The Creator of Mambo Passed Away

This video was recorded in London in 2007. The bassist, Israel Chacao Lopez, was 87.

Chacao transformed the rhythm of Cuban music when he and his brother, the pianist and cellist Orestes López, extended and accelerated the final section of the stately Cuban danzón into the mambo. The springy mambo bass lines Cachao created in the late 1930’s — simultaneously driving and playful — became a foundation of modern Cuban music, of the salsa that grew out of it, and also of Latin-influenced rock ’n’ roll and rhythm-and-blues.In the late 1950’s, he brought another breakthrough to Latin music with descargas: late-night Havana jam sessions that merged Afro-Cuban rhythms, Cuban songs and the convolutions of jazz (NY Times).

Have you danced mambo? In Bucharest it was brought by Liana Antonova, a famous Bulgarian artist; long time after she had gone back to Sofia a melody was on our lips:

Tu, Liana Antonova,
Ce-ai plecat din Bucuresti,
Ne-ai lasat fetito draga,
Trei cantece ca-n povesti.

Primul e Iubesc Parisul,
Al doilea e Siboney,
Si-n sfarsit fetito draga,
L-ai lasat pe Hei Mambo...

I was thinking at this melody and at the years of my youth as I was reading the Times.

Before getting seriously ill, this March, Chacao was planning a new European tour and he was asking his manager to hurry up, telling him, You've got years, I've got minutes.

He died on Saturday.

(Musica Nova)