[2] Coming to prominence in the late 1960s as a member of the Brazilian ensemble Quarteto Novo, he moved to the United States and worked in jazz fusion with Miles Davis, Return to Forever, Weather Report and Santana.

Airto Moreira was born in Itaiópolis, Brazil,[1] into a family of folk healers, and raised in Curitiba and São Paulo.

[1] He left Weather Report (replaced by Dom Um Romão and Muruga Booker for their Sweetnighter album) to join fellow Davis alumnus Chick Corea's new band Return to Forever.

Moreira has also played with several jazz musicians, including Cannonball Adderley, Lee Morgan, Paul Desmond, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, John McLaughlin, Keith Jarrett, Al Di Meola, Zakir Hussain, George Duke and Mickey Hart.

[2] In addition to jazz concerts and recordings, he has composed and contributed music to film and television, played at the re-opening of the Library of Alexandria, Egypt[5] (along with fellow professor of ethnomusicology Halim El-Dabh[6]), and taught at UCLA and the California Brazil Camp.