River Bend Live! presents the Bobby Torres Ensemble. For this special event, Bobby revisits the days when he played the Blues with Joe Cocker and Mad Dogs & Englishmen with Claudia Lennear and Leon Russel. The ensemble features vocalists Julana Torres (La Colora) and Claudia Lennear (of Tina Turner and Joe Cocker) and Blues Man Lloyd Jones (Lloyd Jones Struggle). Also featuring Reinhardt Melz (of Pink Martini) on drums, Dan Gaynor on piano, Tom Kay on bass, and the ensemble horns with Lars Campbell, Renato Caranto and Noah Simpson. This River Bend Live! event is the perfect opportunity to sit back, relax and enjoy music by some of the finest musicians that the Northwest has to offer. Bring your family, a picnic basket and a lawn chair or blanket to enjoy a beautiful summer evening listening to live music. View the OPB special.
Bobby Torres, Band Leader
About Bobby Torres: Bobby is a band leader, musician, record producer, songwriter, and session musician with a 40-year professional history that spans the globe and a lengthy discography. Originally from New York City, Bobby developed his reputation while performing with Joe Cocker at Woodstock, touring with Joe Cocker Mad Dogs & Englishmen, and performing and/or touring or recording with countless other music stars such as Al Jarreau, Jackson Browne, Beach Boys, the Captain & Tennille, and Etta James – to name a few. He has an extensive discography. He also performed and toured the globe for 10 years with Tom Jones. Bobby was nominated “Outstanding Percussionist” (a Muddy Waters Award), he was inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame and he received The Jazz Hero Award from the Jazz Journalists Association. Bobby has been a respected advocate, speaker, instructor and keeper of Latin rhythms on the Portland music scene for many years. The Ensemble is his central focus.
Former Ikette Claudia Lennear
About Claudia Lennear: Claudia was a musical pioneer who sang background vocals across the genres on stage and on recordings with Ike and Tina Turner, Allen Toussaint, the Rolling Stones, Joe Cocker, Leon Russell, George Harrison, Elton John, Steven Stills, Taj Mahal, and many others. Claudia worked professionally with many of the producers and sidemen musicians who developed the foundation of the late 60s and 70s pop music scene both in the United States and England. Journalists have documented that Lennear was the muse for songs written by Mick Jagger, David Bowie, and Leon Russell. Lennear affirms Brown Sugar, Lady Grinning Soul, A Song for You, Masquerade, and She Smiles Like a River. Claudia has been inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame (2019) and the Claremont Treasury of Music (2020).
Lloyd Jones
About Lloyd Jones: Lloyd is a consummate blues man, band leader, musician, and songwriter. Lloyd has recorded six critically acclaimed albums, toured internationally, and racked up dozens of major awards and accolades. He’s a relentless road dog, hitting festival stages, Delbert’s annual Sandy Beaches Cruises (he’s been a regular on six winter cruises), and clubs all across the land to enthusiastic crowds who can’t get enough of his swampy blues, his backporch picking, his serious-as-anthrax funk, soul, roadhouse two-beats, and old-school rhythm and blues (back before the R&B tag was somehow appropriated for other musical purposes, apparently when we weren’t looking). Yet he may be the most invisible, best-kept roots/blues/Americana secret on the contemporary scene. Lloyd received the 2020-2021 CBA Muddy National Live Music Award for “Tennessee Run” and The Lloyd Jones Struggle (band) received the 2020-2021 CBA Live Performance of the Year Award for their performance at the Cathedral Park Jazz Festival Blues Night.
Vocalist Julana Torres
About Julana Torres: Julana Torres, also known as “La Colora” is a multifaceted artist gracing the stages of Portland for over 25 years. A classically trained dancer, singer and actor, Julana’s versatility as a performer combined with her Puerto Rican roots engages audiences in an unforgettable experience of rhythm and dance. Working with her father’s ensemble, Julana has been joined on stage by heavy weight musicians and singers such as the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Susan Tedeschi, Shoshanna Bean, Tahira Memory, Karla Harris, Nancy King, Carlotta Beierbach, Luis Conte, Alex Acuna to name just a few. She was nominated for a Drammy, she has done work on the Netflix Series “Trinkets”, she performed in Cuba Libre and she performed a one woman show.
Pictured below, the Bobby Torres Ensemble at a summer music concert in Beaverton.
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