Biography of Carlos Lopez-Real

Carlos Lopez-Real sax

Carlos Lopez-Real is an in-demand saxophonist, composer and educator based in London. His current bands are Mandorla, featuring guitarist Justin Quinn, a quartet with young singer Fini Bearman, and a new quintet collaboration with Brigitte Beraha and Will Collier. In addition to jazz, his writing is influenced by classical composers such as Steve Reich and John Adams, the singer Bjork and North Indian improvised music.

Carlos has been involved with the F-IRE collective over a number of years, having recorded and toured with many bands such as Justin Quinn's Bakehouse (featured on their award-winning album 'Before I Forget'), Tom Arthurs' Centripede, Jonathan Bratoeff's Quintet, Barak Schmool's Meta Meta, and the F-IRE large ensemble for whom he composed several tunes. Additionally, he has collaborated with Zoe Rahman, Gary Husband and the Nicolas Meier Group, and held the sax chair in John Mayer's classic band Indo-Jazz Fusions. He also features with salsa greats Roberto Pla, Machito jnr and Tito Rodriguez jnr.

He is the founder of e17 jazz, the East London-based collective spawned out of both F-IRE and LOOP associations, whose members include Brigitte Beraha, John Turville, Adam Bishop, Will Collier, Jez Franks and Dave Manington

After Oxford University and the Guildhall School of Music, he then studied with David Liebman in New York.