I am currently living in Lisbon , trying to learn and play as much as I can with my fellow musicians. Some of them are Afonso Pais, Luis Candeias, Joao Lencastre, Julio Resende, Joana Espadinha, Joao Firmino, Rui Pereira, Gonçalo Marques, Bruno Santos, Desiderio Lazaro, Rita Martins, Luisa Sobral and Paula Sousa.
I'm also teaching bass at the Hot Club Jazz school in Lisbon.
A few of my current projects are:
Luisa Sobral
feat. Luisa Sobral (voc), Filipe Melo (pno), Carlos Miguel (drms)
Menorquina
feat. Andre Santos (guit), Marco Franco (drms)
Joana Espadinha 5Tet
feat. Joana Espadinha(vc), Joao Firmino (gtr), Julio Resende (pno), Luis Candeias (drms)
Troika Ensemble
feat. Bruno Santos (guit), Rodrigo Gonçalves (pno), Luis Candeias (drms), Jorge Reis (alt/sopr sax), Cesar Cardoso (tenor sax), Paulo Gaspar (bass clarinet), Gonçalo Marques (trmp), Luis Cunha (trbn)
João Firmino 5Tet
feat. Joao Firmino (gtr), Sosso Lakatos (alt sx), Spyros Manesis (pno), Andreas Klein, (drms)
Spyros Manesis Trio
feat. Spyros Manesis (pno), Kaspars Kurdeko (drms)
Vynil Session
feat. Afonso Pais (guit) , Luis Candeias (drms)
I was born on a cold January 1986 morning in Lisbon...
Piano was my first try to get in touch with music when I was a kid living in the countryside of Alentejo but soon I found out that this was not my instrument, but something else. It wasn't until my 16th easter that I got my first electric bass as a gift. A gift that changed my future as nothing else did before.
During this period I studied with Gregg Moore and Miguel Amado who taught me the fundamentals of electric bass playing as well as the masters of this instrument, but as soon as I finished High School I moved back to Lisbon to study jazz in the Hot Clube de Portugal “Luis Villas-Boas Jazz School”.
When I turned 20 I found out that I couldn't express what I wanted with an electric bass and so I decided to learn double bass with Nelson Cascais as a teacher.
One year later I moved to Holland to study in the Amsterdam Conservatory, with 3 great teachers: Franz van der Hoeven, Arnold Dooyawerd and Ernst Glerum and I graduated in June 2010 with 9 out of 10.
During the period I studied in Amsterdam I got the 1st prize as member of the Ricardo Toscano Quartet in the “Premio Jovens Musicos” , 3rd Prize in the “Bucharest International Jazz Competition” and went to the semi-finals of the “Keep an Eye Jazz Award 2009” - nothing really came out of it, but I met some great people on the way. I had the opportunity to play in some major jazz Festivals all around Europe like Cully Jazz (switzerland) , Den Hague Jazz Festival, Jazz Ahead (germany) IJ Jazz Festival, Breda Jazz Festival, Meer Jazz festival, Trytone Jazz Festival, (Holland), Europa Fest (Romania), Sudoeste TMN, CoolJazzFest, Festa de Jazz do S.Luis, Festival de Valado dos Frades, Jazz no Castelo, Seixal Jazz (Portugal). Still in Amsterdam I had the pleasure to learn with John Clayton, Larry Grenadier, Reuben Rogers, Ben Street and Clemens Van der Feen.
