Gene Torres

Electric Bassist,

Gene Torres, born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. Originaily from Fort Greene, now residing in Bayridge. Picked up the bass at 15 years old and has not put it down since. Started out playing R&B (Motown, Stax, Atlantic, etc.) then moved on to funk (James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, Earth, Wind and Fire, etc). The 1 st group that Gene played with was called Paranoid. Paranoid was awarded the 3 rd best band in Brooklyn. At that time most of the bands had horns and we was no exception. Paranoid stayed together for about 6 years, which Gene was a part of for 5. After leaving, Gene started freelancing and getting exposed to many styles of music. The majority of musicians Gene was playing with was much older so they were like a mentor to Gene. The 1 st order was to learn Jazz, which at the time was like speaking another language. After many bumps and bruises along the way Jazz started to make sense. Still though, formal training needed to be had, so at that time Jazz Mobile was one option, another was Lynn Oliver’s. Still private lesson was another thing that had to be done so studying with Bob Willams, Ritchie Hart, Ken Hatfield, Charlie Banacos (correspondence course) and Paul Caputo and which he’s still studying with Paul up to this day…

Gene’s 1 st major recording was playing on the James Mason, Rhythm of Life, album (1977). To this day it’s in the top 100 in England and it’s a collectors item. It started a whole music revolution (Acid Jazz) in England with Sade, and a bunch of other english groups. Today, Gene at any given day, can be playing from Hip-­‐Hop to Bebop, with a little rock thrown in. Now not only playing bass, but writing, producing, music editing , sheet music(Finale), teaching privately and in a school.