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Blues guitarist earns respect
By Dan Craft
dcraft@pantagraph.com
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Though he's one of America's master guitarists ("at the forefront of the contemporary blues world" -- Guitar World), Coco Montoya can't read a lick of music.

Not even a grace note, says the man who'll be taking over Bloomington's New Lafayette Club, March 15.

So put away your fancy guitar charts and your weighty music theory tomes for another day, and another musician.

Moreover, "My intonation is a little suspect."

Suspect? Does that mean he's being pursued by the pitch police?

Possibly.

At least if he's in a recording studio and being pressured into a degree of slickness by a producer who may not understand his organic style -- but who does have one eye on the studio rental meter.

"I can't grab it quick," adds Montoya, 56. "I'm not a studio kinda guy."

But then most people who would find themselves in a studio producing Coco Montoya probably know the score.

Like a certain sailor man, "I yam what I yam, and that's what they get."

Just ask Paul Barerre, of blues-rock legends Little Feat, who produced Montoya's ninth and current solo album, "Dirty Deal."

He also sat in on recording sessions with fellow Little Feat members Kenny Gradney, Richie Hayward and Bill Payne, all of whom have preceded Montoya into the New Lafayette Club by several months (they played a gig there in '07).

"Coco's playing was inspirational to me," says Barerre, "with great tone and attitude. He fit in so well with the band. He rips the guitar solos, and his voice is as strong as 3-day-old coffee."

That led to one conclusion: "I knew I had to produce him."

So Barerre got what he got, which is what Montoya had to give: "Something a little more bluesy-raw from what we'd done on previous albums. We tried to rat up the edges, to make it more closely reflect what I sound like when I play live."

He says he was kicked by the Feat "out of the comfort zone," adding, in case you couldn't have guessed already, "it is not a good thing to be in the comfort zone."

All told, "It was great hanging out with these guys, getting all this knowledge from them," reports Montoya, whose career has been spent hanging out with knowledgeable guys.

They include, above all, blues legend Albert Collins, for whom Montoya was drummer (yes, you read that right, drummer) during the '70s.

And, most assuredly, blues-rock great John Mayall, for whom Coco was a Bluesbreaker guitarist for an entire decade, following in the steps of past Bluesbreaker ax-handlers like Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor.

Not too shabby.

Montoya, a Santa Monica, Calif., native, is more a product of his parents' record collections than any particular West Coast mindset.

In the beginning, it was drumming that provided his budding musical passion's outlet: He drove the rhythm engine for a succession of rock bands, then experienced an epiphany of sorts at a 1969 Creedence Clearwater Revival-Iron Butterfly concert opened by blues guitarist Albert King.

"My life was changed," he says. "Nothing had ever affected me to this level. Albert King showed me what the music and guitar playing were all about."

There was a definite "Albert"-thing going on in Montoya's life: Several years later, when Montoya's band was playing weekends at a Culver City, Calif., bar, another blues great, Albert Collins, passed through the venue.

Being the itchy-fingers musician he was, Collins espied Montoya's drum set and asked the club owner if he could try it out. The club owner said, more or less, "have at it."

That night, Montoya came in to play and could tell someone had been messing with his skins.

Not knowing the circumstances, Montoya gave the club owner what-for.

It all ended up with the great Albert Collins calling the drum set's owner up and apologizing.

Within a few months, that little contretemps had evolved into a full-time gig for Montoya as Collins' drummer.

"He took me on and was willing to teach me," says the former pupil, "and our relationship ended up growing into more of a father-son kind of thing."

That nurturing relationship grew on, even after Montoya left the band as the '70s came to a close and a mounting drinking problem intensified.

Having laid down his drumsticks for good "around 1978," he returned to the guitar that he'd fooled around with off-and-on since his schools days.

He wielded it with a left hand, making him one of the guitar world's quirky southpaws.

Fate smiled upon him again when the legendary John Mayall walked into a bar where Montoya was jamming, circa the early '80s, and left it several hours later mightily impressed.

When Mayall decided to reform his legendary Bluesbreakers band around 1983, he summoned Albert Collins' ex-drummer and surrogate son.

The one with the self-taught, southpaw technique.

"He worked us to death," confesses Montoya of Mayall's harder-nosed approach. "But we learned about the business and how to serve the business, and in a lot of ways it was a great education. Musically, he led me to the place where I was ready to go out and open and own my own store."

The break toward independence and, more importantly, sobriety, happened around 1993, 10 years after being led to that place.

Fifteen years later, Montoya is now providing a mix of Collins' paternalism and Mayall's no-nonsense work ethic on behalf of the young musicians who have passed through his band's ranks during that time.

Despite those self-professed musical "limitations," from not being able to read music to "suspect intonation" in the studio, few seem to be noticing or complaining.

The Village Voice: "The fiery blues that issue forth from Coco Montoya's guitar are awe-inspiring and boogie-requiring."

GuitarOne magazine: "The hottest southpaw in the blues ... a master touch and a killer tone."

Coco Montoya: "Still loves and respects the music after all these years. And still loves to play."



At a glance



What: Coco Montoya

When: 8:30 p.m. March 15

Where: New Lafayette Club, 1602 S. Main St., Bloomington

Tickets: Advance, $18; day of, $20

Ticket information: (309) 828-1212 and www.ticketweb.com

Take a look
Coco Montoya, who cut his teeth as a drummer in Albert Collins' band and as a guitarist with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, is bringing his own group to Bloomington's New Lafayette Club.
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Reader comments on this story - 1 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

marzjc wrote on Mar 14, 2008 3:53 PM:

" Most blues players cant read a lick of music. "
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