Jose Perez (Saxophone)

Jose Perez was born in Murcia (Spain). He doesn’t belong to a musical family nor did he study in a conservatory during his childhood. Nevertheless, since his first contact with music, he discovered his vocation and to this day his dream remains to dedicate his life to music.

This first contact happened in 1996 through the electric bass, later followed by the guitar and his first lessons in solfege, harmony and music theory.

In 2000 he moves to Madrid where he initiates his studies in saxophone. In 2002 he is admitted into the fifth year at Arturo Soria Conservatory where he studies with Joaquin Franco and Jane Monton. He graduates in 2008 with a diploma in classical music.

In this period he participates in numerous musical projects of multiple styles starting with Rock, Rhythm and Blues passing through Funk, Reggae, to Flamenco, Spanish traditional music, Arabic and Experimental music, finally arriving at Jazz. Sometimes for his own musical development, sometimes professionally as in the following projects:

- Orquesta Shanghai and Orquesta Premiere; both dance bands as well as traditional Spanish music ensembles.

-Promotional events for “Ron Brugal” brand of alcoholic beverage, Playing Funk and Disco music with a disc jockey.

-Begoña Bang Matu and the Kingston Orchestra Reggae and Ska band.

-Sheriff Wallace, cover band of Rock and Rhythm and Blues.

In 2008 he had the opportunity of beginning his Bachelor’s degree in jazz studies at the Prins Claus Conservatorium, one of the most important schools of the Netherlands. His main saxophone teachers are Miguel Martinez and Michael Moore. The jazz department has a special program that involves the participation of some of the finest New York-based jazz musicians, such as Don Braden, Mark Gross, David Berkman, Ralph Peterson, Alex Sipiagin among many others.

During these two last years he had a few projects, some of them focused on non jazz music, as in “Live on tour” and “Great Pianos”, playing Pop and Rock music as well as Funk and Disco with a Disc Jockey. The rest of the projects were focused on Jazz, where he worked on his own ensemble and was involved with a few big bands, one of them being “Stageband”, a big band from Groningen, winner of the last edition in the International Jazz Festival of Enschede.