May 6th, 2008:
Tom Waits has chosen Omar Torrez to perform with him on his US & European 'Glitter & Doom' Summer Tour ! The tour begins in the US in June and continues to Europe throughout the summer.
Apr 28th, 2008:
Omar Torrez Rocks !!! After hearing rave reviews about Omar Torrez, we finally had check this guy out. Needless to say, he definitely lives up to his hype. He's got the Santana vibe down, but rips guitar like no one we've ever heard. For you Angelenos, Omar will be at Hotel Cafe on May 3rd. For everyone else, check out his myspace. http://music. hollyscoop. com/omar-torrez/omar-torrez-rocks_668. aspx
Apr 28th, 2008:
The Omar Torrez Band - "Senorita" from the CD 'The Beat Outside' The Omar Torrez band plays host to his Hendrix inspired licks. Not only was Omar influenced by Hendrix, he's a winner of the Jimi Hendrix Guitar Competition in Seattle, WA, and includes a cover of "Little Wing" on his latest self released disc, The Beat Outside. "Dare we dub him the latin Hendrix!?" says the Los Angeles Times. Omar was also voted best band in Seattle by the Seattle Weekly. The Band: Omar Torrez- vocals, guitar Dana Heitman- trumpet Tige DeCoster- bass Paula Fehrenbach- Cello Josephine Vergara- Violin John Wakefield- percussion, keys, string arrangements Dale Fanning- drums To hear more new songs from Omar Torrezs check out their The Omar Torrez Band Myspace Page: MYSPACE.COM/OMARTORREZ
Click on the Andre Miripolsky-designed CD Cover to listen!
You can now listen to Omar's radio interview on KPFK's "Global Village" show!
Download the format that is playable on your system. (depending on which browser used, you will need to right-click and save target as, or shift-left-click on the link to download)
Windows (.wmv) 28.5 MB
Quicktime (.mov) 28.5 MB
Real (.rm) 74.0 MB
Video by Travis Winn
nio.com
"... saw portions of some impressive acts, most notably the Omar Torrez Band which blanketed the crowd with a hybrid of Latin and Soul music which had those in attendance dancing like they were in a Ricky Martin video."
Review of Bumbershoot 2005, GlideMagazine.com
"He sounds like a Gypsy King channeled through Hendrix."
—Gene Stout, music critic, Seattle Post Intelligencer
"Dare we dub him the Latin Hendrix?" "The fastest fingers in the West, a massive talent poised to break out and kiss the sky."
—Tom Scanlon, music critic, The Seattle Times
"Omar Torrez is crossing many borders and establishing many unlikely links - between classical and pop, virtuoso and hot swinging, Latin and blues, European and American, sexy and pure... and doing all this with style."
—Artemy Troitsky, world-renowned music critic and member of World Music Consortium
"Omar Torrez is one of the most creative and gifted young guitarists I have had the pleasure of working with. His dynamic approach pushes the boundaries of the acoustic guitar into a whole new realm. Omar has appeared at several events on behalf of our company and his performance never ceases to amaze the audience."
—Del Breckenfeld, Director, Entertainment Marketing, Fender Musical Instruments Corp.
"The self-described flamenco-soul-groove guitarist has a rare gift: to take very difficult material and make it sound easy. With style, besides. With a grab bag of influences ranging from Segovia to Santana to Garcia Marquez, Torrez achieves a musical union of ideas rarely matched in any genre."
—One Reel, production company of Bumbershoot festival