Legendary big band leader Juancho Torres has died at 74, the director of his legendary orchestra told media on Monday.
The artist and his big band recorded more than 600 songs, mainly of local genres like “porro” that originate from his native region on the Caribbean coast.
Torres was inspired by American big band artists like Duke Ellington while studing music in the United Kingdom and has also played jazz.
The “costeño,” together with legendary artists like Lucho Bermudez and Pacho Galan, has been one of the very few Colombians able to maintain their big band for more than two decades.
“He was a person who with his excellent big band rescued songs from the bin and that thanks to him were made famous,” historian Julio Cesar Peña told local newspaper El Heraldo.
Peña and Torres were both from Sincelejo, the capital of the northern Sucre department.
The local music scene declared a state of mourning, El Heraldo reported.
