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• Archived Blog Post

  Date / Time: 4/17/2009 6:50 AM UTC

  Boricua roots music's Tato Torres chats with PRSUN Radio April 29
  

  Tato Torres Sáez will be my guest at 9 p.m. April 29 at www.blogtalkradio.com/prsunradio.

  
  

  Tato's bio
  
  My full name is Carlos Javier Torres Sáez Rodríguez Cintrón, but most people just know me as "Tato" Torres or "TatoBrujo". I was born in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico into an extended family of musicians, educators, artisans and community leaders from the mountain top rural barrio called El Consejo Alto in the southern town of Guayanilla. I grew up in EL Alto up until 1984, when my immediate family (parents and siblings) migrated to the U.S. and lived in New York City until November of 2008 when I finally returned home to El Consejo Alto.
  
  Music is my Life!, or rather.., my Life is Music!!! I grew up in a very musical family, and I am, more than anything else, a musician, composer and singer. I am an experienced practitioner of Puerto Rican musical traditions and play a variety of musical instruments, but I am generally known and recognized as a singer. As both a musician and visual artist I have had the pleasure to have worked along side some of the best interpreters of expressive Puerto Rican traditional arts in New York City.
  
  I once studied Applied Urban Anthropology at the City College of New York (CCNY) with a focus on Ethnomusicology and concentrating on the role of traditional music within the Puerto Rican community. After several semesters of graduate school in the Masters Program at CCNY (CUNY), I to ok off to do fieldwork, and eventually, simply decided to just stay out in the field. Despite the academic experience, I identify myself as a cultural activist, and often tend to refer to myself as a "recovering anthropologist." I have dedicated myself to learning, practicing and nurturing the musical traditions of Puerto Rico throughout the Diaspora, but with a focus on the community of New York City where I live.
  
  Artistically, I've had the pleasure and honor of performing with and been part of numerous Puerto Rican musical ensembles like Los Pleneros de la 21na, Los Instantaneos de la Plena, William Cepeda's Afro Boricua and Afro-Rican Jazz, etc., and my own personal project, YERBABUENA. I've had the honor to share the stage with such greats as Andrés Jiménez, Antonio Cabán Vale "El Topo", Nito Méndez, Felix Olmo, El Gran Combo, La Sonora Ponceña, Raphy Levitt & La Selecta, Los Guyayacanes de San Antón, Yomo Toro, Papo Vázquez, and many more.
  
  I am an active member of the "musical family" from the Rincón Criollo Cultural Center in The Bronx, better known as "La Casita de Chema". And from my experience there, I founded a musical ensamble dedicated to moving our music forward without losing our roots. Firmly rooted on the ground at Rincón Criollo, the band, called "YERBABUENA" (one word), has just released their first CD, titled "BORICUA ROOTS MUSIC".
  
  www.myspace.com/tatoyerbabuena
  
  YERBABUENA is composed of young individuals who come together t o play the music that they love under my musical direction. It includes musicians, singers and dancers from the New York City area, who share an intense passion for the musical traditions of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. While well-recognized Boricuas like Willie Colón, Marc Anthony and Ricky Martin are known worldwide for their "Latin" flavor, groups like Los Pleneros de la 21na, Viento de Agua, and now YERBABUENA, have been changing the way people listen to traditional Puerto Rican music in New York City and beyond. (www.yerbabuena.biz)
  • Tags:
  • tatotorres
  • yerbabuena
  • boricua
  • music
  • puertorican
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