Torres was born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico in 1957. He took flute lessons at age 12 and began formal studies at the Escuela Libre de Música, eventually attending Puerto Rico’s Inter-American University. At 18, he moved to New York with his family. Torres went on to study both jazz and classical music at the Mannes College of Music in New York and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, among other places. He moved to Miami in 1981, and signed with PolyGram, where he released Morning Ride in 1989. His major label debut climbed quickly to the top of the Billboard Contemporary Jazz charts and soon brought him widespread acclaim. Tragedy struck a year later when an accident in a celebrity boat race left him with eighteen fractured ribs, two broken clavicles and a collapsed lung. His record company dropped him, he and his wife divorced, and his home was nearly repossessed. Torres is also a longtime practitioner of Nichiren Buddhism of the Soka Gakkai International. In 2007, Torres played at the World Music Concert during One World Week 2007, in front of a full house, at the University of Warwick.Torres is a Latin Grammy winner. Torres' style combines the melody and fiery rhythms that echo Cuban dance music, Puerto Rican bomba and plena, the Brazilian samba, merengue from the Dominican Republic, Colombia cumbia and the rhythms of Panama. He has paid homage to the stars of salsa, from Celia Cruz and Willie Colon to Ruben Blades and The Fania All Stars. If you are into instrumental smooth jazz he is the most awesome . He has it to a science and you won't be dissapointed. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.