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Yayo Morales
Yayo Morales was born in La Paz, Bolivia. He studied at the National Conservatoire of Music from 1983 to 1989 and after that he moved to Madrid, Spain to complete his studies at the E.M.C. (Escuela de Música Creativa) from 1990 to 1994 where he earned a music degree in Drums, Harmony, Arranging, and Composition. In 2012 in Brussels, Belgium he earned the EMMEN diploma (European Professional Music Qualification) with a Specialty in Jazz. He also has a Master of Arts (MA) in Film Scoring and Video Game Music using New Technologies, graduated Summa Cum Laude from The Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
He lived in Madrid for 23 years and became one of the most relevant and well known drummers in the Spanish scene.
As a freelance drummer and band leader, Yayo has vast experience playing styles ranging from Jazz, Latin Jazz, Brazilian Jazz, and Flamenco to Pop and Rock, performing throughout Europe, Asia, and North and South America. Playing and touring with bands and musicians such as Henry (The Skipper) Franklin, Bobby Bradford, Azar Lawrence, Theo Saunders, Putter Smith, Marshal Hawkins, Hubert Laws, Teodross Avery, Doug Webb, Louis Van Taylor, Harold Land Jr., Rita Marley, La Calle Caliente, Jorge Pardo, Carles Benavent, Benn Clatworthy, Chano Dominguez, Steve Cotter, La Barbería Del Sur, Scott Ambush, Jerry Pinter, Darek Oles, Juan Munguia, Ron Stout, and Jerry Gonzalez, to name only a few.
From 1994 until 2013 he taught Drum Set, Ear Training (Rhythm), and Jazz Ensemble at the E.M.C. (one of the best modern music schools in Spain). He was teacher of the Associated Board of The Royal Schools of Music of London, giving percussion classes at Kensington School and E.M.C. (1992 – 1996)
In 2013, at the invitation of the Bolivian National Department of Education, he moved back to Bolivia to design and implement the new drum program for Jazz majors at the National Conservatoire of Music. This program is used as the standard model for all national drum programs at the graduate level throughout Bolivia.
He also was professor of composition and arranging at University of Saint Andrews (UMSA) La Paz, Bolivia, involved in extensive curriculum planning and an examination process individualized for each student.
In 2015 he moved to Los Angeles, California , where he currently resides. Today, Yayo has become an important active member of the Los Angeles Jazz scene; in 2019 he played at The Lincoln Center in NYC with The Azar Lawrence Experience.
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Luc Delannoy, author of ¡Caliente! History of Latin Jazz and other music books published in France, Canada and the United States, based in New York. Professor of philosophy of music, contemporary aesthetic and cognitive musicology at several universities in the United States and Mexico. Has dedicated in his latest book “Carambola” Vidas en el Jazz Latino (second volume of History of Latin Jazz) nothing less than eight pages to Yayo Morales’s Los Andes Jazz Project first CD.
“ Los primeros resultados del trabajo de Morales aparecen en un álbum fascinante, Los Andes Jazz Project, grabado con músicos argentinos, uruguayos, estadounidenses, españoles, cubanos y cubano-americanos” . Luc Delanoy
Bill Stewart
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Miles Davis
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McCoy Tyner
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Yayo Morales
Location: Los Angeles
Instrument: Drums
Born: July 10
