Adair Torres é hoje um dos músicos mais requisitados quando o assunto é gravar Pedal Steel Guitar. Iniciou sua carreira "musical", por assim dizer, ainda moleque, aos 7 anos, quando aprendeu a tocar cavaquinho, um presente de seu pai. Vendo um velho primo tocar violão, pediu ao pai que lhe comprasse um. Logo aprendeu com o primo a tocar alguns clássicos da época. Daí por diante, tocar nas festinhas da família tornou-se obrigação, e às vezes até acompanhando alguma dupla que aparecia a convite de seu pai. Não demorou muito, um amigo da família, o qual tinha uma banda do tipo Ventures e The Shadows, o japonês Roberto Hajime Morishin, o levou para tocar guitarra e, aos 12 anos, Adair passou a tocar ao lado de descendentes japoneses na banda The Nissei Five. Já na adolescência, montou sua própria banda: The Bigs. No final da década de 60, fazendo bailes todos os finais de semana, conheceu Paulo Coelho ( o músico que mais grava violão e guitarra), com quem tocou durante muito tempo em vários clubes da região norte de São Paulo. Como filho da geração Woodstock, com Beatles, Stones, Eric Clapton, Hendrix, Janis, Black Sabath, Led, entre outros arrebentando nas paradas, resolver arriscar um som mais pesado, como se costumava dizer. Mas não foi muito feliz nesse novo estilo. Começou a ouvir Yes, Gênesis, ELP, e achava tudo muito lindo, mas... lhe faltava equipamento à altura, foi quando ouviu pela primeira vez o som do Pedal Steel... Paixão à primeira audição! Na década de 70 decidiu trabalhar na área de informática, trocando a vida de músico pela de analista de sistemas. Quando resolveu voltar para a música, seu ouvido já estava acostumado à Country Music, trazida de Nashville por um de seus melhores amigos: Lélio Augusto (Jimmy Allen), diretor de marketing nas horas vagas e excelente músico e intérprete de Standards, que praticamente lhe deu de presente um Banjo de 5 cordas, pelo qual se apaixonou. O estilo Bluegrass e o seu novo instrumento lhe despertaram tanta paixão que em pouco tempo já estava tocando, visto que a afinação do Banjo é igual à do cavaquinho, o qual aprendeu a tocar na infância. Estudou 6 horas por dia durante 6 meses e, em 1.980, abandonou de vez a carreira de analista de sistemas e voltou de vez para a música, unindo-se, em 1.982, ao amigo Jimmy Allen, com quem fundou a primeira banda de Bluegrass no Brasil a gravar um disco instrumental dentro dos padrões e da formação clássica de Nashville, com: Banjo, Fiddle, Mandolin, Acoustic Guitar e Acoustic Bass. Um dos momentos mais marcantes da Santa Fé Country Band, como era chamada a sua banda, foi um show no Teatro Municipal de São Paulo. Outro acontecimento marcante para a banda e, como o anterior, inédito para uma banda de Bluegrass, foi uma apresentação no programa do Bolinha, em que tocaram Asa Branca junto com Sivuca. Adair tornou-se um dos músicos mais solicitados pelos artistas famosos para a gravação de Banjo. Apesar do sucesso com o banjo, Adair Torres não tirava da cabeça aquele instrumento que ouviu na década de 70. Ele não sabia, mas ouvira, naquela ocasião, o mestre Buddy Emmons pela primeira vez. Vale lembrar que, em 1.970, Rick Ferreira, um amigo particular de Adair, já estava descobrindo o Pedal Steel e foi o primeiro músico brasileiro a participar de uma gravação em estúdio. A música é: "S O S." - Raul Seixas. Ainda no início da década de 80, depois de pesquisar a respeito do Pedal Steel, conseguiu que uma amiga, Hanna, que estava de mudança para a Alemanha, lhe emprestasse o dinheiro e lhe trouxesse, na volta para o Brasil, um modelo alemão, marca ABM. Foi quase um ano de espera... Nessa época, trabalhava como administrador de estúdio e, por isso, não foi difícil conseguir tempo para estudar, às vezes mais que seis horas por dia. Depois de 2 anos nessa rotina começou a pensar por que não continuar, com o Pedal Steel, o trabalho que Poly vinha realizando na música sertaneja com a guitarra havaiana. Não havia um porquê, então, no Quadrophenia Studio, junto com um outro amigo, hoje escritor, John Thrall, tendo já como clientes grandes arranjadores e músicos como Pinochio, Oscar, Marinho do Acordeon, Mirandinha, Adeildo Lopes, Karan, Jânio Santone, Martinez e tantos outros, não foi difícil sugerir a gravação e a inclusão do Pedal Steel Guitar nos arranjos. Todos, sem exceção, aceitaram. É possível dizer que o instrumento que fez Adair Torres tão conhecido musicalmente e tão requisitado nas gravações foi popularizado e faz parte dos arranjos de muitas músicas. Como a primeira vez nunca se esquece, lembremos então a primeira gravação que o músico fez com Pedal Steel: foi na música Cowboy do Asfalto (de Joel Marques), com o cantor Juliano Cezar, arranjos do maestro Michael, gravado no estúdio Mosh (Pompéia). Aquele Pedal Steel alemão, marca ABM, foi usado durante 11 anos por Adair, que hoje usa um DERBY 8X8 feito exclusivamente para ele e um EMMONS Lashley LeGrande II - 3x7. Claro que essa história não acaba por aqui, muita coisa ainda há de acontecer! Adair Torres is currently one of the most requested musician and sideman for the recording of Pedal Steel Guitar in Brazil. Adair began his musical career early, at the age of 7, when he learned to play the "cavaquinho", a kind of ukulele which he received as a present from his father. Observing an older cousin play the guitar, he asked his father to buy a guitar for him. In no time at all he learned to play with his cousin some of the standard compositions of the period. From that time on, much like every person who learns to play an instrument, he was expected to play at family gatherings and sometimes accompanying a sertaneja duo that appeared at the invitation of his father. Adair soon came to the attention of a Japanese friend of the family who had a band that played music in the style of the Ventures and The Shadows, which awakened his interest in playing the electric guitar for The Nisei Five. At twelve, it became difficult to escape the attention of the social services employees whose job it was to insure that minors we not being exploited or whose presence was not allowed in bars and nightclubs where alcoholic beverages were sold. Despite there never being any difficulty, he was allowed to continue to play with the band because the leader of the band undoubtedly made some arrangement with the authorities that allowed him to play in those types of establishments. Of course, it was inevitable that Adair moved on to other musical styles and bands. As part of the Woodstock generation, the music of the times was the sounds of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and the styles expanded and as is often said, migrated to heavier and more complicated forms. He began to listen to bands like Yes, Genesis and Elp but the experience was less than rewarding because he was unable to acquire the necessary equipment to enable him to play the styles and reproduce the effects. It was then that he first heard the sound of the Pedal Steel... Around 1973 he decided to work in in the computer sciences field. He entered school and exchanged music for the profession of Systems Analyst. When he finally reached the conclusion that this was not the kind of work that he wanted to do he quickly returned to the music field, and having listened to a lot of Country Music material from Nashville provided by - (one of his best friends) - Lélio Augusto (Jimmy Allen) - (a marketing director in his spare time, and, an excellent musician and interpreter of musical standards) - who gave him, almost as a gift, a 5-string banjo. He became so obsessed with the Bluegrass musical style and his newest instrument, the banjo, that he mastered it in no time at all because the tuning was the same as the cavaquinho, his very first instrument. He studied 6 hours a day during six months and in 1980 he abandoned his job as a Systems Analyst and returned to music to stay. Together with Lélio Augusto (Jimmy Allen), he formed the first Bluegrass band in Brazil in 1982 and recorded his first instrumental record (back in the days of vinyl) that utilized the traditional Nashville Bluegrass formations of banjo, fiddle, mandolin, and acoustic guitar e upright bass. The band was named the Santa Fé Country Band. One of the hallmark moments of the Santa Fé Country Band was a presentation at the Teatro Municipal de São Paulo. Another was performing on the national network television show Bolinha playing the traditional Brazilian country classic Asa Branca with a nationally famous Brazilian artist called Sivuca. The haunting style of the pedal steel that he first heard in the 70s never left his head and after many years he learned that he first listened to the master Buddy Emmons play pedal on that day. An important note: In 1970, A friend of Adair Torres, Rick Ferreira, from Rio de Janeiro, was already discovering the instrument. He was the first Brazilian musician to Play and record Pedal Steel Guitar in Brasil. The Song was : "S O S. - Raul Seixas." In the beginning of the 80s, there was a lot of research on the Pedal Steel, information that involved discovering just what was that unique sound and who were the great musicians. Through the help of a friend named "Hanna", who was moving to Germany and lent him the money to buy his first pedal steel. The instrument was a German model made by ABM. After almost a years wait she returned to Brazil on a visit, bringing him the instrument. Around the same period Adair joined the team at Country Produções, a recording studio in São Paulo which recorded Brazilian Sertanejo and American country music. During this period he expanded his knowledge of country music forms, listening to new artists and musicians, acquiring knowledge of country mandolin and the Dobro, adding to the list of instruments that he has since become an expert. One of the important milestones of this period was the production of the long play record of Banda de Rodagem which was basically bluegrass and country songs done in Portuguese, with most of the songs designed to attract the musical tastes of Brazilian truck-drivers. The work was one of the first in which Adair not only played steel but did most of the arrangements and produced the recording. This was the beginning of another facet of his musical career that provided the necessary background for his work as a studio musician today. During that time, working as a recording studio administrator, it was not difficult to find time to study and learn the instrument, sometimes studying six or seven hours a day. After two years he began to think, "Why not continue the work began by Poly, started on the Hawaiian guitar and used sometimes in Brazilian country music (musica sertaneja), replacing it with the Pedal Steel?" At Quadrophenia Studio together with another long time friend John Thrall, - (today an author) - and, having as clients, musicians and great arrangers like: Martinez, Pinocchio, Oscar, Marinho do Acordeom, Jânio Santone, Mirandinha, Adeildo Lopes, Karan and many others, it was not difficult to arrange recordings and why not include a Pedal Steel Guitar in the arrangements? Everyone, without exception accepted the idea, and today, it can be said that the Pedal Steel Guitar has become popularized and has become part of many musical arrangements. Adair has become the artist most requested by famous Brazilian musicians to record as a banjo and pedal steel sideman on their recording. Of course in a biography like this one cannot but cite the first recording using this instrument: Juliano Cezar performing the song Cowboy do Asfalto, arrangements by maestro Michael, and recorded at the studio Mosh located in the São Paulo suburb of Pompéa. Adair used the German ABM Pedal Steel for 11 years. Today he uses an DERBY 8X8 Rosewood and an EMMONS Lashley LeGrande II 3X7. The rest is and will be part of the history of Adair Torres .