Juan Pablo Torres Morell (August 17, 1946 – April 17, 2005) was a Cuban trombonist, bandleader, arranger and producer. He was the director of Algo Nuevo and a member of Irakere, two of the leading exponents of

songo Songo may refer to: * Songo music, a type of contemporary Cuban music originating in Havana * Songo people, of northern Angola * Songo-salsa, a style of music that blends Spanish rapping and hip hop beats with salsa music and songo * Songo.mn, ...

and Afro-Cuban jazz in the 1970s and 1980s. He has also directed various Cuban supergroups such as

Estrellas de Areito Estrellas de Areito (The Stars of Areito) was an ensemble involving over thirty of Cuba's musicians, including Rubén González, Richard Egües, Nino Rivera, Félix Chappotín, Miguelito Cuní, Pío Leyva, Arturo Sandoval, Tata Güines and Paqui ...

and Cuban Masters. He has been called "one of the best trombone players in the Latin-jazz community of the 1990s".

Life and career

Torres was born in Puerto Padre (former

Oriente Province Oriente (, "East") was the easternmost province of Cuba until 1976. The term "Oriente" is still used to refer to the eastern part of the country, which currently is divided into five different provinces. Fidel and Raúl Castro were born in a sm ...

) on August 17, 1946. His father, who played trumpet and trombone, instilled a love of music in him from a young age. He began his musical work as euphonium player in the municipal band. Before graduating from the Escuela Nacional de Arte, Torres started his career Octavio Sánchez Cotán's ensemble. In the spring of 1967 he joined the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna (OCMM), a large jazz ensemble directed by Armando Romeu. Soon after in the early 1970s, he directed his own group with other members of the OCMM: Los Caneyes, which created the new rhythm "chikichaka". He also started his career as a producer in

EGREM EGREM (Empresa de Grabaciones y Ediciones Musicales, Spanish for ''Enterprise of Recordings and Musical Editions'') is the national record label of Cuba. It is headquartered in Centro Habana, where its main record studios (''Estudios Areito'' 101 & ...

, Cuba's national record label. In 1979, he was chosen as director for the

, an all-star ensemble which recorded several albums of descargas, improvised jam sessions. In 1976, he founded his own group, Grupo Algo Nuevo, recording several seminal albums of the songo genre until its dissolution in 1984. In the mid-1980s, Torres joined Irakere, which had been founded by former members of the OCMM, such as Chucho Valdés, Paquito D'Rivera and Arturo Sandoval. The latter two emigrated from Cuba to the United States in the 1980s, and Torres followed suit in 1992, when he decided to stay in Spain with his wife, Elsa, after the

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

Conservatory offered them a teaching contract. In 1993, they relocated to the US, where he was a member of the TropiJazz All-Stars, Cuban Masters (which he directed) and the Caimán (Cobo Music) All Stars, three all-star ensembles similar to the Estrellas de Areito. During this time he continued to record and release solo albums, while also playing as a session musician with Bebo Valdés, Paquito D'Rivera, Juan Manuel Ceruto, and others. In 2002, he produced

Generoso Jiménez Generoso Jiménez García (July 17, 1917 – September 15, 2007), commonly known as Tojo, was a Cuban trombonist, bandleader and arranger. He was a member of Beny Moré's Banda Gigante and a frequent collaborator of musicians in the descarga scene ...

's comeback album: ''Generoso qué bueno toca usted''. He contributed to several soundtracks, such as '' Henry IV'' (with music by Astor Piazzolla) by Marco Bellocchio and ''Para que no me olvides'' by Patricia Ferreira. The latter was his last recording session. He died in Miami on April 17, 2005, from an inoperable brain tumor which caused him to fall into a coma. The compilation album ''A Life in Music'' was released shortly after his death.

Style

His style has been described as the convergence of the two trends of Cuban trombone: the traditional trend, exemplified by

, and the jazz trend, spearheaded by Leopoldo "Pucho" Escalante. Torres considered himself influenced by jazz, but "always remembering élix Chappottín".

Awards and honours

In 2002, the album ''Cuban Masters'' by Los Originales featuring Juan Pablo Torres was nominated for the Latin Grammy Award for Best Traditional Tropical Album at the

3rd Annual Latin Grammy Awards The 3rd Annual Latin Grammy Awards were held in Los Angeles at the Kodak Theatre on Wednesday, September 18, 2002. Alejandro Sanz was the night's big winner, winning a total of three awards including Album of the Year. The ceremony returned in s ...

, but lost to ''

El Arte del Sabor ''El Arte del Sabor'' (literally ''The Art of Flavor'') is a jazz album by the Bebo Valdés Trio released in 2001 by Blue Note Records. It was recorded and mixed in New York's Current Sounds studios during March 2000. The album features Bebo Valdé ...

'' by Bebo Valdés,

Cachao Israel López Valdés (September 14, 1918 – March 22, 2008), better known as Cachao ( ), was a Cuban double bassist and composer. Cachao is widely known as the co-creator of the mambo and a master of the descarga (improvised jam sessions). T ...

and Carlos "Patato" Valdés. The following year it was nominated for

Best Tropical Latin Album The Grammy Award for Best Tropical Latin Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for releasing albums in the tropical latin music ...

along with ''Generoso qué bueno toca usted'', but lost again to ''El Arte del Sabor''.

Discography

*1975: ''Y viva la felicidad'' (Areito) *1976: ''Mangle'' (Areito) *1977: ''Súper-son'' (Areito) *1977: ''Con todos los hierros'' (Areito) *1977: ''Cuba romántica'' (Areito) *1978: ''Algo Nuevo'' (Areito) *1981: ''Grupo Algo Nuevo'' (Areito) *1985: ''Yamina'' (Areito) *1990: ''Aerobics!'' (Areito) *1995: ''Trombone Man'' (TropiJazz) *1997: ''Pepper Trombone'' (RMM) *2000: ''Son qué chévere'' (Circular Move) *2001: ''Cuba Swings'' (Universal) *2002: ''Together Again'' (Pimienta) *2002: ''¡Cómo pica!'' (Pimienta) *2003: ''Identidad'' (Timba) *2003: ''Afro-Cuban Trombone'' (Pimienta) With Cuban Masters *2002: ''Los Originales'' (Pimienta) With Maxo Séverin *2001: ''El tululu'' (Alizés)

References

External links