Name: Toribio
Nationality: American
Occupation: Composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter
Current Release: Toribio teams up with Sharin for his new single "Daylight," out via Juliet.
Recommendations for New York: Visit the Mixtape Shop, Human Head Records, Cosmic Arts Space, All Blues Listening Bar. And come to Public Service NYC in the summer!

If you enjoyed this Toribio interview and would like to know more about his music, visit him on Instagram, Soundcloud, bandcamp, and Facebook.



What were some of the musical experiences which planted a seed for your interest in jazz?

I grew up playing drums in church.

At one point in our church, we switched to musical directors or worship team leaders. This worshipper Misa from Miami was moving to Tampa and we were all hyped because Misa was an amazing pianist and played all these jazzy chords and different styles and his father was an amazing trumpet player.

For me this was a chance to get closer to the music styles that I loved on a higher level. Like Michel Camilo’s Latin jazz style. It made me practice more and made me dig deeper into Jazz itself and then I started high school and fell completely in.



The upper classmen at the school were putting me onto Brian Blade, Kenny Garrett, Joshua Redman. I couldn’t get enough.

What does the term jazz mean today, would you say?  

That’s a loaded question for some people. For some it’s a bad word haha.

I guess in a practical sense it’s mostly instrumental music that has a heavily improvised nature to it. It’s the process of improvised composition in real time rather than just a genre.

As of today, what kind of materials, ideas, and technologies are particularly stimulating for you?

Records are stimulating for me. Finding different styles of music that I’ve been branching out listening to and actively listening to them while I light different scents of incense. More ambient or electronic stuff. It activates a different part of my brain to allow for the creativity to come for the other stuff.

The idea of stillness or allowing things to happen more or the practice of just being in a space or with myself in a moment away from my phone. The theta state or Theta brainwaves. That state right before you fall into sleep. There are a lot of good ideas that can appear to me then.

Where do most of your inspirations to create come from – rather from internal impulses or external ones? Which current social / political / ecological or other developments make you feel like you need to respond as an artist?

Creation is a necessity for my wellbeing. Sometimes these impulses can come from experiencing a moment in a dance environment or at a live show. I feel the vibration and am immediately inspired to create.

But usually, I put myself in the position to create and might meander around with a sample or a chord progression or rhythmic idea and ill mull it over until inspiration decides to arrive.

The current divisiveness used in politics right now makes me want to combat that with more connectivity with fellow humans. It makes me want to create situations and art that can breed connectivity on a deeper plane rather than surface level.

The current state of inflation and how hard it is to pay rent does stifle me a bit tho’, I’m not gonna lie lol.

Music has become a lot more global, and incorporating elements from other parts of the world or the musical spectrum is commonplace. Do you still think there are city scenes with a distinct, unique sound? How does your local scene influence your work?

These are all great questions. Probably my favorite questions I’ve ever gotten so far.

The creative people in any city will find a way to synthesize different elements to make it their own and the more authentic and organic it is, the more it resonates locally.

In the same way every city has access to flour to make bread it doesn’t dampen the creation of different or unique sandwiches. Philly cheesesteaks to Vietnamese Bahn mi. Some creative producers will use the deep house sounds from NYC and synthesize them with rhythms in South Africa and voila, Amapiano.

My local scene is moving and changing so much, and I find elements that I try to extract and repurpose in my work. Whether it be a rhythm I hear in a drill beat from the street that I can contextualize in a house song etc …

What role do electronic tools and instruments play for your creative process?

I use a loop station a lot and it allows me to play in real time with a living idea or loop to create a whole song or album concept. Sometimes settings on a synthesizer give me an idea to create a whole different idea than what I had originally set out to make.

I try to listen to what pulses are already happening and tap into something else.

Thanks to technological advances, collaboration has become a lot easier. What have been some of the most fruitful collaborations for you recently and what approaches to and modes of collaboration currently seem best to you?

Nothing can beat being in the same room with another person to create a thing. I still haven’t got a hold on sending files and working with someone in that way.

I think being able to know how to work the technology I have allows for quick collaboration when I bring someone into my studio and vice versa.

Jazz has always had an interesting relationship between honoring its roots and exploring the unknown. What does the balance between these two poles look like in your music?

This is something that is a long-term mission in my work.

I try to study, understand, and internalize the music I’ve come across in the lineage of what I do. I’ve studied jazz harmony and the standards and still continue to connect the dots of my musical understanding with records I come across. If I study it honestly and try to internalize it, I find that these elements come out of me when I'm in the process of creation or improvisation.

With my project Conclave I’m synthesizing all of the afro Caribbean rhythms and jazz harmonic functions in an organic way that comes to be the music on the album.



I’ve transcribed solos or chords and might put them in a new remix or song idea which might even lead more to another space that I had no intention to trek to.

How much potential for something “new” is there still in jazz? What could this “new” look like?

Everything is derived from something else. There is nothing ABSOLUTELY new.

But in a non-absolute sense there will always be potential for something new as long as there are “new” people that are created and are creating. I can’t tell you what it would look like but now all it takes is a fresh perspective for something to be new. It’s not always easy to shift perspective sometimes.

For many artists, life-changing musical experiences take place live. How do you see that yourself?

I mean it’s all a feeling that is created or tapped into that is spread through a room. I felt that in church, performing live with my band, seeing Chris Dave at the blue note and even in places where DJs played.

Each place you step into can have the potential to create a life-changing musical experience if you allow space for it whether as a performer or in the audience.

How, would you say are your live performances and your recording projects connected at the moment? How do they mutually influence and feed off each other?  

Right at this moment I am in writing and producing mode for the band so we haven’t gotten together in a bit but will once this album is out. It’s really beautiful and at the same time chaotic for me when I'm in the mode of playing live and creating.

So many great moments and ideas come from rehearsing with the band that translate into straight up new songs or new versions of old ones. Sometimes we might break into a whole new section or chord ideas that birth a whole new idea that could only happen when we come together.

Improvisation is obviously an essential element of jazz, but I would assume that just like composition, it is transforming. How do you feel has the role of improvisation changed in jazz?

I think the role of improvisation hasn’t necessarily changed in jazz. Rather, improvisation brings about change in jazz and in a bigger way to the individual.

Tapping into the subconscious is ancient and contemporary.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to improvisation?

Honesty. Honesty with yourself and skill level and removing yourself as much as you can for these messages or movements to manifest.

Tackle it honestly and don’t try to over play or approximate the feeling.

Are there approaches, artists, festivals, labels, spaces or anyone/-thing else out there who you feel deserves a shout out for taking jazz into the future?

Shout out to Butcher Brown, Jason Lindner, Now vs Now, Nate Smith, Kenny Garrett, Isaiah Collier, Sonny Daze, Diego Ramirez, Robert Glasper, Corey Henry, Corey Fonville, DJ Harrison, Greg Paulus, Axel Tosca, King Klave, Revive big Band, Jonathan Hoard, Tomoki sanders.

Most of these people are in NYC and if not def in the US! There’s a lot of good things happening here!

[Read our Butcher Brown interview]

The Montreux Festival intends to preserve its archive of recordings for future generations. Do you personally feel it's important that everything should remain available forever - or is there something to be said for letting beautiful moments pass and linger in the memories of those that experienced them?

 I think it’s super important to record and preserve these moments. It’s better when the venue or festival can do so that the people in the audience don’t have to pull out their phones and lose out on being present.

Easier said than done I know.