Flexible Connections: Álvaro Torres Speaks
Photo by Sandra Sue, courtesy of the artist.
by Sarah Thomas
After years of planning to move to New York, Spanish pianist Álvaro Torres arrived in 2021 to begin his master’s degree at Manhattan School of Music. Since moving here, he has worked with musical heroes and connected with creative people both in and outside of music. We caught up with Álvaro to chat about his new trio, what life has been like in NYC, and his upcoming projects.
The Jazz Gallery: Can you tell me about your show coming up at the Gallery?
Álvaro Torres: The show is going to be with this legendary drummer, Barry Altschul. He turned 80 years old in January and I've been playing with him for a couple of shows already in New York.
I’ve only been in New York for a year and a half. I'm still kind of new. It's been a dream for me. I arrived to the city, contacted Barry, and we got together and played a session. Then these opportunities came up to play some concerts and he was willing to do it. Playing with him is just too good to be true.
He's also such a great human being. He's a very young spirit, very joyful, always joking and very much alive. He seems really young when you talk to him. Just spending time with him, talking, hearing the stories—I’m always overwhelmed.
And musically, of course, it's amazing. I write my own music. I like a lot of improvised music, and he likes that too. When I play with him, I feel that there is really no limit. I feel like I can dream of something and go very far and have an idea, and go here and go there, and there is never a problem. He is always contributing and giving me more ideas. There are just no limits, which is not that usual for me. So I'm super thankful.
It's amazing to play with him, and also John Hébert, the bassist. He is super special. He can do so many things. He can play straight ahead and play tunes and sight read really well, then he can use his ears and go to very far places. He’s so creative. So it's very easy to play with them. I can go there and play anything, and they will make it sound better.
TJG: Did you meet both John and Barry after moving to the city?
AT: Yes. With Barry, I just contacted him. I wrote him a love letter, almost. I said, “Hey Barry, this is me. I'm a friend of a friend and I just moved to the city. Thank you so much for all the music you recorded. You inspired the younger generation to play differently.” It was the confession of a fan. I told him there was a chance to play and asked if he wanted to do it, and he was very positive and said yes.
This is a very New York story, probably. I just contacted my hero and he wanted to play with me. I sent him some of my music, of course, and he replied, “Give me a call to this number.” When we talked, he was like, “I see that you've been listening to Paul Bley,” who is one of my main heroes. They used to play together a lot, and they recorded a lot of music together.
After I confirmed one gig with Barry, I thought of John Hébert. I thought he would be a good fit, so I contacted him and gave him my album. I just said to John, “Hey, here's my album. Would you like to play this gig?” And it worked out, so I'm super happy.
TJG: What made you gravitate towards the piano, bass, and drums instrumentation?
AT: There is a lot of music already with the piano trio combination. Of course, I checked a lot of piano trios out. But what is the real reason?
Well, one reason that I play in a trio is because I tried to play gigs back in Europe, and the money is not that good. It's hard to put together a quintet and pay everyone. It's easier with three people. That's one reason, sadly.
Also, I think it's easier to play and improvise between three people instead of five, or seven. We are trying to build the music together. Often, I will bring tunes or suggest a tune, but it is a collective thing in the way everyone is bringing ideas or changing the direction.
In the last few years, I’ve played mostly trio concerts, although I'm starting to play in a quartet very soon which will be something different. I'm in Spain right now, because I had some concerts. I played three trio gigs, then the last gig was a quartet with the sax player Bill McHenry.
I wanted to explore something else, so we tried a quartet with Bill and it was a wonderful concert in Barcelona. I was super happy. We had Kresten Osgood on drums and Masa Kamaguchi on bass. It was beautiful. I also have this other quartet coming up in August. I'm bringing Tony Malaby and we're playing in Europe, also with Kresten Osgood and Masa Kamaguchi.
Now I have the means and the possibility to play nicer gigs, so I want to explore and be curious. But the reality is I probably played in trios because that was the possibility I had.
TJG: You’ve played in this trio instrumentation with a lot of people. How does the music change based on the group?
AT: The music is always different when the people are different. If the bassist is different, if the drummer is different, then it's a whole different experience. As I said, they contribute a lot to the music and they take us to different places.
I like to write different kinds of tunes. Many of them are a lot about improvisation, so there will be simple material and certain ideas to improvise on, but not chord changes or structure. Sometimes it's simple like that. But other times there is a form and there are chord changes—I like that too. But it's always different, depending on who I'm playing with.
TJG: How have your writing and improvisation evolved over the past few years?
AT: I like the idea of not putting in a lot of restrictions or setting a lot of rules for people, because I discovered that we can play the best version when I let them shine, bring their talent, and play what they hear. When I let them do their thing, the music can go places I didn't imagine. That’s happened a few times. With the concerts we played this week, we played basically the same repertoire—10 or 15 tunes—but it was always different.
Some people don't think this way, but for me it doesn't make sense to define a lot of the music. I like to keep it open, and then I can use the imagination of the musicians I play with, and they can contribute a lot to the music. Over the years, I think I’ve become more flexible.
TJG: What brought you to New York?
AT: I’d planned on moving to New York for a long time—10 years, actually. I had this dream to move to the city and get to know all the great musicians that I admire. I’m from Spain, so in order to do that I needed a visa. So I thought, school is probably a great way to be there.
I went to the University of North Texas as an exchange student, and while I was there I used my time to visit New York a couple times and check out schools. I ended up applying to Manhattan School of Music because I thought that was the best environment for me.
I’m very lucky because I got this beautiful scholarship, and I'm about to finish my master’s there now. At the beginning, I thought school was just an excuse to be in the city and get the visa. But it's actually an amazing place. I'm meeting all these talented young people and really great teachers. So that's how I ended up in New York.
TJG: What are some experiences, musical or otherwise, that stand out to you since moving here?
AT: I go out a lot to see live music, and I'm hearing my heroes weekly—all the music that I already loved. I'm also discovering a lot of young people who are doing amazing things, and I'm playing with some of them.
Apart from music, I'm meeting a lot of young people who work or study in other universities. I’ve met so many great people with good energy, and everyone seems to be willing to talk to you. They want to hear about you and they want to tell you their story. I love that, and I have a lot of friends who don't play music in New York. I think that’s super inspiring and good.
Even professionally, sometimes there are opportunities that come because of that. For example, I made friends with a bunch of Columbia students who do cinema, and now I'm about to finish this soundtrack for a short film. That is something I didn't expect at all. But now it's almost done. It was a lot of hours and I'm still new to Logic, so I'm learning on the job, as they say. But it’s been great and I didn’t expect that.
That kind of thing—I guess they say that about New York, but it is true. I keep meeting people and then things happen. Everyone is very passionate. Everyone has good energy. They want to do things. So those are some positive things that have happened in New York.
TJG: Do you have any other projects coming up that you want people to know about?
AT: We're planning to record this trio with Barry and John, so that will be my third album. That will happen in June. I'm super excited about that because they are heroes. I still cannot believe it. Then I have this European quartet with Kresten Osgood, Masa Kamaguchi, and Tony Malaby. They will come in August. So I need to write the music and see what we’ll do as a quartet, because it will be different. But that's something very exciting for me.
Álvaro Torres plays The Jazz Gallery on Wednesday, March 15. The group features Álvaro Torres on piano, John Hébert on bass, and Barry Altschul on drums. Sets are at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. ET. $20 general admission (FREE for members), $30 cabaret seating ($20 for members), $20 Livestream (FREE for members). Purchase tickets here.