The Source is providing short feature stories on the musicians taking part in the St. John Christmas Music Festival. The lineup includes Nestor Torres, the Paoli Mejias Latin Jazz Quintet, and the Eddie Russell Quelbe Latin Jazz Dec. 16, Kim Waters and Maryel Epps Dec. 17, and St. John's Inner Visions Dec. 18. For more on these artists, go to the music section of the Source.
Nestor Torres
Latin Grammy Award winner Nestor Torres will help open the St. John Christmas Music Festival Dec. 16.
Torres took his first flute lessons at age 12 in Puerto Rico. He moved to New York at 18 with his family.
"That’s where I first developed my improvisational skills as a charanga (Cuban dance music) flutist," he says. "In charanga, the flutist improvises a great deal — the focus of his solos are to make people dance. Even when I play today, my approach is still very rhythmic and melodic."
He moved to Miami in 1981 and signed a recording deal with PolyGram. He released Morning Ride under that label in 1989. It was his major label debut, and the album climbed quickly to the top of the Billboard Contemporary Jazz charts.
His Latin-jazz composition Luna Latina was nominated in 2000 for a Latin Grammy. A year later, he won a Latin Grammy for This Side of Paradise. His more recent albums include the 2004 releaseSin Palabras, which means 'without words.'
Miles Osland wrote a book on flute-technique and music vocbulary, which was published in 2003, titled The Music of Nestor Torres. It comes with a CD of Torres' music.
About the Festival
In an effort to bring the community together during the holiday season, concert producer and St. John resident Steve Simon, has organized the first St. John Christmas Music Festival.
Simon says he decided to organize the event at the suggestion of fellow St. John residents Ira Wade and Julien Harley.
The festival runs Dec. 16 through Dec. 18, with free music and events all three evenings at the Winston Wells Ballfield in Cruz Bay.
The event's sponsors are Donald Sussman, Premier Wine & Spirits, The Westin Resort and Villas, Holiday Homes, American Paradise Real Estate, Tropical Properties, Theodore Tunick and Co., First Bank, The Inn at Tamarind Court, and the Tourism Department.
For more on the St. John Christmas Music Festival, see "St. John's Christmas Will Be Filled With Music".