Manny Flores Jr. was born in El Paso, Texas on October 9, 1954. Due to his father's military career, Manny spent his first eighteen years of life as an army brat, traveling and listening to music in a variety of different places. These places include Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Augusta, Georgia; Ansbach, Bavaria; Fort Benning, Georgia; and Fort Huachuca, Arizona. He began his playing career in the summer of 1971 at a gig at the Fort Huachuca NCO Club two weeks after he had picked up the bass and had intensive coaching from Japanese rock guitarist Danne “Masahiro” Wakatani. Stints with various local groups in southeastern Arizona followed including the house band at the Ramada Inn. The group was led by Tony Guerrero and called “The Guamanians”. At this time his inspiration for the bass was fellow left-handed bass player Paul McCartney. Musical studies at this time consisted of learning songs off of recordings by memory. Manny graduated from Buena High School in Sierra Vista in l972. He went to Europe that summer and visited the birthplaces of Ludwig von Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and also Apple Recording Studios in London. He then graduated from Cochise College in Douglas Arizona in 1974 with an Associates degree in Liberal Arts. In 1975 he moved back to El Paso. He begin playing in various groups in the El Paso area including Top 40 groups and Country and Western groups doing the Dyer Street circuit and road gigs in New Mexico, Wyoming and Arizona He enrolled at the University of Texas at El Paso. He received his Bachelor of Music Education degree in 1982.
In 1983 he auditioned for and began playing with the El Paso Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Abraham Chavez Jr. He also began teaching instrumental music in the Ysleta Independent School District.
In the 1980's Manny met many musicans who inspired him to make music a way of life. The list includes Frank Zappa, Jaco Pastorius, and Ray Brown and cello teacher at the Julliard, Harvey Shapiro. In 1985 Manny began the first of a four-year trek to Victoria, B.C. Canada to attend the prestigious Johannesen International School of the Arts. There he attended six-week master classes with bass virtuoso Gary Karr and Harvey Shapiro. In 1986 he spent a summer in New York City studying jazz and listening to live performances of such bassists as Charlie Haden, Marc Johnson, Harvie Swartz, and Eddie Gomez.
The 90's brought many great changes in daily life around the Flores household. The foremost being the birth of Eva Cecilia Flores on March 28, 1990.
Manny has played with a variety of groups in El Paso including: Bobby Saunders, Frank Dove and the Sundowners, Mario Otero, Crossroads, El Paso Brass Quintet, Bobby Booth Dixieland Band, M.D. Quartet, Hare Krishna Temple, Mike Carranda Big Band, Eddie Carranza Big Band, U.T.E.P. Lab Band I with Gene Lewis, Mike Francis Quartet, Jimmy Olivas Big Band, Gerald Hunter and the Quintones, Art Lewis and the Earthmen, Orchestra Puerto Rico, Marty Olivas and Jazz Q Spice of Life, Bing Browning Trio, Cecile Larochelle.
He has also played with The Platters, The Four Lads, The Four Aces, Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, Steve Kujala, Mel Carter, Roger Miller, Johnny Mathis, Guy Lombardo's Royal Canadians and Charlie Rouse. In 1995 he appeared on the Boyz to Men MTV music video “When the Water Runs Dry”.
1995 was also the year Manny formed “Mariachi Riverside” at Riverside High School. He began his studies on the guitarron with Randy Carillo of Mariachi Cobre of Epcot in Disneyworld. This student group has performed in countless venues in the Southwest and in Tucson, Arizona; Las Cruces New Mexico; Atotonilco, Tecalitlan, Ameca, Tlanquepanque and many venues in Guadalajara, Jalisco. In March of 2000 the group is invited to Mexico City to play at the First Annual Mariachi Conference of that city.
In 1998 Manny made his first trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brasil to fulfill a lifelong desire to experience Brasilian music firsthand and to meet one of his favorite musicans Hermeto Pascoal. With a base in Copacabana Manny would commute to the Rio suburb of Jabour to visit with his Brasilian friends: Albert Suhett, Itibere Zwarg, Marcio Bahia, and of course Hermeto. He was introduced to bassist Adriano Giffoni by Marcio Bahia and has studied with him each summer in Rio de Janeiro. Subsequent trips to Brasil have taken him to Bahia and Recife.
2004 brings with it the desire to further explore the world of music with an emphasis on Brasilian music and composition. These disciplines will be further enhanced by having a great group of musicians to work with in El Paso.
© 2004 Manuel Flores Jr. site by interactive musician
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