Morel, Jorge

(b Buenos Aires, 9 May 1931).
Argentine guitarist and composer.

His early guitar studies were with his father (from the age of seven) and with Pablo Escobar (from 1945) at the Academy of Music in Buenos Aires. After graduating he often joined Escobar in radio and live performances. He made his radio début in 1955, and live concert débuts in New York (Carnegie Hall) in 1961 and in Buenos Aires (Teatro Odeon) in 1968, before studying with Rudolf Schramm in New York for some years from 1969 and becoming a professor at Lehman College, CUNY. Morel’s recordings, including The Warm Guitar (1961), The Artistry of Jorge Morel (1968) and Jorge Morel Plays Broadway (1982), have mainly featured his solo arrangements of Broadway musicals by Bernstein and Gershwin, and film music classics. The exception is his Virtuoso South American Guitar (1981), which features his own compositions (primarily single-movement works incorporating South American dance rhythms such as Malambo, Cancion, Choro and Danza Brazilera), for which Morel is best known. These works have been performed and recorded by a number of contemporary guitarists, including Angel Romero, Jason Vieaux, Susan McDonald, Steven Novacek and Eliot Fisk.