Mambo creator 'Cachao' dies

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Cuban musician Israel López, more commonly known as Cachao, has died in Miami at the age of 89. López is credited with creating the mambo. He was born into a musical family in Havana in 1918 and began his career playing music for silent films. He began playing with Havana's Symphony Orchestra while still a teenager. By the 1930s he was well-known as a Latin jazz virtuoso along with his brother Orestes López. He was a prolific composer, writing many songs based on the Cuban Son style.

Cachao left Cuba for Spain in 1962 but later moved to the United States. He performed with numerous other Latin musicians including Tito Puente and Gloria Estefan. He and his brother won Grammy awards in 1995 and 2005 and Cachao was honoured with a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame in 2003.

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