Carlos Emilio Morales Tabares, a prominent Cuban jazz guitarist, was born on November 6, 1939, in Havana. He was one of the first guitarists to successfully adapt Cuban rhythms to the language of jazz guitar. His artistic training was influenced by Manuel García Gatell, Jesús Ortega, Roberto Ondina, Federico Smith, Clara “Cuqui” Nicola, and Fabio Landa.

He began his professional career in 1959 with the Channel 12 Television Orchestra, conducted by Mario Romeu. From 1962, he worked for five years with the Havana Musical Theater Orchestra.

In 1967, he founded the Cuban Modern Music Orchestra, along with Arturo Sandoval, Chucho Valdés, Jorge Varona, Paquito D’ Rivera, and Enrique Pla, under the direction of Armando Romeu. This was the first musical group on the island to perform rock or the music of The Beatles and Ray Charles. Later, he joined Leopoldo “Pucho” Escalante’s Nonet de Jazz.

The year 1973 was a very special one for him, as it was during this period that he joined the group Irakere, with whom he has remained to this day, for almost 40 years. He has also had the opportunity to work throughout these years with orchestras conducted by Eddy Gaytán, Fernando Mulens, Felo Bergaza, Armandito Zequeira, Armando Romeu, Frank Domínguez, and Chucho Valdés.

Artists such as Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés, Merceditas Valdés, Oscar D’León, Tito Puente, Rubén Blades, Bebo Valdés, Elena Burke, Emiliano Salvador, Claudio Roditi, Branford de Marsalis, Al Dimeola, Maynard Ferguson, Guillermo Barreto, Frank Emilio, Tata Güines, Dizzy Gillespie, Michel Legrand, Stan Getz, Charlie Haden, Willie Colón, Ray Barretto and Dave Valentín, among others, have shared their art with Carlos Emilio Morales and are faithful witnesses of this Cuban musician’s talent.

He has also performed extensively as a teacher, having taught at the School of Modern Music and the Ignacio Cervantes School of Professional Development. He has also taught in London and the United States, specifically in San Francisco, California, and Boston.

Carlos Emilio Morales has worked under the direction of maestro Adolfo Guzmán, Manuel Duchesne Cuzán, Rafael Somavilla, Germán Piferrer, Armando Oréfiche, Fabio Landa, Félix Guerrero, Roberto Valdés Arnau, Adolfo Pichardo, Gonzalo Romeu, Paquito D’ Rivera, José Ramón Urbay, Rembert Egües and Leo Brouwer.

With the group Irakere, he has toured almost all of the Americas, including the United States and Canada. They have also toured almost all of Europe and have visited other regions such as Angola and Japan. He has also appeared with his longtime group at the Copenhagen, Newport, Montreaux, Glasgow, Brecom, and Rome Jazz Festivals, as well as the Antibes, Nice, Mode, Stockholm, Tokyo, North Sea, and San Sebastián Festivals, among others.

Carlos Emilio Morales Tabares won the Grammy Award in 1979, and was nominated for the same award in 1980 and 1998. His list of awards also includes the EGREM Silver Record in 1979 and the El Congo de Oro, awarded in Colombia in 1995.

In 2008, the group “Emilio Morales y Los Nuevos Amigos” was created, serving as a foundation for the interpretation of various traditional Cuban genres, while also including other international ones such as jazz. Great vocalists such as Vania, Leo Vera, Osdalgia, Omara Portuondo, Beatriz Márquez, and Sory have worked with this project, recreating anthological melodies by true Cuban icons such as José Antonio Méndez, Rolando Vergara, Piloto y Vera, Frank Emilio, Eliseo Grenet, Ñico Rojas, Adolfo Guzmán, César Portillo de la Luz, María Teresa Vera, and many others, supported by the renowned pianist Emilio Morales Ruíz.