Customer Reviews

Cachaito

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Amazon description duly warns potential buyers that this album doesn't ride the Buena Vista SC coattails. It won't sit well with those who want Cuban musicians to remain museum pieces against the backdrop of a Havana that disappeared long ago. But the reality is that the musicians of BVSC, and those with whose orbits they intersect, are too good to replay the old hits in the old way ad nauseum. They are not like the decaying buildings and antiquarian automobiles that so endear the naive foreigners to Castro's island prison.

Anyway, this is a fresh, "modern," album. It is often more for careful, demanding listening than for dancing. It owes as much to bebop as it does son, but it is not swing as the term is commonly understood. It is jazz (but not "light jazz," please). It takes more chances -- prancing into new territory -- than other BVSC solo efforts (which is not to diminish those). I don't know if Cubans use the term, but Puerto Ricans might call this blend of sounds "sancocho." A Cuban jazz wall of sound with decidedly untraditional elements.

Perhaps the audience for challenging music is small in the U.S. American ears have been trained for music that plays well in TV commercials and sporting events. Complex literature, movies, art, and music are not in vogue in the States.

But a few of us have not been well-trained, and we still like our senses challenged. If you rebel against predigested artistry, this disc is well worth a listen. It's very good.

Forget any preconceived notions you may have had about Orlando Cachaito Lopez and the Buena Vista Social Club. That was then, this now. On his self titled recording, Orlando Cachaito Lopez presents contemporary jazz stripped to its barest essentials with club music, African percussion, Cuban charanga, rap, hip-hop overdubs and a funky Hammond organ.

Admittedly, Cachaito`s recording caught me completely off guard. None the less, I was pleasantly surprised by his idiosyncratic approach to his music. This is not typical Cuban music by any stretch of the imagination. At times, the band sounds dreamlike, unrehearsed and somewhat eclectic. However, the music never fails to swing.

Accolades to Buena Vista Social Club musical director, Juan de Marcos Gonzalez and Demetrio Muñiz, architects of the horn and string arrangements and producer, Nick Gold. Also, the cast of characters who contributed to the music: African flugelhornist, Hugh Masakela, saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis (of the James Brown revue), master percussionist, Tata Guines and French DJ Dee Nasty (to name a few).

With this recording, Orlando Cachaito Lopez, nephew of the great Israel Cachao Lopez, maintains the family tradition of breaking musical ground. In every other respect, Cachaito's music swings on its own terms.

This is an artist who is absolutely open to the limitless boundaries of music. Lopez blends elements of traditional cuban music, jazz, reggae, funk, and hip hop into a wonderful product.

Lopez is a briliant bass player, a fact I appreciate better after having seen him play live. In the Buena Vista Social club series, his playing is often understated within the array of instruments one hears. But here, one gets the sense that he is really striking out on his own and showing what he can do as a composer as well as an interpreter of other material.

A truly rich musical experience.

Wow. Cachaito the Fearless, I shall call him. His peers from BVSC have released good albums, but all of them very traditional, not straying at all from the tried and true Cuban styles. But Cachaito's attitude is one of open, boundless experimentation. This music sounds almost URGENT, as if he has so much inside that he HAS to let out, so much he has to try. Cachaito's bass is very upfront, in interesting dialogues with Hammond organ, percussion, flute, electric guitar and even a DJ! Cuban music stretched to unimaginable limits, taken to uncharted territories.

What knocked me sideways is the way Cachao & CO. groove without being boring (what an understatement..!) This incredible bass player, together with the human octopus Miguel Angá Diaz on congas and the various other top-musicians create a rather Cuban-psychedelic impression which should last for some years. If Buena Vista SC was was for everybody, this one is for hot nights...

I simply LOVE Afro-Cuban Jazz - and this CD adds up to various styles without really breaking them. Nevertheless, it's so NEW!!

Hard to put into words. Try to imagine very restrained, very intelligent Fender Telecaster with very heavy reverb; pizzicato strings; bitchin cuban percussion; and a mellow, masterful, jazzy string bass, all playing ensemble, as opposed to taking turns showing off. It's like a warm clean salty sea breeze, making a most pleasant background to, like, everything; but the closer you listen, the more voices you hear . . . when you didn't expect to hear voices at all, but there they are. You can't help but listen and become fascinated.

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!

this album is a great extension of the BVSC vets. a pleasure from a to z. with up to date jazzy and familiar buena vista sound, i enjoyed this album. even my teenager niece loved it. well done, Cachaito. i saw you on stage in Tel Aviv, 1999, and wish you many happy returns.

I can't disagree with the reviewer who says this disc is "pleasant enough." The tempos are similar, and it does seem to be an excuse to feature various instruments. However, since buying Cachaito the disc hasn't been out of my CD player. I find it is easily my favourite of the BVSC releases, though this may be partly due to the fact that it has a slightly different feel (a bit more contemporary) than the others and I may be a bit burned out from all the other BVSC music (too much of a good thing - a concept utterly foreign to marketing departments). Whatever this disc has going for it, I love it and will probably continue to play it over and over and over ...

i don't know much about jazz.

i got a dad who likes it.

he drinks wine. he likes jazz. he sails boats. he's an amateur. drinker, jazz connoisseur, sailor.

he didn't turn me onto this.

a friend did.

but after hearing this album i decided that if he wants to substantiate his hobby, he needs to add this to his collection.

i don't know anything about music but this album grabbed ahold of my senses and shook them like an autumn tree. the leaves that fell were all musical notes connected to emotions. the ground was littered with emotion, like confetti.

if you listen to one latin album in the next 10 years make it conchaito's. this thing plucks and bongo's things inside of you that you didn't know existed. your head will spin with motifs and ideas that border on the hallucinogenic. you will gaze frozen and perplexed wondering how you never learned to play an instrument.

there are echoes and phrases that do none other than mirror human creative potential. take that bass line, let it inflate your spirit, allow it to launch you out of everything ordinary in your life into a musical orgasm.

if you have 5 CD's in your possession let this be four of them.

come back to the bass.

never before have I understood the importance of the bass.

everything else follows like the seasons to the year.

i don't know the first thing about jazz. let alone cuban jazz.

this album gives you the right to know jazz and cuban music.