Emilio Torres

Before becoming the drummer of one of the city’s most charismatic bands, The Big Jamboree, he gained experience from the early eighties playing in rock’n’roll groups, and as he gradually discovered rhythm&blues he delved ever deeper into the roots of the genre, especially jump blues, one of his favourite styles. In his own particular calendar of musical saints, artists such as Louis Jordan, Roy Brown, Wynonie Harris or Big Joe Turner occupy a prominent place, which speaks clearly of his musical preferences, always centred on the styles that foreshadowed the first rock’n’roll and rockabilly. With his musical mastery, this solid and effective drummer has become an important figure within Barcelona’s scene of music of African-American origin over the last three decades. Although his preferences lean above all towards rhythm&blues, he confesses to being seduced by the genuine purity of the blues: “An authentic, sincere and simple music, without artifice”, which has also provided him with “loads of fun”.