Israel "Cachao" Lopez has been creating Cuban music for over sixty years. Born into a musical family, he was conservatory-trained and played with the world renowned Filarm?nica de Habana at age thirteen. The young Cachao, too short to reach the bridge of his double bass, would often perch on a soap box during performances by the orchestra. Today, he cradles the instrument as though he were its doting grandfather. An ironic background for the recipient of last year's Billboard New Artist of the Year Award. In 1939, Cachao and his late brother Orestes created a new form with their song "Mambo." Faster than the traditional styles it was derived from, the mambo spurred on a new dance craze and introduced Machito, P?rez Prado and Mongo to the Americanos del Norte, leading to the embracing of so-called "Afro-Cuban" music by Dizzy Gillespie and other jazz cats.

At the end of October, 1993, the Cuban-born actor, Andy Garcia, brought Cachao and a stellar collection of musicians into the Record Plant in Los Angeles. That week of taping resulted in thirty songs, twelve of which were released as Master Sessions Volume I. The record was released along with the Garcia-directed 1992 concert documentary "Cachao . . . Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos (Like His Rhythm There Is No Other)." Both were warmly received, the film premiering at prestigious international film festivals, and the album winning a Grammy Award. An amazing and well-deserved ascent for a master who spent the previous sixteen years playing weddings and bar mitzvahs in Miami.

Master Sessions Volume II contains twelve more unforgettable recordings from that same 1993 date. The featured musicians are an all-star cast from the world of African and Latin music. Alongside the stream of Cachao's rumbling bass are Paquito D'Rivera on alto and clarinet and Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros on trumpet, the two best horn men in Latin music today. Orestes Vilat? and "Felo" Barrio keep the rhythm section alive on g?iro and timbales respectively while guitarist Juanito M?rquez and pianist Alfredo Vald?s, Jr. drive the melodies along. Stand-out soloists on "Volume II" include N?stor Torres, whose flute reaches unparalelled heights on the danzon "El Progreso" and Rolando Laserie, the son singer who became a star in Havana in the early Fifties. Here Laserie reaches inward to deliver a shivering rendition of "El Guapachoso / The Brave One," the story of his life as a sonero. Cachao's Master Sessions are required listening for anyone setting out to discover the world of Cuban music.