Israel (Cachao) Lopez, the Cuban musician regarded as the pioneer of mambo music, has died at age 89 in a Miami-area hospital.

Family spokesman Nelson Albareda revealed that Cachao, as he was popularly known, died early Saturday after falling ill in the past week. The Miami Herald reports the bassist died of complications from kidney failure.

Cuban bassist Cachao, seen here performing at the Latin Grammy Awards in 2005, is credited with inventing mambo music with his brother Orestes in the late 1930s.
(Kevork Djansezian/Associated Press)

"It was not only a great musician who died, but a great senor — a gentleman," music producer Emilio Estefan of Miami Sound Machine, told the Herald. 

"Even in his deathbed he would make sure his visitors felt at ease."

The bassist and composer was a Latin Grammy Award winner who was performing and recording until he could not get out of bed.

Cachao and his late brother Orestes are considered the originators of the late-1930s invention of mambo — dance music with rhythms derived from African folk music.

Cachao further broadened the popularity of Afro-Cuban music in 1957 when he gathered a group of musicians in the early morning hours after they had all played at Havana's nightclubs.

The resulting jam session in a recording studio would revolutionize the form as the musicians improvised and the spirit of Latin jazz blossomed.

Family of 40 bassists

Cachao was born to a family of musicians, about 40 of whom became bassists.

Classically-trained, he joined a children's septet as a bongo player and would later accompany superstar cabaret performer Ignacio Villa, known as Bola de Nieve, providing music for his Havana neighbourhood's silent cinema.

By his early teens, he was playing with the Orquesta Filarmonica de La Habana under guest conductors such as Igor Stravinsky and Herbert von Karajan.

Cachao would flee to the U.S. with many other Cuban exiles in the early 1960s, landing in Las Vegas because, as he admitted, he was a compulsive gambler.

Eventually his wife would insist they move away, but only after he had gambled away almost all his money.

Cachao would settle in Coral Gables, a Miami neighbourhood, and played at nightclubs, weddings and quinceaneras — Latin coming-of-age parties for teenage girls.

Actor Andy Garcia, who is also Cuban, helped widen Cachao's influence during the 1990s by producing recordings known as the Master Sessions and holding concerts in honour of the music legend.

About to work on new CD

Cachao kept working and headlined a massive concert in September 2007 in Miami, a week after the funeral of his friend and fellow musician, trombonist Generoso Jimenez.

He was in the Dominican Republic on March 9, days before being hospitalized, to receive a lifetime achievement award and was planning a European tour in August.

Cachao was also in pre-production for a CD of new compositions.

His wife of 58 years, Ester Buenaventura Lopez, died in 2004. Cachao is survived by a daughter and grandson.