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 ...

{{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