During his 40-year-long career he directed several important Cuban ensembles, including Orquesta Riverside and Los Modernistas, as well as prominent radio and cabaret orchestras.

In 1938, he became the pianist for Los románticos gauchos,[4] which featured Peruvian-born singer Ricardo Dantés, who Guzmán accompanied at the CMW Cadena Roja radio station.

[6] After touring Cuba in 1939, Guzmán joined RHC-Cadena Azul in 1941 as the pianist for Argentine tango singer Alberto Gómez.

[6] After directing Orquesta Riverside between 1957 and 1962, Adolfo Guzmán recorded several sessions for EGREM (Pianoforte, split with Frank Emilio Flynn and Peruchín).

[12] Guzmán is considered one of the main instrumental filin composers alongside Frank Emilio Flynn and Luis Yáñez.

[14] According to musicologist and producer María Teresa Linares, he was one of the key innovators of the canción, a genre he cultivated between 1938 ("Sin saber por qué") and 1971 ("He perdido la fe").

[12] He also adopted his nephew Julio Antonio Guzmán from his wife side when his young son passed away tragically.

Julio Antonio Guzmán left Cuba and also became a musician, directing his own orchestra called Conjunto Constelación.