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Israel "Cachao" Lopez

Israel "Cachao" Lopez (born 1918 in Havana, Cuba), often known just as "Cachao" (pronounced kah- CHOW) is a Cuban mambo musician and composer, who has helped bring mambo music to popularity in the United States of America in the early 1950s. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and has been described as "the inventor of the mambo". He is considered a master of descarga (Latin jam sessions). Lopez played the acoustic bass with his late brother, multi- instrumentalist Orestes Lopez. The brothers composed literally thousands of songs together and were heavily influential on Cuban music from the 1930s to the 1950s. They introduced the ritmo nuevo ("new rhythm") in the late 1930s, which transformed the danzón by introducing African rhythms into Cuban music, which led to mambo. Lopez has won several Grammy Awards for both 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 Tropical Latin Album together with Bebo and Patato Valdes for El Arte Del Sabor. Lopez won a further Grammy in 2005, again for his own work, ¡Ahora Si!. His nephew, Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez became one of the mainstays of the famed Buena Vista Social Club group. Cachao has played with artists such as Tito Puente, and his music has been featured on movies such as The Birdcage, and on the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City soundtrack. Actor Andy Garcia produced a documentary entitled Cachao... Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos ("With A Rhythm Like No Other") in 1993 about his music. Cuban American actor Andy Garcia, who made a 1993 documentary about the bassist's career, credited Cachao with being a major influence in Cuban musical history and said his passing marked the end of an era. "Cachao is our musical father. He is revered by all who have come in contact with him and his music," Garcia said in a statement Saturday. "Maestro . . . you have been my teacher, and you took me in like a son. So I will continue to rejoice with your music and carry our traditions wherever I go, in your honor." Cachao (ka-CHAH-o) and his late brother, multi- instrumentalist Orestes "Macho" Lopez, are known for the creation in the late 1930s of the mambo, which emerged from their improvisational work in Cuba with the danzon, an elegant musical style that lends itself to slow dancing.

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"We would take turns at the piano and try things out," Cachao said in a 1995 interview with the Miami Herald. "And that's how things came up. We realized then that this rhythm was not common. And it was faster than it is today. . . . But it was too fast for dancing, and we were six months without any work. People didn't like it. When we slowed it down, then it became danceable." The mambo, with its sped-up syncopation, was popularized by bandleader Damaso Perez Prado, and Cuban composers and jazz musicians have tweaked it over the years. It also influenced the development of salsa music, a New York hybrid with Cuban roots. 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 communist Cuba in 1962, relocating first to Spain, and soon afterward went 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 Latin music stars, including Tito Puente, TitoRodriguez, Machito, Chico O'Farrill, Eddie Palmieri and Gloria Estefan. He lived in Las Vegas in the 1970s, performing at casino shows, but eventually had to leave. "If you live in Las Vegas and gamble, you spend most of your time at the pawnshop," he told the Miami Herald in 1995. "I have to thank my wife Esther; if not for her, we would not have anything. But I had to quit and I did, cold turkey." He fell into obscurity during the 1980s after moving to Miami, where he ended up playing in small clubs and for weddings. But his career enjoyed a revival in the 1990s with the help of Garcia's documentary "Cachao . . . Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos" (Like His Rhythm There Is No Other) and the release of several CDs, including the Grammy-winning album "Ahora Si!" in 2004. Cachao was born in Havana in 1918, the youngest of three children whose parents played and taught the bass. The family of musicians at one point had 35 bassists in its circle. "Our house was a wreck, with instruments everywhere," Cachao told the New York Times in 1991. "There were people playing all the time." Classically trained, he began working professionally at age 8, playing with the house orchestra of a movie theater, providing background music for silent films. He stood on a wooden crate to reach the upper neck of the stand-up bass. Cachao began performing with the Havana Philharmonic Orchestra as a teenager, working under the baton of visiting guest conductors including 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 continued to perform into his 80s. He appeared at the Hollywood Bowl in 2006, and in 2000 he performed a new composition called "Mambo Mass" at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Los Angeles. "I'm a musician. That's what I do," Cachao told the Miami Herald. "I never had delusions of grandeur. I never expected to be famous or anything like that. I just played, and whatever happened happened."

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Cachao: Uno Mas

by Eugene Holley, Jr.
September 21, 2010

Israel “Cachao" LopezCachao: Una MasDOC Film Institute2008 It's a cliché to say that any one man is largely responsible for a large part of modern music. But in the case of Israel Cachao" Lopez--the Cuban-born, Miami-based bassist, composer and bandleader, who died in 2007 at around the age of 90--that claim is true. Without the pioneering musicianship of this tanned, slightly hunched over, bowlegged musician, Latin music would not exist as it ...

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Profile

Cachao: Mambo Man

by Ernest Barteldes
July 26, 2007

At 89 years of age, Israel “Cachao Lopez continues to perform the mambo, the Afro-Cuban rhythm that he helped create with his late brother, multi-instrumentalist Orestes Lopez; a genre that gained international fame through the efforts of Tito Puente, Celia Cruz and ,principally, Perez Prado, among others.

Cachao, however, did not enjoy the initial fame of his creation due to his own shyness and because, as a young man, he had been pursuing other musical genres, as he stated during ...

Performance / Tour

The Laszlo Gardony Trio With John Lockwood & Yoron Israel At Mezzrow On May 16 - One Night Only!

Source: Scott Thompson Public Relations
January 27, 2019

The Laszlo Gardony Trio with John Lockwood & Yoron Israel at Mezzrow on May 16! One Night Only! Mezzrow 163 W. 10th St. New York, NY 10014 646-476-4346 Laszlo Gardony: piano / composer John Lockwood: bass Yoron Israel: drums Internationally acclaimed jny: Boston-based jazz pianist and composer Laszlo Gardony is one of the most expressive and technically skilled pianists working in jazz today." A formidable improviser who lives in the moment" (JazzTimes), ...
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Obituary

Jazz this week: Harold López-Nussa, Filippo Cosentino, Alice Ripley, and more

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
October 18, 2017

This week's calendar of jazz and creative music in St. Louis includes a pianist from Cuba, a guitarist from Italy, a cabaret show from a singer and actress who has earned Broadway's highest honor, and more. Let's go to the highlights... Wednesday, October 18 Cuban-born pianist Harold López-Nussa makes his St. Louis debut in the first of four evenings at Jazz at the Bistro. For more about López-Nussa and some video samples of him and his trio in action, see ...
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Video / DVD

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on Harold López-Nussa

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
October 14, 2017

This week, StLJN's video spotlight shines on pianist Harold López-Nussa, who will make his St. Louis debut with performances starting this coming Wednesday, October 18 and continuing through Saturday, October 21 at Jazz at the Bistro. Now 34 years old, López-Nussa grew up as part of a musical family in Havana, Cuba. His father, drummer Ruy Francisco López-Nussa, and uncle Ernán, a pianist, both were working musicians; his mother Mayra Torres was a piano teacher; and his younger brother Ruy ...
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Performance / Tour

Pianist Roy Mor To Tour Israel During March 2016

Source: Sphinx Publicity
March 23, 2016

Critically acclaimed New York based pianist/composer Roy Mor will perform a series of concerts in his native Israel during March 2016. He will be leading a trio featuring Ehud Ettun on bass (Fred Hersch, Danilo Perez, George Garzone) and Noam David on drums (Avishai Cohen, Omri Mor) along with special guests announced for each of the five shows taking place in Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem. Mor, an Israeli-born pianist, composer and bandleader, has been living in New York City for the ...
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Website

Jazz Near You in Israel!

Source: All About Jazz
May 11, 2015

Jazz Near You has added Jerusalem as its second Israeli website. If you live in Israel and use Jazz Near You, please spread the word to the musician and presenter community about our free event listing and distribution service. Thanks much! Jerusalem jerusalem.jazznearyou.com Tel Aviv telaviv.jazznearyou.com With the addition of Jerusalem, Jazz Near You now provides jazz event and jazz venue listings for 258 cities worldwide. If you have an active jazz scene in your city ...
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Event

Israel Celebrates International Jazz Day

Source: Michael Ricci
May 5, 2015

By Nathalie Freson Quoted as the “Ambassador of jazz in Israel" by i24 news channel, Israeli jazz pianist Gilad Chatsav was selected to organise and coordinate events throughout Israel for the International Jazz Day. In 2012, the UNESCO, in conjunction with the Thelonious Monk Institute, declared April 30 as the official day to celebrate jazz worldwide. Events are organized “to draw public attention to this art form as a vector of peace and dialogue among cultures." Although 2015 marked the ...
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Festival

The 2013 Israeli Jazz Musician Festival, Presented By NOHO Media Group In Association With The America-Israel Cultural Foundation, Will Feature An Ensemble Of Notable Israel-born Jazz Musicians

Source: GoMedia PR
April 23, 2013

Music and Multi-Media Event Will Take Place May 12 through May 14 in Manhattan and Brooklyn New York City is the “jazz capital of the world," a fact that is enhanced, to a large extent, by the constant influx of astounding talent from across the globe. Among the many jazz musicians who have come to NYC to ply their trade are a considerable contingent of players from Israel, including Roni Ben-Hur and Oran Etkin - just two of the talented ...
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Performance / Tour

Todd Gordon On Tour In Israel

Source: Zzzing Agency
March 12, 2013

Todd Gordon will be touring Israel between 7-14th December 2013, 7 dates including Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa. TODD GORDON: THE SINATRA SONGBOOK Line-up: Todd Gordon (vocals) plus piano, bass, drums and tenor saxophone. Not a conventional tribute show, but a sincere and sophisticated take on the music that was popularized by Sinatra when he was at his creative and artistic peak. “Doing it his way, the ghost of Sinatra lives on in the work of one of his most polished ...
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Event

Aldo López-Gavilán & Harold López-Nussa In Concert

Source: Ever Chavez
October 28, 2012

FUNDarte kicks off its 10th anniversary season with two innovators from the new generation of Cuban pianists Aldo López-Gavilán and Harold López-Nussa. Miami, Florida- On Saturday, November 24th, FUNDarte will be presenting Cuban Pianists Aldo López-Gavilán & Harold López-Nussa in Concert. The event will take place at the new On.Stage Black.Box Theater at Miami-Dade County Auditorium (2901 W. Flagler St., Miami). The Wild Youth of Cuban Piano This performance marks the opening of FUNDarte’s 10th anniversary season of presenting exciting, ...
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Performance / Tour

Dekel Bor "Electric Bach" Tour of Israel

Source: Dekel Bor
March 1, 2012

Dekel Bor has collaborated with Reggie Workman, Tom Harrell, The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and modern-dance icon David Parsons, and will perform a major concert-hall tour of israel in March. The “Bach Electrified" Tour will focus on selections from “6 Sonatas & Partitas for violin solo," “The Goldberg Variations" and “The Well-Tempered Clavier." The Dekel Bor Trio is: Dekel Bor—Guitars Assaf Hakimi—Contrabass Rea Mochiach—Drums Tour dates are:

3/1/12 :: Enav Cultural Center, Tel-Aviv 3/10/12 :: Tarbuta, Yokne'am ...
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