Descarga Cubana
Cachao y Su Ritmo Caliente · 1957 · from the album Cuban Jam Session in Miniature: “Descargas”
The jam session that gave salsa the descarga, led by the bassist who helped invent the mambo.
- bass
- descarga
Why it matters
Bassist Israel “Cachao” López and his brother Orestes helped create the mambo in the late 1930s, in Arcaño y sus Maravillas, with a syncopated closing section left open to the players and the dancers.
In 1957 Cachao gathered musicians in Havana for sessions that ran from 4 to 9 in the morning, straight from their nightclub gigs, and recorded them for Panart. The musicians improvised freely, the way jazz players do: descargas, Cuban jam sessions.
The descarga became part of salsa: the Fania All-Stars' long live jams are descargas, and so are the solo sections in the middle of many salsa songs.
What to listen for
- The bass: Cachao's tumbao, the repeating bass pattern that holds a Cuban band together. Most salsa bass lines still work the same way.
- A descarga has no verses to wait for: the groove starts and the players take turns improvising over it. Listen for who's soloing, and let the solos shape your dancing.