Jazz Articles about Coco Montoya

Various artists: Alligator Records: 50 Years of Genuine Houserockin’ Music

by Jim Trageser
June 18, 2021

Maybe this half-century commemoration of the jny: Chicago-based, blues-focused label should have been titled, “The Last of the Independents." Almost alone of the mid-major labels that formerly thrived in the 1980s and '90s by specializing in non-mainstream styles of music, Alligator has managed to navigate stunning changes in the music business--from the vinyl of LPs and 45s to cassettes and CDs, and then, most recently, the virtual collapse of the retail record business and wholesale pivot to online ...

Coco Montoya and Debbie Davies at Toad's, Denver CO

by Geoff Anderson
April 23, 2009

Coco Montoya, Debbie Davies The Toad Tavern Denver, Colorado April 1, 2009

The blues is something you either get, or you don't. To those that don't get it, it's just the same old chord progression running round and round like a NASCAR race. Some complain that the blues is primitive and repetitive. But so is sexy, and I like that too! Yeah, I get it. A slow blues tune with a searing guitar ...

Coco Montoya: Suspicion

by Ed Kopp
February 1, 2000

Coco Montoya is a guitar-wielding blues-rocker whose voice and songs are indistinguishable from those of a hundred other blues-rockers. But when Montoya launches into one of his extended guitar solos, you just can't help but crank that volume knob. By the end of the CD you’re hopping around the room playing air guitar while the neighbors are phoning you to turn down the music.Born in Southern California, Montoya learned guitar from Albert Collins while toiling as Collins' drummer. ...