Born in Luxembourg in 1991, early on moved to Portugal and began his musical studies at the local band in Figueira da Foz. Later he entered the Conservatório de Música David de Sousa to the saxophone class of the professor José Firme. He then moved to Espinho to study in Escola Profissional de Música de Espinho, an undergraduate professional school, where he studied with Fernando Ramos, Gilberto Bernardes and Francisco Ferreira.

In 2010 José entered ESMAE (Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espectáculo), the University of Music and Performing Arts, Oporto, where he holds the degree of bachelor in Jazz Saxophone Performance. There he studied in the Jazz Department with Mário Santos, Nuno Ferreira, Carlos Azevedo, Abe Rábade, among others.
In 2017 he began his Master Studies at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam being tutored by Ben van Gelder, Joris Roelofs and Jasper Blom which he finished in 2019.
Soares is an active musician playing and touring around Europe with many international bands; he’s a guest soloist in several large formations like OJM (Orquestra de Jazz de Matosinhos) and BSP (Banda Sinfónica Portuguesa). 

As a composer, he’s main focus is to convey his experience to specific set of musicians like his Quartet (with Youngwoo Lee on piano, Jort Terwijn on Bass and Sun Mi Hong on drums), he’s trio (Gonçalo Neto on guitar and Alessandro Fongaro on bass) or he’s co-lied trio with the mexican singer songwriter Fuensanta Mendéz and the astonishing trumpet player Alistair Payne. Soares also writes for his duo with Harmen Fraanje, a very intimate and boundary.less duo.
Beside his own projects, Soares has been a requested musician for several bands with whom he has been recording his work: Ensemble Super Moderne (winner of the Best Jazz Album 2015, JazzLogical), AXES (winner of the Best Jazz Album 2017), Liquid Identities (Keep and Eye Competition 2019), Eduardo Cardinho Quintet (winner of “Prémio Jovens Músicos” 2014), Jeffery Davis Quintet, João Grilo e a Longifolia, Mané Fernandes “The Mantra of The Phat Lotus”, Pedro Melo Alves’ Omniae Ensemble, AXES, Guy Tristan Salamon (Keep an Eye Records winner 2018), Giuseppe Campisi, among many others.

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