Musicologist, Ethnologist, Professor and Compositor. PhD. in Arts. Lecturer Professor of Merit of the Superior Institute of Arts (ISA).

Musicologist, ethnologist and essayist, he made his earliest musical studies in the old Municipal Conservatory of Havana. In 1943 he began his musicology and ethnology studies in the Summer School at the University of Havana with several professors among those was Fernando Ortiz. In the same year he graduated of Pedagogy in the same University and since then he imparted the Course of Cuban Folkloric Music in its Summer School, where he imparted conferences with native groups of rumba, palo, iyesá and bembé.

He practised musical teaching from 1939 to 1957 in the same Musical Conservatory of Havana. In 1951 he participated in several courses in the Season School of Santiago de Chile. He received composition classes in the period 1957-1958 from the teacher Nadia Boulanger, in Paris. In the same year he was Director of the Musicology Department of the National Library, publishing scores, disks and the Magazine The Music. His composition catalogue consists of about 70 works of very diverse genre. He offered conferences and courses about Musicology and Ethnology in institutions of Latin America, Europe and Africa.

He founded the Ethnology and Folklore Institute of the Sciences Academy of Cuba, where he develops a wide work of ethnographic research and he qualified and guided young researchers in courses and seminars about ethnographical aspects of the Cuban culture. There he organized the colloquy about African Studies in collaboration with UNESCO and he participated in other similar events in Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, Algeria, Brazil etc.

Since 1974 he was Director of the Music Department of Casa de Las Americas and professor of the ISA, founding there the School of Cuban Musicology. In 1980 he was granted the Ph. D. of Arts and the Order Félix Varela of First Degree. In 1981 he received the category of Lecturer Professor and later, the one as an Emeritus Professor; also receiving the Order Frank País of First Degree.

He published the books Introducción sobre el estudio del arte africano (Introduction about the study of the African art) and El canto y el tiempo (The song and the time). Also, numerous articles and essays will be gathered and published in 4 volumes, from 1942 until the last studies in which he approaches the field of the semiotic applied to the musicology.

He created the Bulletin of Music and established the Musicology Award of Casa de las Americas and the magazines Actas del Folklore (Records of Folklore), Etnología de la Academia de Ciencia de Cuba (Ethnology of the Science Academy of Cuba) and he collaborated in the magazine of the National Library.

In 1982 the Sciences Academy of Cuba granted him as a Lecturer Researcher as recognition to his outstanding work developed in the field of the scientific investigation.