Cuban bassist Cachao still going strong at 88

By Herbert Lash

NEW YORK, July 31 (Reuters Life!) - Legendary Cuban bassist Israel "Cachao" Lopez, a father of the mambo before Perez Prado made it famous in the 1950s, is still searching for new ideas.

Famous for revolutionizing Cuban music by mixing vibrant African rhythms to a staid, string-based standard known as danzon in the late 1930s, the 88-year-old won't let up.

He embarked on a three-week tour of Europe last week, has plans to record a CD in Los Angeles with actor Andy Garcia in October and days after his birthday in September, he will be feted for his 80 years in music in Miami, which he now calls home.

Asked in a recent interview if he has composed any songs for the planned sessions in Los Angeles, Cachao shook his head and pointed to his head.

"It's all here. I like to improvise," he said.

A handful of the songs on Cachao's Grammy award-winning 2005 recording "Ahora Si" were put together on the spot in the studio.

Cachao, who by his count has written 1,500 danzon songs, in the late 1950s recorded a series of descargas, which allow a soloist to improvise.

Along with his brother Orestes he laid down the mambo's lines in 1937. Cuban pianist Bebo Valdes also played a role, but it was Prado who speeded up the tempo, made the brass section blare and the rest was history. The mambo became a worldwide craze.

Although Cachao uses a cane and needed help getting on stage during a recent gig at the Blue Note nightclub in New York, once behind the upright bass he came alive.

Cachao lived up to his reputation as king of tumbao, a driving rhythm the bass and conga provide in Afro-Cuban music. Clearly in command, he nodded to the other musicians when it was their turn to solo.

Cachao, whose name he said derives from an Andalusian grandmother who would yell at him using the playful Spanish interjection "cachondeo," wants to be remembered as a musician, composer and director.

He demands high standards from his musicians and berates popular music that is not rigorous.

Cachao was born in 1918 in the same house as Cuban liberator Jose Marti. At age two, Cachao said he was dancing the Spanish jota to entertain Spaniards in post-colonial Cuba. By eight years old he was playing bongos and within five years he played bass in the symphony.

Cachao stayed for 30 years at the Philarmonic until 1960, a year after Castro took power. By 1962 Cachao had fled Cuba, first to Spain for a couple of years and then the United States. He now lives in Miami, where earlier this year he was named king of Calle Ocho's carnival.

Garcia helped put Cachao's name back in the spotlight with his 1993 documentary "Cachao, Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos."