Coco Montoya (born Henry Montoya, October 2, 1951,
Santa Monica
Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
) is an American
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
guitarist
A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...
and singer and former member of
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers are an English blues rock band led by singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist John Mayall. While never producing a hit of their own, the band has been influential as an incubator for British rock and blues ...
.
Musical career
Montoya's career began in the mid-1970s when
Albert Collins
Albert Gene Drewery, known as Albert Collins and the Ice Man (October 1, 1932 – November 24, 1993),Skeely, Richard. "Albert Collins: Biography" Allmusic.com. was an American electric blues guitarist and singer with a distinctive guitar style. ...
asked him to join his band as
drummer
A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...
. Collins took Montoya under his wing and taught him his "icy hot" guitar style. The two remained friends even after Montoya left Collins' band.
In the early 1980s
John Mayall heard Montoya playing guitar in a
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
bar. Soon after Mayall asked Montoya to join the newly reformed Bluesbreakers. He remained a member of the band for 10 years.
In 1995 he appeared with the
Cate Brothers
The Cate Brothers are an American singer-songwriter-musician duo of twin brothers from Fayetteville, Arkansas, Earl and Ernest "Ernie" Cate (born December 26, 1942). In the mid-1960s, they became performers of country soul music at clubs and da ...
for the resumption of their recording career on their release, ''Radioland''. Since that same year, Montoya has recorded several solo
album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
s.
In 2002, he featured on the
Bo Diddley
Ellas McDaniel (born Ellas Otha Bates; December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known professionally as Bo Diddley, was an American guitarist who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll. He influenced many artists, incl ...
tribute album ''Hey Bo Diddley – A Tribute!'', performing the song "Pills."
His 2019 recording, ''Coming In Hot'', was chosen as a 'Favorite Blues Album' by
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
.
Left-hand style
Montoya is
left-handed
In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subject ...
but plays a left-handed guitar with a right-handed neck (i.e. strings upside down).
Personal life
Montoya and his longtime girlfriend Lenora married in 2009. He has two daughters; Jasmin (born 1980) and Donna (born 1988).
Discography
* 1995 ''Gotta Mind To Travel''
* 1996 ''Ya Think I'd Know Better''
* 1997 ''Just Let Go''
* 2000 ''Suspicion''
* 2002 ''Can't Look Back''
* 2007 ''Dirty Deal''
* 2009 ''The Essential Coco Montoya'' (compilation)
* 2010 ''I Want It All Back''
* 2014 ''Songs From The Road'' (Live)
* 2017 ''Hard Truth''
* 2019 ''Coming In Hot''
References
External links
Official website*
Biography
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...
at
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Montoya, Coco
1951 births
Living people
American blues guitarists
American male guitarists
Contemporary blues musicians
American musicians of Mexican descent
Blues rock musicians
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers members
Electric blues musicians
Musicians from Santa Monica, California
American blues singers
Guitarists from California
20th-century American guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
Hispanic and Latino American musicians