How Does Brooklyn Brass & Reed provide the best quality workmanship at the the most competitive prices?
BB&R offers 25 years of experience in musical instrument repair. BB&R is conveniently located in Carroll Gardens/Gowanus section of Brooklyn. Without having to pay high rent and the overhead of a Manhattan neighborhood, BB&R can offer quality workmanship at competitive prices.

Ruben Gutierrez – Owner – Repair Technician – Musician
Born in San Fransisco 1954, my family relocated to Los Angeles in the early sixties. “We moved to a small enclave called El Sereno in East L.A. It was a great place to grow up. We always played music at home. My dad was a good musician, he didn’t play professionally but he instilled in all his kids a love of music, there were always musical instruments around our house”

I started playing clarinet in third grade at an East L.A.music program.I switched to saxophone in 5th or 6th grade and played in the junior high band and the district band.I attended Arroyo High School in El Monte CA. I played alto sax in the the band.The band director was John B. Robbins, he loved John Philip Sousa….Enough said.

After high school I attended Pasadena City College.I studied jazz improv with Gary Foster . Gary is fantastic musician and he was a huge inspiration to me. I also studied Instrument repair with John Pedersen .His classes were in the evening and I learned the basics there. In the late 70’s I attended Los Angeles City College I continued to study music and also  played in the big bands of Don”Doc” Simpson and Woody James. While attending school I worked as a freelance musician playing Latin gigs and doing weddings with the “ACE BAND” run by the Tullio brothers, Jimmy and Bobby. I was a member of the  Hispanic Musicians Association (HMA) directed by Bobby Rodriguez. Bobby also had his own latin jazz group which I played with a few times. In the early 80’s I joined a successful touring funk band under the direction of Fred “Moose” Sanchez called Balance. We did cover tunes but also did originals. Emillio Castillo from Tower of Power kind of took the band under his wing, he produced a remake of “Oh What A Night” that we recorded under the name “AZUSA” ( there were copyright issues with the name Balance).

In the late 80’s I went to work on a cruise ship as a sideman on a show band. I became a musical director on Premier Cruise Lines. I met my wife while working aboard the SS Atlantic. She is from Denmark. 

I moved to NY in 1992. Shortly thereafter I formed “redrube” a latin/ska/funk group which was very much inspired by a Los Angeles band called “Jump With Joey“. My friend Elliott Caine played trumpet with them. The band was led by Joey Altruda (bass). I would sit in with them when I visited L.A. and got to know some of the other players. Bill Ungerman (sax) and Mike Boito (piano).I sat in with them at Tavern on the Green when they came to NY. Roland Alfonso  of the Skatalites was at the gig and I got to play with him.

I kept redrube together for about 10 years. We did street fairs, special events for the Brooklyn Borough presidents office, private and corporate parties and a few clubs. We played the JVC Jazz festival in 1996. 

Besides doing my band and working as a freelance musician I was also working for Fredrick H Weiner at The NY Repair center in Jackson Heights ,Queens. There I worked on brass and woodwind instruments. Mark Kasten who ran the shop and is also a very knowledgable repair technician taught me many aspects of repair work. I stayed at Weiner music until he moved to Long Island in 1997, that is when I opened my shop.

More recently in 2017 I formed a band called “ruben & latin soul” we were doing versions of boogaloo tunes mostly by Mongo SantaMaria. It was an 8 piece band. Piano,bass,drums,congas,Tenor sax,trumpet,trombone and I played alto and Bari sax. We played Franks in Downtown Brooklyn, Sir “D’s” in Park Slope and The Zinc Bar in Manhattan.

COVID ended all gigs as well as closing the BB&R repair shop for about a year.

But I’m back now and open for business. I practice my saxophone every day. I am also doing alot of transcribing, mostly Jackie Mclean solos. Check out “Ruben’s Transcriptions” in the menu.