Juan Torres

Born Juan Pablo Torres Morell in Puerto Padre, Cuba on August 17, 1946, Juan Pablo Torres was a songo and Afro-Cuban jazz trombonist, composer, arranger, and bandleader. Although he is acknowledged as one of the finest trombone players to emerge in the Latin jazz community in the 1990s, his career began in Cuba in the late 1960s. He began his journey playing the euphonium (a three or four valve brass instrument) in a local band. In 1967, he joined afro-Cuban jazz ensemble Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna under the direction of Armando Romeu. Juan Pablo Torres began directing his own group, Los Caneyes, in the early 1970s. The band is acknowledged to have created the ‘chikichaka’ rhythm. In 1975, he released the album Y Viva la Felicidad, the first of a series of 1970s albums that also included Mangle (1976), Cuba Romántica (1977), and Algo Nuevo (1978). In the 1980s, he joined Irakere, a band that also featured Chucho Valdés, Arturo Sandoval, and Paquito D’Rivera. In 1992, Juan Pablo Torres emigrated to Spain, where he had accepted a teaching job at the Zaragoza Conservatory. A year later, he relocated to the United States. While living in the U.S., he became actively involved with several musical ensembles including the Tropijazz All-Stars, the Cuban Masters, and the Caimán All-Stars. Maintaining a busy schedule, Juan Pablo Torres also recorded a series of critically acclaimed albums including Trombone Man (1995), Pepper Trombone (1997), Cuba Swings (2001), and Identidad (2003). His solo releases found him working with other legendary musicians including Paquito D’Rivera and Hilton Ruiz. Juan Pablo Torres dies on April 17, 2005 from an inoperable brain tumor.