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Fidel Morales
Fidel Morales is a Cuban Drummer, General Percussionist, Composer, Arranger, Musical Director and Author.Morales began his formal music education at the age of 12, having previously studied music reading and theory with the great Cuban clarinetist Amado Valdés. He graduated in 1981 from the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory, at Havana, Cuba, with a degree as instrumentalist and percussion professor.
Drummer and Percussionist: As a drummer, he has played with musicians such as Danilo Pérez, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Giovanni Hidalgo, Nicolás Reynoso, Eddie Gómez, John Faddis, Mark Kramer, Mike Orta, Gary Campbell, Gary Keller, Luis “Perico” Ortiz, Eddie “Guagua” Rivera, Carlos Garnett, Charlie Sepúlveda, and the Hologram Quartet, among others. He has also accompanied soloists such as Omara Portuondo, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Elena Burke, Malena, Celeste Mendoza, Bárbara Wilson, Roberto Roena, Albita, Martha Serra Lima, Basilio, Chichi Peralta, and Noriko.
Morales performed as a percussionist with the Panamá Symphonic Orchestra for 10 years. He has recorded on countless occasions with the Cuban Radio Television Service and with the Symphonic Orchestras of Cuba and Panamá. He has toured extensively around the world, having traveled in music engagements through Austria, Hungary, Canada, Brazil, México, Guatemala, El Salvador, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the USA. Latin Percussion (LP) and Paiste have endorsed him.
Composer: Fidel is the composer of Cuban dance classics “La Expresiva” and “Mamina”, among others. Artists from Cuba, United States, and Puerto Rico have recorded his compositions, and he contributed as well in the CD “Bajando Gervasio”, by Amadito Valdés, nominated for 2004 GRAMMY Awards. The documentary Seguir a través de los años (To Follow Through the Years), by Daniel Diez, is inspired in his music. His last album, "Salsa Son Timba," was produced and recorded in 2005, but released in 2010.
Musical Director: At the age of 15, Fidel wrote his first arrangements for a Big Band integrated by students from the National Art School in Havana. One year later, he became the musical advisor for Buenas Tardes, the hit teenage television series of the time, where he performed with prominent show business figures. In 1990, he directed the salsa and timba group Orquesta Layé, creating the music and appearing in public performances with important Cuban choreographers such as Tomás Morales and Andrés Gutiérrez, from the famous nightclubs Tropicana and Parisién. Morales is director of his own bands: the Fidel Morales Trio, Fidel Morales & The Modern Latin Quartet, and salsa orchestra Proyecto Nega. He also performs with José Ramirez’s ‘Tambores Batá’.
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Fidel Morales: Omío
by James Nadal
There is a saying, that Cuba and Puerto Rico are two wings from the same dove. This could not be more evident than in the musical collaborations and cultural exchanges which have historically united both islands, and their people. Fidel Morales is a native Cuban who since 2006 has secured the drum chair in the Jazz and Afro-Caribbean Music Program at the Music Conservatory of Puerto Rico, a prestigious position, in an island replete with drummers and percussionists.
read moreFidel Morales & Proyecto Nega: Salsa Son Timba
by James Nadal
When Fidel Morales returned to Havana in 2004 after an extended stay in Panama, and traveling the world as a master drummer, he had an exact focus on the type of record he wanted to produce. Salsa Son Timba is the result of gathering some of the finest musicians and singers in Cuba to realize his musical vision. Originally produced in 2005, Morales has rereleased it in 2010. Salsa Son Timba is exactly what the title describes: ...
read moreJazz this week: Arturo O'Farrill Sextet, Fidel Morales Trio, and more
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St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
This week's menu of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis has a bit of what Jelly Roll Morton once called the Latin tinge," with two different touring Latin-jazz performers passing through town, plus the usual variety of local sounds, from Gypsy jazz and big band swing to funkified Beatles and New Orleans-style brass. Let's go to the highlights... Wednesday, January 21 Tonight, pianist Arturo O’Farrill (pictured, top left) and his sextet will make their debut at Jazz at ...
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Primary Instrument
Drums
Location
San Juan
Willing to teach
Advanced only
Credentials/Background
Fidel has worked as an Assistant Professor of Percussion in Panama’s National Conservatory. He has dictated Drums Clinics in Europe, Panama, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Chile, and United States, for students from Berklee College of Music, New England Conservatory, Drummers Collective, University of Miami and University of Puerto Rico. At present is professor of Drum Set for the Jazz and Afro Caribbean Music Department at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music, private teacher, active clinician, and author of the book “Técnicas afrocubanas para bateristas y percusionistas” (Afro-Cuban Techniques for Drum Set and Percussion). For more information, call (787) 607-6269.
Clinic/Workshop Information
Photos
Music
Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson