Thursday, March 21, 2013

Today’s Video: Gracias Cachao

We will be off on Friday but we'll hopefully return over the weekend to examine news and notes from around the Americas.

On Thursday the U.S. Library of Congress (LOC) added twenty-five audio recordings to its National Recording Registry including music from Chubby Checker, Van Cliburn and Janis Joplin.  The LOC also recognized influential Cuban musician and composer Israel "Cachao" López by including his 1957 album “Descargas: Cuban Jam Session in Miniature” to the registry.

Already a pioneer of mambo, López gathered a dozen fellow musicians fresh off their respective nightclub gigs to participate in early morning jam sessions at a recording studio.  Their short, improvised jams different aspects of Afro-Cuban music with songs from the island and the rhythms of jazz.

According to the LOC, the resulting album “has had a lasting impact on Latin music, especially on the Salsa style that emerged in the 1960s, and Cachao organized many similar sessions for further albums both in Cuba and in the United States, where he settled after the Cuban revolution”.

Below is “Trombon Criollo”, which is one of the tracks from “Descargas”:

López died in March 2008 due to complications resulting from kidney failure.  He was 89-years-old. 

Video Source – YouTube via user puchie82766
 

Online Sources - Library of Congress

No comments: