RUBEN CARLES

Bassist Ruben Carles, is a pure-hearted jazz man, whose approach embraces both the avant-garde and the old school. Hails from Madrid, Spain. It is in this city where he grew up and started falling in love with music since he was born in 1989. He comes from a very musical family. Ruben had a strong influence by his dad who used to share with him his love for music. His father, a well accomplished musician and arranger, may have instilled his son with a sense of wanderlust. More specifically, though, he gave the younger Carles an appreciation of music by enrolling him in a school of music, to study the classics and learn the Bass, when he was a teenager. Ruben soon got hooked on jazz as well and began listening intently to jazz bassists like Ray Brown, Charles Mingus, Paul Chambers and Oscar Pettiford. Hearing these legendary upright bassists inspired him to borrow an upright bass and try to emulate what he was hearing on records. By the time he was 13, Ruben began formal study of the acoustic bass
In 2006, Ruben entered Musikene where he studied for two years. There he had the chance to study with masters like Jorge Rossy or Guillermo Klein, he also met different musicians from all of Spain with whom he did concerts all over the Iberian Peninsula and France. In 2007 he and his group were selected by INJUVE in their competition as the first jazz young group of the year in Spain. His group, Mr. Chacho won the national jazz competition in Fuenlabrada (Madrid) and they were also finalists in the international jazz competition of Getxo. Ruben has played in many different festivals and clubs in countries like: France, Spain, Holland, Italy, EEUU, Portugal, Germany and Ecuador.
In 2008 Ruben moved to New York City where he stayed for 9 months. There he had the opportunity to study with mentors like Matt Penman, Vincente Archer, Reggie Workman or Matt Brewer. He also had the chance to play in clubs like Smalls, Lincoln Center, Sant Nick’s Pub or Fat Cat among many others in the city. A year later, he was on his way, Full scholarship tuition in hand, to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass. Recently he won for the second time the Injuve jazz competition with Gianni Gagliardi trio and also collaborated in the film/documentary “Jazz liberdade” by Xes chapela, both in 2010. Some of the musicians Ruben has recorded or played with are Ferenc Nemeth, Lionel Loueke, Colin Stranahan, Perico Sambeat, Logan Richardson, Cafe? da Silva, Albert Sanz, Jammey Haddad, Yotam Silverstein, Jorge Rossy, Phil Grenadier or Javier Vercher among many others.