Descargas: Cuban Jam Sessions in Miniature

López, Israel "Cachao" y Su Ritmo Caliente

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The Long Lost DNA of Latin Jazz

If you happened to wander into the forlorn downstairs bar of South Miami Beach's Waldorf Hotel in the early 1980s—before the Deco-architecture revival got going, and years before South Beach hit the fashionista party circuit—you might have encountered a nondescript trio playing "Guantanamera" and Latin-tinged lounge classics. This was music for chatting, not listening, and like countless other patrons, you probably wouldn't have paid much attention to the musicians. Mistake: On the bass there, working in an unassuming, almost invisible way, was one of the all-time legends of Cuban music—Israel "Cachao" López (1918–2008), whose résumé includes the invention of the mambo (1937), and the descarga, an informal structure for jamming, in 1957. This giant wasn't slumming, and his gig wasn't a case of how the mighty have fallen; López preferred playing to just about anything else, and, being a bass player, he was accustomed to a certain anonymity.

The backstory: Revered for his role anchoring some of the most exciting records ever made in Cuba, López left the country in 1962, three years after Fidel Castro rose to power. López settled first in New York, and played with some of the top Latin acts of the day—including Tito Rodriguez and Charlie Palmieri. He moved to Miami and planned on slowing down, but after a decade of mostly unheralded service in the Waldorf and other lounges, López was "rediscovered" in 1992 by the actor Andy Garcia, who spearheaded a documentary. The film, Como su ritmo no hay dos (There Is No Rhythm like His), led to new music (the inspired Master Sessions, Vol. 1) and triggered a full-scale reappraisal of the quiet man known to musicians simply as Cachao.

This new interest eventually prompted a wave of CD reissues, including this trailblazing session and several other records made in Cuba in the late '50s. These are archival paydirt, superhot tracks recorded cleanly and with great care. López encourages an exceptionally tight Cuban rhythm section (featuring bongo master Yeyo Iglesias) to converse in the rapid-fire back-and-forth ethos associated with jazz; the term descarga also connotes sexual release, and there are plenty of eruptions here. Starting with just a skeletal frame, the players work together, in an "old world" atmosphere of mutual respect, to make the forays memorable. They do that and something more significant besides, catching the swaggering assertiveness and deep sense of romance that drives so much Cuban music.

Genre: World, Cuba
Released: 1957, Panart
Key Tracks: "Oye mi tres montuno," "El manisero," "Trombone criollo."
Catalog Choice: Master Sessions, Vol. 1; Jam Session with Feeling
Next Stop: Las Estrellas del Arieto: Los heroes
Book Pages: 454–455