Had a very enjoyable phone interview yesterday with Andy Garcia, the film actor, who also happens to be a passionate and extremely knowledgeable fan of Cuban music. We were talking about a feature I'm writing on the patriarch of the double-bass, Israel López - known to all and sundry as Cachao - who's due to make his London debut later this month at the tender age of 88. Garcia rescued him from obscurity a decade and a half ago when he made the concert documentary, Cachao ... Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos (Like His Rhythm, There Is No Other). Garcia also produced Cachao's brilliant Master Sessions albums, the glossier Cuban expat precursors of the Buena Vista Social Club. (Cachaito Lopez, the venerable Buena Vista bassist, is actually Cachao's nephew.)
Here's the grand old man in a more recent performance, playing the evergreen, Lágrimas Negras alongside another Cuban master, the pianist Bebo Valdés. Beautiful, just beautiful...
Will this interview available in the internet? What are you talking about? I am a big fan of Mr Andy Garcia. I have been in two concerts of Cachao and Andy together. I like the music.
Posted by: Odessa | Sunday, April 15, 2007 at 05:42 PM
If you like Cuban music, try Eliades Ochoa.
Posted by: Bishop Hill | Sunday, April 15, 2007 at 07:50 PM
Didn't Andy Garcia, of Cuban extraction, make an anti-Castro movie a few years back? What became of it I wonder? I'd be keen to see it.
Posted by: Mark Holland | Monday, April 16, 2007 at 08:31 PM
Andy Garcia did a movie called The Lost City which tells the story of Cuba at the turn of the revolution (1958). It is not an anti-Castro movie, as the movie is based on historical facts. The story is not based on real people, but the political changes are based in history. This movie has been released in the USA (in limited release) last year and a lots of others countries. If you want to see it, rent a DVD. I would suggest you to buy it, as it is really good and there are many excellent Cuban music in it too.
If you want to listen to Andy Garcia's personal journey in making this movie (it took him 16 years!), you can listen to the Q&A session after the screening of the Lost City on 18 April last year.
http://www.fluctu8.com/soundfile/36680/
Odessa
Posted by: Odessa | Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 03:04 PM