Roberto Torres

Roberto Torres
Torres at a ceremony in Union City, New Jersey, where was honored with a star at Celia Cruz Plaza.
Background information
Born	(1940-02-10) 10 February 1940 (age 77) Güines, Cuba

Roberto Torres Born 10 February 1940; is a Cuban musician from Güines most famous for his interpretation of Simón Díaz's Caballo Viejo. He is considered to be one of the highest authorities in the history of the Cuban music. His singing career with Sonora Matancera puts him at the peaks and among the top singers of Cuba of all times. He has made a valuable contribution, along with Arturo Sandoval, Rosendo Rosell, Celia Cruz, and musicologist Eloy Crespo to the documentary Son, la antesala de la salsa. He is considered one of Cuba's highest assets in music. he also started the careers of many artists singers such as Billy "la voz" Quinones who is also a musician trumpeter/percussionist who at the age of 16 yrs old was Roberto Torres's lead trumpeter and music director by the age of 18. Billy la voz Quinones now sings on his solo CD project as he dedictes to Roberto his version of Caballo Viejo in a new Latin Kompa style in which Billy la voz calls Kompalsa a mix of Haitian French caribbean sounds with charanga vallenato rhythms.

Cuban-born singer, bandleader, percussionist, composer, producer and label boss Roberto Torres started singing in his mid-teens. He worked in Havana with Conjunto Universal and Orquesta Swing Casino before leaving Cuba in June 1959 for New York City. There he organised the cooperative charanga Orquesta Broadway in 1962 with Cuban flautist Eddy Zervigón, making a string of popular LPs with them on the Gema, Musicor and Tico labels between 1964 and 1968. After leaving Broadway he worked with José Fajardo and Sonora Matancera. In 1972 he sang lead vocals with Mike Martínez's Latin Dimensions on their eponymous LP on Mericana. Torres made his solo debut on same label with El Castigador (1973), including the hit "El Caminante" ("The Stroller", which became his nickname), followed by Roberto Torres y Chocolate Juntos '74 on Mericana (a collaboration with Cuban trumpeter Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros), De Nuevo, Roberto Torres y sus Caminantes and El Duro del Guaguancó '76-8 on the Mericana subsidiary Salsoul.

In 1979 he launched the New York-based SAR label (co-founded by Sergio Bofill, boss of premier 10th Avenue Latin record distributor GB Records, Adriano García and Roberto) with his own El Rey del Montuno. Over the next three years he produced over 50 LPs on SAR and allied Guajiro, Toboga and Neon labels for Papaíto, Monguito "El Unico", Linda Leida, Chocolate, Henry Fiol, La India de Oriente, Charanga De La 4, Alfredo Valdés Jr and his father, Alfredo Valdés, Fernando Lavoy and many others. Torres and SAR headed an early '80s revival of típico (typical, traditional) Cuban music which was not simply imitation of the orthodox; with African and French Caribbean market in mind he went for a "rootsy" sound, extended tracks: millions of albums were sold. Using many of the same New York-based musicians on various sessions, he formed the SAR All Stars, including Chocolate, Leopoldo Pineda on trombone, the Zervigón brothers from Orquesta Broadway, Valdés Jr. and many others.