I started playing the guitar when I was nine years old after my brother stepped on my ukulele one night on his way to the bathroom. I guess I should not of left it on the floor but it did get me my first new guitar and some lessons so I was very happy. A short time later I met an older guitarist who was looking for musicians to start a band. I had heard him play and sing at a boys club and couldn’t believe anyone besides the Beatles could play those songs. Hearing him back then really changed my life and turns out he lived right up the street from me so we became friends. I wasn’t good enough to play in his band but I think he felt sorry for me so he started teaching me some Ventures songs and also found some musicians for me to play with. He helped me form my first band called the Capries and at age twelve I remember people at parties asking me for my autograph because I looked so young. They use to call me the El Cerrito kid. My family later moved across the bay to San Rafael where I kept playing in bands through junior high and high school. I played at many of the school dances and also parties we had out in the woods around Marin County California. I had a trio called Red Mountain and our business card said “For Parties & Dances Ask For Red Mountain” which was also the name of a cheap wine.
When I was a junior in high school I was listening to Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles but when I picked up a record by Wes Montgomery I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. His guitar playing really spoke to me and I soon embarked on learning jazz guitar. I got in the school jazz ensemble but really knew nothing about reading chord symbols or music. In fact, when I saw the letter A at the beginning of the music, I thought that I was suppose to play an A chord. I slowly got it together reading chord symbols but still needed to learn much more. Our high school band was sounding pretty good so when our director entered the band in a composition in Monterey, a few people in the band including myself got picked to play at the Monterey Jazz Festival with the very first all-star high school band. This was a big turning point in my musical development as I was introduced to the legendary guitarist Mundell Lowe. I also went to a summer camp that year and studied with the Stan Kenton Big Band. Now I was beginning to have some musical knowledge but it would take many more years to get it all together, actually still working on it. Eventually I ended up at North Texas State University where people like pianist Lyle Mays, bassist Marc Johnson, and others were my fellow students. Being around so many great young players was the best thing to help me progress as a guitarist and after graduating with a bachelors degree I returned home to the bay area.
Soon I left for Los Angeles thinking I would become a studio guitarist. That dream turned out to be much harder than I thought. I did meet guitarist Howard Roberts who was one of my guitar heros and we became good friends. He asked me if I wanted to teach at a new music school he was putting together called The Musicians Institute of Technology. It was a great experience working with Howard and through him I met guitarist Joe Diorio who was also a big influence on my playing. Back then there were many more road gigs so I eventually started touring and playing with many great musical groups including the Pointer Sisters, Angela Bofill, Willie Bobo, John Klemmer, Engelbert Humperdink, Kitaro, Moacir Santos, John Serry, Auracle and others. In between the road gigs and teaching I also continued my writing skills and my music has since been featured on many television and movie sound tracks. My own group “Barry Coates and the Hats” released a few records “Because I Love You” and “Move like A Dancer” which received high acclaim and air-play on many jazz stations across the nation.
I have met and played with many of the worlds best musicians just by being in Los Angeles. One such great musician is bassist Jimmy Haslip. We hit it off and started writing songs together. The song “Dark Horses” that we wrote ended up on The Yellowjackets “The Spin” record. Many more of our songs can be heard on my own record “The Spirit Within”. We also were asked to write some instructional books for Warner Bros. Music which teach students the art of chord melody and bass improvisational soloing using standards. They are called “Ultimate Play Along/Just Classic Jazz”/Volume 1-3 for bass and guitar. We wrote and recorded another song called Polo on Luis Conte’s record “Black Forest”.
Luis Conte is a master percussionist who has played with everybody under the sun and he was in my original BC & the Hats band. Recently we have reconnected and have worked on two records together. The first record “Marimbula” includes many of my originals and also songs Luis and I wrote together. It features Luis’ incredible percussion tracks along with Jimmy Johnson on bass and me playing guitar synth. Our second record “En Casa De Luis” uses the same musicians along with Larry Goldings on piano and Walt Fowler on trumpet.
Another great musician drummer Billy Ward has been one of those musicians I always wanted to play with. I actually use to see him perform back at North Texas State when I was in school but we never hooked up. Many years later we were both working on a movie soundtrack called “Dead Bang” in Los Angeles with composer Gary Chang and I asked him if he wanted to get together and play some music. We ended up forming a trio with bassist Bill Urmson and later recorded the record “Out The Door” featuring the Billy Ward trio. This trio also performed at the 2008 Modern Drummer Festival and you can see us on the DVD of the festival that was released by Hudson Music. Billy is also a world renown drum instructor and I am proud to be on his instructional drum DVD called “Voices in My Head” where we improv a few musical pieces together.
The latest projects include working on a new record with Luis Conte and also a solo guitar record of mine where I play my renditions of Beatles songs, standards and a few originals. You can find it on the internet at itunes and other music web sites and is called “In My Life”.
When I was a junior in high school I was listening to Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles but when I picked up a record by Wes Montgomery I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. His guitar playing really spoke to me and I soon embarked on learning jazz guitar. I got in the school jazz ensemble but really knew nothing about reading chord symbols or music. In fact, when I saw the letter A at the beginning of the music, I thought that I was suppose to play an A chord. I slowly got it together reading chord symbols but still needed to learn much more. Our high school band was sounding pretty good so when our director entered the band in a composition in Monterey, a few people in the band including myself got picked to play at the Monterey Jazz Festival with the very first all-star high school band. This was a big turning point in my musical development as I was introduced to the legendary guitarist Mundell Lowe. I also went to a summer camp that year and studied with the Stan Kenton Big Band. Now I was beginning to have some musical knowledge but it would take many more years to get it all together, actually still working on it. Eventually I ended up at North Texas State University where people like pianist Lyle Mays, bassist Marc Johnson, and others were my fellow students. Being around so many great young players was the best thing to help me progress as a guitarist and after graduating with a bachelors degree I returned home to the bay area.
Soon I left for Los Angeles thinking I would become a studio guitarist. That dream turned out to be much harder than I thought. I did meet guitarist Howard Roberts who was one of my guitar heros and we became good friends. He asked me if I wanted to teach at a new music school he was putting together called The Musicians Institute of Technology. It was a great experience working with Howard and through him I met guitarist Joe Diorio who was also a big influence on my playing. Back then there were many more road gigs so I eventually started touring and playing with many great musical groups including the Pointer Sisters, Angela Bofill, Willie Bobo, John Klemmer, Engelbert Humperdink, Kitaro, Moacir Santos, John Serry, Auracle and others. In between the road gigs and teaching I also continued my writing skills and my music has since been featured on many television and movie sound tracks. My own group “Barry Coates and the Hats” released a few records “Because I Love You” and “Move like A Dancer” which received high acclaim and air-play on many jazz stations across the nation.
I have met and played with many of the worlds best musicians just by being in Los Angeles. One such great musician is bassist Jimmy Haslip. We hit it off and started writing songs together. The song “Dark Horses” that we wrote ended up on The Yellowjackets “The Spin” record. Many more of our songs can be heard on my own record “The Spirit Within”. We also were asked to write some instructional books for Warner Bros. Music which teach students the art of chord melody and bass improvisational soloing using standards. They are called “Ultimate Play Along/Just Classic Jazz”/Volume 1-3 for bass and guitar. We wrote and recorded another song called Polo on Luis Conte’s record “Black Forest”.
Luis Conte is a master percussionist who has played with everybody under the sun and he was in my original BC & the Hats band. Recently we have reconnected and have worked on two records together. The first record “Marimbula” includes many of my originals and also songs Luis and I wrote together. It features Luis’ incredible percussion tracks along with Jimmy Johnson on bass and me playing guitar synth. Our second record “En Casa De Luis” uses the same musicians along with Larry Goldings on piano and Walt Fowler on trumpet.
Another great musician drummer Billy Ward has been one of those musicians I always wanted to play with. I actually use to see him perform back at North Texas State when I was in school but we never hooked up. Many years later we were both working on a movie soundtrack called “Dead Bang” in Los Angeles with composer Gary Chang and I asked him if he wanted to get together and play some music. We ended up forming a trio with bassist Bill Urmson and later recorded the record “Out The Door” featuring the Billy Ward trio. This trio also performed at the 2008 Modern Drummer Festival and you can see us on the DVD of the festival that was released by Hudson Music. Billy is also a world renown drum instructor and I am proud to be on his instructional drum DVD called “Voices in My Head” where we improv a few musical pieces together.
The latest projects include working on a new record with Luis Conte and also a solo guitar record of mine where I play my renditions of Beatles songs, standards and a few originals. You can find it on the internet at itunes and other music web sites and is called “In My Life”.