the first inductee (together with Celia Cruz) in the Billboard Latin Music Hall of Fame. Shortly after, García brought Cachao to a recording studio to record a descarga album, partly in honour of his father (who was friends with Cachao's family) and his hometown, Bejucal, where his father was known as el alcalde (the mayor). The album, entitled Master Sessions Vol. I, became a success, charting in the Billboard Latin 50 and winning the Grammy Award for Best Tropical Latin Album in March 1995. The follow-up, Master Sessions Vol. 2, which featured Paquito D'Rivera and Rolando Laserie, was released in 1995 and was also nominated for Best Tropical Latin Album but lost to Gloria Estefan's Abriendo Puertas. In 1995, Nick Gold (head of World Circuit Records) and Juan de Marcos González (director and tres player of Sierra Maestra) decided to record a series of descarga sessions featuring established Cuban musicians together with African virtuosos Toumani Diabate (kora player) and Djelimady Tounkara (guitarist). By early 1996, the Cuban musicians had been already selected and the African musicians were about to travel to Cuba, but due to difficulties in obtaining visas they could not make it. Gold then invited Ry Cooder and his son Joachim to participate in the sessions; Ry would play guitar and Joachim African percussion. The recording sessions took place in March 1996 in Havana's EGREM studios and yielded two albums released in 1997: A toda Cuba le gusta, credited to the Afro-Cuban All Stars, and Buena Vista Social Club. Both albums, especially the latter, included extended descargas featuring Juan de Marcos on tres, Rubén González (who had taken part in Estrellas de Areíto) on piano, Orlando "Cachaíto" López (Cachao's nephew) on bass and Amadito Valdés on timbales. Buena Vista Social Club went on to become an international sensation, winning the 1998 Grammy for Best Tropical Latin Album and spawning a documentary by Wim Wenders which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1999. The album directly combined classic Cuban trova and filin with intense descarga jamming. The presence of laúd player Barbarito Torres, as well as Joachim Cooder's udu and dumbek, introduced seldom seen instruments into the genre. Another Cuban all-star ensemble, Caravana Cubana, recorded and released two albums at the turn of the century, Late Night Sessions (2000) and Del alma (2002). Described as a "serendipitous union of stellar jammers", both sessions include