Music matters

The sound of a loud duck quacking drew 5 year old Enrique Mora-Tora to the bathroom of his home in San Pedro where he found his father Carlos “Choto” Mora practicing his saxophone. As he watched his father play, Mora-Tora said he was intrigued by the sound.

“I was really scared when I first heard my dad play the sax,” Mora-Tora said. “I had never heard that instrument in my life.”

When his father stopped playing, Mora-Tora said he missed the sound of the instrument and that was when he decided he wanted to learn how to play for himself.

Mora-Tora started playing the saxophone when he was 12 years old. When he attended San Pedro High School, he became involved in the concert the marching bands.

When he came to El Camino, Mora-Tora said he was introduced to jazz music in his ensemble class. He said he fell in love with it. Here, he began to dive into the sound and musicality of jazz.

“As soon as I heard jazz music and I started doing a little digging, a little studying. I [got] really interested and I wanted to pursue it,” Mora-Tora said.

Mora-Tora comes from a musical family. His younger brother, Carlos, who goes to L.A. Harbor College, is majoring in computer engineering and plays the trumpet and his father plays with his band and occasionally Mora-Tora joins his father on stage.

“I feel very proud of him,” his father said. “ He’s my [role] model. I always wanted to do what he is doing right now. I always dreamed about being somebody, and hopefully he will get the chance. He is very talented and responsible and I am very proud of my son.”

Some of Mora-Tora’s musical influences include saxophonists such as Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderly. He also likes contemporary musicians like Dave Libeman and Joe Lavono.

“The richness of their tone when they play makes me really interested to see how and what they do when they are playing,” Mora-Tora said. “It’s really interesting to see that everybody has their own sound.”

In addition to playing the saxophone, he plays the clarinet and the flute. He credits his teachers at EC, especially Chris Mello who died in 2014, Dane Teter and Alan Chan who have taught him discipline and how to develop and approach music.

“I’ve watched his growth as a musician,” Dane Teter, director of instrumental music, said. “His determination to be successful is one of the greatest things about him.”

In the jazz band, directed by Chan, Mora-Tora is the section leader. Chan said Mora-Tora helps his fellow section members in the jazz band practice. He practices with them and helps other junior members in the band develop their skills.

“He really gives a strong leadership to the saxophone section and he really helps the band,” Chan said.

In five years, he says he sees himself graduating from a university and he would like to start his own quintet and play at shows and gigs. Mora-Tora would like to transfer to Long Beach State and major in music, specifically jazz studies.

“I always set big goals in life and the life of a jazz musician is never ending,” Mora-Tora said. “There’s always new things I can learn. There’s always new approaches to something old or to something new. I want to strive to be up really high and learn as most as I can in this life we have.”