Master Sessions, Vol. 1

Cuban bassist, composer, and bandleader Israel "Cachao" Lopez embodies the history of modern Cuban music. In the late 1930s, he and his brother Orestes, a pianist and composer, reworked the old danzon and created the revolutionary mambo. By the time the world was catching up to it, 20 years later, he was on to another innovation, leading descargas, Latin jam sessions. He has anchored nearly every significant group in Latin music in the U.S. over the past 35 years, from Machito to Gloria Estefan. Master Sessions, released in 1994 and featuring a superb cast including reedman Paquito D'Rivera, percussionist Francisco Aguabella, flutist Nestor Torres, and timbalero Orestes Vilato, represented Cachao's long overdue rediscovery. The program includes danzones, decargas, rumbas, and even an Ernesto Lecuona piece. The music here is as down-home wise and deceptively simple as the man at the bottom of it. Musical lessons are rarely as rich and delightful. --Fernando Gonzalez