Cachaito

Generally regarded as the finest bass player in Cuba, Cachaito Lopez is the heartbeat of the Buena Vista collective, and is the only musician who has played on every track of every album in this ongoing series of best-selling Cuban albums. The torch-bearer for a veritable dynasty of Lopez musicians, Cachaito's family boasts a legacy of 30 bassists who have enriched the sound of Cuban music through the generations, his father Orestes and uncle Israel having made groundbreaking innovations in mambo and descarga. Cachaito takes the spotlight on an album that marks a distinct departure from the preceding Buena Vista projects - heavily atmospheric and all instrumental, it has been likened to the soundtrack for an imaginary film. The groove-based sound incorporates a wide variety of influences stretching from dub reggae to jazz to DJ culture, while remaining rooted in Cuban tradition. Instead of piano or tres, the basic ensemble contains Hammond organ and electric guitar. The result is a new sound that mixes surf guitar, turntables, tropical string sounds, and B3 to a master rhythm section. Personnel highlights include Bigga Morrison, Hugh Masekela, Pee Wee Ellis and DJ Dee Nasty.

Buena Vista Social Club bassist Orlando Cachaito Lopez busts out of the senior activity center with an out-there release worthy of a youngster that draws on five decades of professional cool. Instead of trying to compress the history of Cuban dance music, Cachaito elongates it into a shape-shifting amoeba that can swallow and absorb almost any influence. On "Redencion," reggae-inflected electric organ jabs throw open the door to dub effects. Massed charanga violins stutter and echo as the bottom drops in and out of the mix. The project gets a jolt from figures not usually associated with Cuban music, like Jamaican organist Bigga Morrison, French DJ Dee Nasty, South African flugelhornist Hugh Masekela, and saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis of James Brown Revue fame. But it's the Cubans who provide the disc's most unexpected performances. The pizzicato strings on "Oracion Lucumi" fall like snow in a glass globe shaken hard by a gritty tres solo. Groove-heavy "A Gozar el Tombao" spills in on Manuel Galban's reverb-laden surf guitar. Ibrahim Ferrer comes out of nowhere with a short ascending cameo vocal on "Wahira," the sole noninstrumental track onboard. Cachaito is the only artist to have played on every track of every Buena Vista Social Club release. In lightning-rod fashion, he's accumulated so much energy from those sessions, it flashes all over this gorgeous, mixed-up masterpiece. --Bob Tarte