Teresa Torres: Counting the Music

"Music makes people happy, changes lives for the better and, in some way, I am very happy to contribute to spreading it," reflects Teresa Torres at the bar, while enjoying an Estrella Galicia and letting herself be carried away by the morning atmosphere of the Bar to the mournful rhythm of Hank Williams' Lovesick blues.

"My family was always very fond of music —explains the parishioner— and that led me to the conservatory, where I studied piano and up to second year of violin, although I was a very mediocre student. After a brief stint at the Tax Agency, and thanks to the boyfriend I got then and with whom we are still together 36 years later, I was able to dedicate myself to finishing the conservatory and, at the same time, studying Art History. And, when I finished my studies, I took competitive exams to become a teacher."

—Of music, I imagine.

"The truth is, at first, no," replies Teresa, laughing. "I wanted to teach history, but that year that opposition was not called, so in the end I did the music one and that was my great success. I earn my living teaching music in public high schools and it's a job that makes me very happy... despite Ensenyament!"

Parallel to the beginnings of her teaching career, this Barcelona native, vintage '66, and her partner founded some groups that paraded through Barcelona stages such as Sidecar or Magic. "They were rather ephemeral projects, like Chenko y la Esclava, Los Gallos or Los Sobornados, but we never got to do anything serious because José Manuel is the most laid-back guy in the world." More than making music, their thing was to tell it, to explain it.

A journey through the Deep South

One thing leads to another. "To be able to teach well and develop the best teaching program, through which to provide the essential keys to students, I have studied a lot of music, and very thoroughly. Thus I developed a series of knowledge that, later, my friends, the sisters Rosa and Teresa Núñez, urged me to turn into talks and musical auditions in libraries and cultural centers."

She has recently published El tren de la música, which "offers an overview of styles born in the same place and time, blues, folk and country"

And, hardworking as she is, she offered to put all that material down in black and white for Ma Non Troppo, a leading publisher specializing in music. "They didn't buy that project from me, but they did tell me to propose other topics." And that's how her recently published debut, El tren de la música (The Music Train), an exhaustive volume that, in the words of its author, "provides an overview of styles that originated in the same place and time, blues, folk and country, and from which all subsequent popular music derives," was born.

Profusely illustrated and documented, the book is destined to become an absolute reference volume on the subject. In addition, well-chosen QR codes refer the reader to the repertoire of the artists and styles discussed, which turns the experience into a total immersion in the sound heritage of the American deep south.

Music, walks and well-poured beer, please

"What they are doing to Barcelona now displeases me," protests the local. "That idea that pedestrians and vehicles have to share space and we end up dodging bikes and scooters, seems insane to me. When the most sensible thing in a city like this would be to encourage people to walk, to stroll".

Another topic that she finds "a real disaster" is music, "in a city where many music bars have disappeared that offered live performances and where even finding rehearsal spaces is becoming increasingly difficult."

—Man, there must be something that still makes you fall in love with your city, right?

"Of course!" Teresa Torres laughs. "The climate, the sea and those few bars that still know how to pour a beer well," she replies and, after taking the last sip of her Estrella Galicia, adds: "Also, the tapas and the gastronomic offer, I have to say they have improved a lot."

—This Bar being irrefutable proof of it, I add.

And the local, without losing her laugh or the rhythm of Hank Williams' Hey good looking, orders another and fixes her attention on the portions displayed on the bar.