Cachaito

Amazon.com's Best of 2001
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

Tracks:

Siempre Con Swing (intro)
Redencion
Mis Dos Pequenas
A Gozar El Tumbao
Cachaito In Laboratory
Tumbao No. 5
Conversacion
Tumbanga
Oracion Lucumi
Wahira
Anais
La Negra

Amazon.com's Best of 2001

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

Customer Reviews:

siempre con swing.......2007-05-27

i own alot of music by cubanos- ruben, chucho, beny, celia, ibrahim, chocolate, mongo and the list goes on. this album is as good as it gets. it swings, it's soulful, it's jazzy, it's got that riddim. let's face it when it comes to music, boxing, even baseball that little island produces some incredible talent. compralo!

grouchy needs q-tips.......2007-02-19

full on buy!

Not to mention the depth and pure sonic lustre alone but having Pee Wee Ellis take on the swoon inside "Wahira" along with Ferrar turns this album into more than just a document. Outstanding and essential.

A low mark of an excellent franchise.......2006-03-14

I own every single Buena Vista CDs and this is the one that falls short of all the other CDs. Having seen Cachaito Lopez live in a concert does not change my negative evaluation. All in all, I would not recommend this CD. Actually, I have sold mine. If you really want to buy it, buy it used.

Covering all the basses, literally........2006-03-04

This is a VERY impressive album. There is something on here for everybody. Straight Buena Vista style to modern hip-hop mixes, it is all here. I could go on, but just go buy this one.

Great recording from a engineers point of view. Great mix puts you right in the music.

Cachaito: The Outstanding Modern Cuban Bass .......2005-12-16

After their contribution to the Buena Vista Social Club project, the main characters succesively were given the opportunity to create their own album(s). The both late singer Ibrahim Ferrer and tremendous good pianist Rubén González (one of my all time favourites and alter ego) have shown in their projects that despite of their age, they were perfectly able to combine the essence of traditional Cuban music and modern "cross over" musical styles.
Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez shows the world on his first (and hopefully many to be followed!) album, what the position of the bass in the modern Cuban linked music is or should be. Never have I heard something like this before and I am completely knocked of my feet by his outstanding bass playing. Accompanied by the crême the la crême of the best Cuban musicians and percussionists like timbalist Almadito Valdés (when is his first album to be born?), he createst the ultimate mix of Cuban music, jazz, reggae, rock, hip hop etc. Not an album for the lovers of traditional Cuban music, and meant for the more "sophisticated" listener, that's true, but a very excellent one. And once your start listening, you're hooked forever.

There is only one "shortcoming" to this album: 50 minutes is much too short, because it should go on forever!