Marcos Varela

Teaching has always been a part of Marcos Varela's musical life. The material he presents is organized and adjusted to each student's particular needs and goals. Topics include learning to read music, learning songs of any style, and developing specific playing and practice techniques within those styles. Marcos has had the pleasure of teaching master classes at Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, University of Colorado, and University of North Texas, and has held master classes and workshops with jazz greats Geri Allen, Winard Harper, George Cables, and Brad Leali.

Marcos Varela began playing the bass in his native Houston, TX at the age of Sixteen when he attended the High School for the Performing & Visual Arts - a school attended by such greats as Jason Moran, Eric Harland, Robert Glasper, Beyonce, La Mafia, Brian-Micheal Cox, and Chris Dave. Marcos attended the New School University on scholarship and quickly became part of the New York and World music scene playing with bands led by great musicians and legends such as Billy Hart, Fitz and the Tantrums (touring with Maroon 5), Geri Allen, Winard Harper, Charli Persip, Junior Mance, Joe Lovano, Robert Glasper, Kendrick Scott, Brad Leali, George Cables, Bob Mover, Frank Lacy, Mike Moreno, Greg Bandy, Bruce Barth, Andre Hayward, Wayne Escoffery, Thomas Heberer (ICP), George Colligan, The Last Poets and Victor Jones.

Marcos enjoys writing for film and TV; some of his compositions can be heard on popular american TV shows such as Grays Anatomy, Royal Pains and Army Wives as well commercials in the U.S and in Canada. He is currently working on a score for a film by Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, daughter of prolific director Martin Scorsese. He has also composed music and recorded bass and guitar for The Last Poets- Umar Bin Hassan (Jerome Huling) solo project featuring members of the Wu-Tang Clan, Styles P, Common, Dead Prez, Roy Hargrove and many others. Some of his awards include the IAJE Clifford Brown/Stan Getz All-Star and the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Award given by the Kennedy Center to a select few young composers worldwide who show outstanding performance and composition skills.

Marcos has performed on three continents and ten different countries worldwide with a diverse group of musicians from not just the US but from Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Austria, Canada, Slovenia, Croatia, Japan, Australia, Greece, Mali, and Guinea.

NEW YORK & INTERNATIONAL TOURS

Montreaux Jazz festival - Switzerland
Montreal Jazz Festival - Canada
Umbria Jazz Festival - Italy
IAJE '06, '07 - NYC
Ljubjana Jazz Festival - Slovenia
Cape Cod Jazz Festival - Cape Cod
JVC Jazz Festival - NYC

NEW YORK & INTERNATIONAL CLUB DATES

Blue Note, Dizzy's Club, Jazz Standard, 55 Bar, Sweet Rhythm, St. Nicks Pub, Minton's Playhouse - NYC
Blue Room - Kansas City, MO
Dazzle - Denver, CO
Jamboree - Barcelona, Spain
New Morning Sunset - Sunrise, France
Underfarhtt - Germany
Birdseye - Switzerland
A-Train - Germany
Blue Note - Milan, Italy
Ronnie Scotts, Pizza Express - London
Body & Soul, Jazz Lovely, Blue Note - Japan
Bennetts Lane - Melbourne, Australia
The Eliington - Perth, Australia.

Get Started with BML to set up a lesson with Marcos.