Muñoz began playing at the age of 13, when he received a piano as a gift from his father. He quickly discovered that he had a knack for picking out melodies, and got his hands on as many piano recordings as he could from the likes of Andre Previn and Peter Nero. He taught himself how to play, and his big break came when he was asked to sit in with a jazz band at a club in San Juan that he’d been frequenting almost every night. Flash forward to the late ‘60s, and Muñoz relocated from San Juan to New York City with his popular Puerto Rican rock band The Living End (not to be confused with the Australian punk band of the same name). Although they parted ways, a fortuitous connection through the drummer’s girlfriend led him to The Beach Boys. On a weekend trip to Los Angeles, they ended up jamming together in Topanga Canyon and discovered they had great chemistry. The Beach Boys asked Carli to join them on tour, Muñoz relocated to LA, and the rest, as they say, is history. He started out playing percussion, but one fateful day when Carl Wilson heard Muñoz jamming jazz tunes on piano during a rehearsal break, Wilson was floored by his talent. He later asked Muñoz to play keyboards in the band when their keyboardist, Daryl Dragon, left to form Captain & Tennille. Muñoz ended up playing with The Beach Boys from 1969 to 1981.

With their best days behind them, Muñoz decided to leave The Beach Boys in 1981 and was soon getting calls to record and perform with renowned artists including George Benson, Les McCann and Chico Hamilton. Because he was in such demand as a session and touring player (and took time out to raise a family), Muñoz was a bit of a late bloomer when it came to recording his own music. After returning to San Juan to raise his family in the mid ‘80s, he resumed film and television production projects he had begun while in LA. But when Hurricane Hugo struck in 1989 and destroyed all of his belongings, he turned the tragedy into an opportunity to focus on what mattered to him most – his music. Muñoz formed a jazz trio that played around Puerto Rico, and eventually opened Carli’s Fine Bistro and Piano in 1998, a popular jazz club and restaurant in Old San Juan where he still performs several nights a week. It was then that he began recording albums under his own name, releasing his first solo album in 2000, Love Tales – a collection of his own material and jazz standards. Since then he has released five studio albums and three live albums, and now his 2018 magnum opus, Follow Me.