Coco Montoya (21+ Event)

COCO MONTOYA WRITING ON THE WALL Bio written by Marc Lipkin   "One of the most prodigious and gifted electric bluesmen on the planet...a deeply soulful singer and incendiary guitarist [with] a seemingly endless penchant for invention." –AllMusic   "Smoking songs and heavy hitting guitar full of fire and passion...Montoya’s rough-edged voice is filled with feeling. Bluesy, powerful and unpredictable...[It]really gets the blood flowing." –Blues Music Magazine "Montoya is a show-stopper...heartfelt singing and merciless guitar with a wicked icy burn. He is one of the truly gifted blues artists of his generation." –Living Blues   “’Just play what you feel, be real about it, and enjoy yourself.’ That’s what Albert Collins taught me,” says the award-winning guitar virtuoso and soul-deep singer Coco Montoya. The self-taught, left-handed Montoya mastered his craft under Collins’ tutelage. Incorporating lessons learned from his mentors, the iconic Collins (for whom he originally drummed), and UK legend John Mayall, Montoya puts his own stamp onto every song he performs. Since his first solo album in 1995 (which won him the Blues Music Award for Best New Artist), Montoya’s endlessly inventive guitar work and passionate, hard-hitting vocals have kept him at the top of the blues world. With his new Alligator Records album, Writing On The Wall(his sixth for the label), Montoya delivers what he is already calling one of the best records he’s ever made. For the very first time on Alligator, he decided to bring his road-tested band—noted keyboardist and songwriter Jeff Paris (Keb’ Mo’, Bill Withers), bassist Nathan Brown, and drummer Rena Beavers—into the studio with him. Between the camaraderie of the long-time bandmates and the sheer talent of all involved, the results have left Coco, in his words, “over the moon.”     Produced by Grammy Award-winner Tony Braunagel (Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal) and co-produced by Jeff Paris, Writing On The Wall is a tour-de-force of memorable, hook-filled songs, sung with passion and fueled by equally memorable, top shelf musicianship. The 13 tracks include five written or co-written by Montoya. The set opens with a signature, career-defining performance of the soul-baring I Was Wrong, written for Coco by songwriter Dave Steen. From the blistering Save It For The Next Fool to the enjoy now/pay later philosophy of Jeff Paris’ (I’d Rather Feel) Bad About Doin’ It to the riveting reinvention of Lonnie Mack’s Stop, Montoya delivers each song with heart-pounding emotion. Special guest Lee Roy Parnell adds his well-seasoned slide guitar to the smoldering A Chip And A Chair. And Coco’s friend, guitarist Ronnie Baker Brooks (son of late Alligator star Lonnie Brooks), joins in for some good-natured fun on the droll Baby, You’re A Drag and adds his blistering playing to the searing cover of Bobby Bland’s You Got Me.     “I am so proud of this one,” Montoya says of Writing On The Wall. “We recorded in Jeff Paris’ studio and everything just gelled together. And the band inspired me; they all gave extra effort at every turn. Jeff, Nathan and Rena played so great, they ended up making me play even harder. They made me sound better than I am!”     Henry “Coco” Montoya was born in Santa Monica, California, on October 2, 1951, and raised in a working-class family. Growing up, Coco immersed himself in his parents’ record collection. He listened to big band jazz, salsa, doo-wop and rock ‘n’ roll. His first love was drums; he acquired a kit at age 11. He got a guitar two years later. “I’m sure the Beatles had something to do with this,” Montoya recalls. “I wanted to make notes as well as beats.” But guitar was his secondary instrument. Montoya turned his love of drumming into his profession, playing in a number of area rock bands while still in his teens and becoming an in-demand drummer.     In 1969, Montoya saw Albert King opening a Creedence Clearwater Revival/Iron Butterfly concert at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. He was transformed. “After King got done playing,” says Montoya, “my life was changed. When he played, the music went right into my soul. It grabbed me so emotionally that I had tears welling up in my eyes. Nothing had ever affected me to this level. He showed me what music and playing the blues were all about. I knew that was what I wanted to do.”     The next chapter of Montoya’s story was kick-started by a chance meeting in the mid-1970s with legendary bluesman Albert Collins. Montoya says, “Albert was coming through Los Angeles and needed to borrow my drum set, which I left at the club where he was going to be playing. I went down to see his show that night and it just tore my head off. The thing that I had seen and felt with Albert King came pouring back on me when I saw Albert Collins.”     A short time later, Collins hired Montoya as his band’s drummer. With Albert mentoring Coco on the guitar during the band’s downtime, Coco soon became Collins’ second guitarist. “We’d sit in hotel rooms for hours and play guitar,” remembers Montoya. “He’d play that beautiful rhythm of his and just have me play along. He was always saying, ‘Don’t think about it, just feel it.’ He was like a father to me,” says Coco, who often slept at Collins’ home. When Collins declared Montoya his “son,” it was the highest praise and affection he could offer. In return, Montoya learned everything he could from the legendary Master of the Telecaster.     Needing a more regular paycheck, Montoya left Collins’ band after two years and took a job tending bar, jamming on weekends at Los Angeles clubs. One day, legendary British musician John Mayall heard Coco playing Otis Rush’s All Your Love (I Miss Loving)onstage. Soon after, Mayall called on Montoya to join his famous Bluesbreakers. Filling the shoes of previous Bluesbreaker guitarists Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor would not be easy, but Montoya knew he could not pass up the opportunity to play with another legend. For the next ten years he toured the world and recorded with Mayall on seven albums, soaking up the experience of life on the road and in the recording studio.     Montoya’s recorded debut as a bandleader came with 1995’s Gotta Mind To Travel(originally on Silvertone Records in England and later issued in the USA on Blind Pig Records). The album became an instant fan favorite. Blues enthusiasts, radio programmers and critics sent praise from all corners. The album immediately made it clear that Montoya ranked among the best players on the contemporary scene. Two more Blind Pig albums followed, and Coco was well on his way.     In 2000, Montoya’s Alligator debut, Suspicion, quickly became the best-selling album of his career, earning regular radio airplay on over 120 stations nationwide. Montoya’s fan base exploded. After two more highly successful and massively popular Alligator releases—2002’s Can’t Look Back and 2007’s Dirty Deal—Montoya signed with Ruf Records, cutting both a live and a studio album. Returning to Alligator with 2017’s Hard Truth and 2019’s Coming In Hot, the guitar master continued to blaze his trail. “Montoya unleashes one career-topping performance after another,” declared the UK’s Blues Matters.     Still an indefatigable road warrior, Montoya continues to tour virtually nonstop, bringing audiences to their feet from New York to New Orleans to Chicago to San Francisco. Across the globe, he’s performed in countries including Australia, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, England, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Mexico, Ecuador, Italy, Poland, Russia, the Czech Republic and Canada.     Now, with the dynamic Writing On The Wall and a tour calendar busting at the seams, Coco Montoya is as excited as he’s ever been to perform the new songs live with his burning-hot band. Montoya’s well-earned reputation as an eye-popping live performer precedes him. Vintage Guitar states, “Coco keeps getting better and better. He plays with fire and passion rarely seen in this day and age.” Billboard declares, “In a world of blues guitar pretenders, Coco Montoya is the real McCoy. He exudes power and authenticity. Be prepared to get scorched by the real thing.”   Alligator Records, LLC P.O. Box 60234, Chicago, IL 60660 (773) 973-7736 publicity@allig.com  

Wonder Bread 5 (21+ Event)

Ozomatli

In their eighteen years together as a band, celebrated Los Angeles culture-mashers Ozomatli have gone from hometown heroes to being named U.S. State Department Cultural Ambassadors.Ozomatli has always juggled two key identities: they are the voice of their city and they are citizens of the world.Their music - a notorious urban-Latino-and-beyond collision of hip hop and salsa, dancehall and cumbia, samba and funk, merengue and comparsa, East LAR&B and New Orleans second line, Jamaican ragga and Indian raga - has long followed a key mantra: it will take you around the world by taking you around L.A.Originally formed to play at a Los Angeles labor protest, Ozomatli spent their early days participating in everything from earthquake prep “hip hop ghetto plays” at inner-city elementary schools to community activist events, protests, and city fundraisers. Since then, they have been synonymous with their city: their music has been taken up by MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers and the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, they recorded the travelogue “City of Angels” as a new urban anthem, and they were featured as part of the prominent L.A. figures imaging campaign “We Are 4 L.A.” on NBC-TV. Ozomatli also have the distinction of headlining the Hollywood Bowl three times, in 2008, 2010 and 2012. In recognition of their efforts, the City of Los Angeles has officially declared every April 23rd in perpetuity as “Ozomatli Day”.On the national stage, the band were recognized for their service not just to Los Angeles but as global activists, receiving the National Council of LA Raza's Humanitarian Award, and performing twice for President Barack Obama.“This band could not have happened anywhere else but L.A.,” saxophonist and clarinetist Ulises Bella has said. “Man, the tension of it, the multiculturalism of it. L.A. is like, we’re bonded by bridges.”Ozomatli is also a product of the city’s grassroots political scene. Proudly born as a multi-racial crew in post-uprising 90s Los Angeles, the band has built a formidable reputation over five full-length studio albums as well as a relentless touring schedule.“Just being who we are and just doing what we’re doing with music at this time is very political,” says bassist Wil-Dog Abers. “The youth see us up there and recognize themselves. So in a playful, party-type of way, I think it’s real easy for this band to get dangerous. We are starting to realize just how big of a voice we actually have as a band and how important it is for us to use it."Several years ago, the reach and power of that voice went to new global heights. The band had long been a favorite of international audiences-playing everywhere from Japan to North Africa and Australia-and their music had always been internationalist in its scope, seamlessly blending and transforming traditions from Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East (what other band could record a song once described as “Arabic jarocho dancehall”?), but that year they entered the global arena in a different way.They were invited by the U.S. State Department to serve as official Cultural Ambassadors on a series of government-sponsored international tours to Asia, Africa, South America, and the Middle East, tours that linked Ozomatli to a tradition of cultural diplomacy that also includes the esteemed likes of Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Louis Armstrong.In places like Tunisia, Egypt, India, Jordan, and Nepal, Ozo didn’t just play rousing free public concerts, but offered musical workshops and master classes and visited arts centers, summer camps, youth rehabilitation centers, and even a Palestinian refugee camp. They listened to performances by local musicians and often joined in for impromptu jam sessions with student bands and community musicians. Most shows ended up with kids dancing on stage and their new collaborators sitting in for a tabla solo or a run on the slide guitar.
In the case of Nepal, the band’s trip was part of a celebration of the country’s newly ratified peace accord. Their concert, which drew over 14,000 people, was a historic one. Ozo were the first Western band to do a concert in Nepal, and the event was the country’s first peaceful mass gathering that was not a protest or religious ceremony.  They then went on to be the first contemporary western band to play public concerts in Mongolia (drawing a crowd of 25,000), and to perform in Myanmar during the height of military rule.Ozomatli also traveled to China, South Africa, Madagascar, Vietnam and Thailand performing free concerts and extending humanitarian outreach, including HIV and AIDS care clinics, visits to schools for the blind and deaf, orphanages, Methadone clinics, and outreach programs to refugees and disadvantaged youth.Ozomatli were honored to accompany the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Celebrating the Pops 125th Anniversary. Since that first orchestral collaboration, they have gone on to perform Ozo classics live with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, the Colorado Symphony, the San Diego Symphony, and the New York Pops.Ozomatli made an appearance at TEDxSF – the first musical talk ever given at any TED conference - mixing discussion and sound to explore the challenges and promises of musical identities in a global age.
In addition to their substantial history licensing their music for film, television and video games, the band has also gone on to compose and score, recently contributing music to Happy Feet 2 and Elmo's Musical Monsterpiece for Warner Brothers Interactive, SIMS for EA Games, music for PBS Kids, the motion pictures A Better Life and Harlistas, and Gabriel Iglesias Presents Stand-Up Revolution on Comedy Central.The past few years have seen the band focused on Ozomatli Presents “Ozokidz”, a special family friendly set geared towards performing for children and adults alike. The album, released on Hornblow Recordings in fall of 2012 has been recognized by the media as a standout release in the children’s music genre, with plaudits coming from NPR, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, New York Daily News, iTunes and more.

Mardi Gras Mambofest (21+ Event)

The English Beat

The English Beat is a band with an energetic mix of musical styles and a sound like no other.  The band's unique sound has allowed it to endure for nearly three decades and appeal to fans, young and old, all over the world. When The English Beat (known simply as The Beat in their native England) rushed on to the music scene in 1979, it was a time of massive social and political unrest and economic and musical upheaval. This set the stage for a period of unbridled musical creativity, and thanks in large part to the Punk movement and it's DIY approach to making music, artists like The Beat were able to speak out and speak their mind on the news of the day, as in “Stand Down Margaret”, things that mattered to them and the youth culture, as in “Get A Job”, and universal matters of the heart and soul, as in their classic hits “I Confess” and “Save It For Later”. The original band consisted of singer-songwriter Dave Wakeling on vocals and guitar, Andy Cox on guitar, David Steele on bass, and Everett Morton on drums – later additions Ranking Roger (toasting) and foundational First Wave Ska legend Saxa (saxophone) completed the outfit. The band crossed over fluidly between soul, reggae, pop and punk, and from these disparate pieces they created an infectious dance rhythm. The Beat first came to prominence as founding members of the British Two Tone Ska movement, with their classic first album “Just Can't Stop It” fitting squarely in that genre.  Along with their contemporaries The Specials, The Selecter, and Madness, the band became an overnight sensation and one of the most popular and influential bands of that movement.  However, band leader Dave Wakeling never felt constrained by the movement.  Dave has always viewed ska as a springboard, not a straight jacket.  Indeed, the band's sound continued to evolve over their first three studio albums, through the General Public era (a band formed by Dave with Ranking Roger, the toaster from The Beat), and has continued it's evolution with the forthcoming English Beat album “Here We Go Love”, a PledgeMusic crowd-funded album set for release in 2016, the band's first new album since 1982's “Special Beat Service”. Consummate showman that he is, Dave Wakeling has continued to keep The Beat alive and strong. Dave continues to tour the world as The English Beat with an amazing all-star ska backing band playing all the hits of The Beat, General Public, and songs from his new album “Here We Go Love”. You just can’t stop The English Beat!

You Should Be Dancing - A Tribute To The Bee Gees

Ottmar Liebert and Luna Negra

Troy Ramey

Sam Grisman Project

Sam Grisman Project or “SGP” is a dynamic and evolving musical collective led by bassist Sam Grisman,  paying tribute to the musical legacy of his father, legendary mandolinist David “Dawg” Grisman and his longtime collaborator Jerry Garcia.  Sam grew up surrounded by the rich sounds of acoustic music and has built on that heritage to create something both familiar and uniquely modern for audiences nationwide.    SGP offers genre-defying live experiences filled with tight improvisation, deep grooves, and heartfelt connections between the players as they perform timeless, unapologetic acoustic music into condenser microphones. There are no plugs or amplifiers on the stage, just the instruments in their natural environment. Whether performing at intimate venues or major festivals, the project continues to captivate listeners of all-ages with their masterful blend of tradition and innovation. They frequently collaborate with celebrated musicians such as Peter Rowan, honoring the musical heritage of Old & In the Way.   Sam Grisman Project  brings together a rotating lineup of world-class musicians to explore the rich legacies of American roots music incorporating their unique voices. Playing in SGP in 2024-2025: Sam Grisman (bass and vocals), Chris J. English (percussion and vocals), Logan Ledger (guitar and vocals) , Victor Furtado (clawhammer banjo and vocals), Max Flansburg (guitar and vocals), Dominick Leslie (mandolin and vocals), John Mailander (fiddle and mandolin), Matt Flinner (mandolin), Nat Smith (cello), Alex Hargreaves (fiddle) and more. Sam Grisman Project continues to push boundaries and explore new sonic landscapes while honoring the music that inspires them. 

Ambrosia (21+ Event)