Carlos Emilio Morales

Carlos Emilio Morales (November 6, 1939 – November 12, 2014) was a Cuban jazz guitarist.

Morales applied classical guitar techniques to jazz and helped introduce global audiences to Cuban jazz in the early 1970s with the group Irakere. His technique reflects his study of the work of Andrés Segovia, while his playing style has influenced not only Cuban guitarists but also many other instrumentalists. Nicknamed El Gordo (The Fat), Morales is regarded as the first to suggest to Cuban bassists that they could apply guitar techniques to the bass guitar, instead of trying to play their instrument like a contrabass.

A native of Marianao, Cuba, Morales was the son of a dentist. He attended medical school at the Universidad de La Habana and worked as a travelling salesman of medical products. He learned to play guitar at the age of 12, mostly by the sound of the Mexican guitar trio Los Panchos, being already acquainted with Trío Matamoros' style, something that he heard daily at home. He received formal training in the 1950s with professors Clara Nicola, García Gattel, Jesús Ortega and Federico Smith. He was later influenced by jazz guitarists Charlie Byrd, Tal Farlow, Barney Kessell, Wes Montgomery and Django Reinhardt.

He started his professional career in 1959 with the Teatro Musical de La Habana orchestra, where classical guitarist Leo Brouwer was composer. In 1967, he became a founding member of the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna, an 18-piece big band conceived and directed by Armando de Sequeira Romeu. The band featured players such as Chucho Valdés, Paquito D'Rivera, Arturo Sandoval, and Carlos Averhoff, who with Morales founded the group Irakere in 1973. He toured and recorded extensively with Irakere as well as occasionally with his own performance projects, including master teaching classes at Escuela de Superación Profesional. Though he has never recorded a solo album, his improvisational skills have been documented on many records as a sideman.

...
Wikipedia