Ruben Ramos

I'm a bass player. I was born in Panama and I am currently living in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I was involved in music since I was around five playing percussion at the church. When I turned 12 I got my first drum set. At that moment, I was very inspired by Billy Cobham, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Omar Hakim and Harvey Mason. I took the bass accidently at age 13 and I played very intuitively, just by ear, listening to Marcus Miller, Abe Laboriel, Stanley Clarke and Vail Johnson. When I finished high school in Venezuela, I took the decision of making music my career and I got into sound engineering while taking private bass lessons with venezuelan bassist Freddy Utrera to learn some improvisation basics. As I got involved into jazz I learn about Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans and the jazz legends. From that point I decided to take jazz seriously. I moved to Puerto Rico to get my major in music. I learn more bass fundamentals with Edgardo Sierra in the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, from which I got my Bachelor degree in Music in 2004. While being in Panama after graduation, I got to work with cuban drummer Fidel Morales and other panamanian musicians such as David Choy, Dino Nuggent, Ibrahim Merel, Carlos Garnett, Alfonso Lewis and also had the experience to share some music with Danilo Perez and Billy Cobham. Back in Puerto Rico, I've been doing a lot of small jazz gigs around the city of San Juan and also worked with some pop artist such as Daddy Yankee and Zion. I'm a member of the Orbits Quintet, which released their first album called "12-06-05" on 2006. The quintet is waiting for the release of their new album. I'm actually working in my Master in Music Education and I'm the thesis stage, writing about the electric bass and it's education.