris Causa awarded by UC Berkeley and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He has been described as "the inventor of mambo". He is considered a master of the descarga (live improvisations).

"Cachao" left Cuba in 1962 with a long list of hits and assured in an interview given in 2007 that if it were not for his compatriot and colleague Dámaso Pérez Prado "mambo would not have been heard worldwide". His first stop was Madrid, where he remained for a year before emigrating to the United States. In that country he lived in the cities of New York, Las Vegas and Miami.

López also played the acoustic bass with his brother, the multi-instrumentalist Orestes López. Together they composed literally more than 3,000 songs and were very influential in Cuban music from the 1930s to the 1950s. They created the "new rhythm" in the late 1930s, which transformed the danzón by introducing African rhythms into Cuban music, which led to mambo.

He won several Grammy Awards both for his own work and his contributions on albums by Latin music stars, including Gloria Estefan. In 1995, he won a Grammy for Master Sessions Volume 1. In 2003, he won a Latin Grammy for Best Traditional Latin Tropical Album together with Bebo Valdés and Patato for El Arte Del Sabor. He won a Grammy again in 2005 for his work ¡Ahora Sí!.

His nephew, Orlando "Cachaíto" López became one of the pillars of the famous Buena Vista Social Club.

Cachao played with artists such as Tito Puente, and his music has appeared in films such as La jaula de las locas, and the soundtrack of the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Actor Andy García produced a documentary titled Cachao ... Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos in 1993 about his music. He also shared stages with Celia Cruz and her husband Pedro Knight, as well as with trombonist Generoso Jiménez. His last musical collaboration was with Gloria and Emilio Estefan on the singer's album titled 90 Millas.

López died in Coral Gables, Florida, at the age of 89, due to complications following kidney failure.