Juan Torres

Artist: Juan Torres

LP: Juan Torres y su Organo Melódico—Volume 18
Song: "Jesusita En Chihuahua"
[ listen ]

Over the past few weeks I've been corresponding with Alan Ashton, host of Organ 1st Radio, a monthly hour-long radio show filled with wonderful organ music [you can listen to this month's program here]. His enthusiasm for organ music inspired me to dig through my collection for some of my organ favorites and post them here. This and several other Juan Torres records were found at a Seattle store that received a bunch of lovely and exotic LPs formerly owned by Walter R. Hatch of Seattle. According to the sticker on the back of this particular record, it was purchased for $4.99 at Tower Records on December 11, 1978. Hatch had (I'm assuming the man has passed away; surely no-one would part with these records unless it was over their dead body)... Hatch had incredible taste in music, an amazing record collection and a mysterious system of rating each track on his LPs with a seires of plus signs and lines. "Jesusita En Chihuahua," for example, was rated +IIII. If anyone reading this knew Walter R. Hatch and can tell me more about him or how to decode his rating system, please send me an email. Or, if you are Walter R. Hatch and you are still very much alive thank you, I'd love to hear from you. You can read about Mexican organist Juan Torres' career, listen to more of his music and become his friend on MySpace here.