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TG, faithful
206 leader |
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People ask me a lot of questions (FAQs) about the 206
project and about my music past. Hopefully a few answers
to these questions are provided below:
While majoring in fine arts at Western Washington State
College in Bellingham, Washington in the early 1970's,
I started hanging out with musicians, designing their
posters and t-shirts. Then I saw the movie "Woodstock",
and Santana's performance really inspired me - especially
the percussion section. I talked some of my high school
buddies into letting me in their band, and I would do
their graphics for free. I bought a pair of blue sparkle
plastic bongos from a pawn shop (a couple of months later
a got a real wood conga). Unfortunately their was no 'drum
community' or anyone available to teach me techniques
or folkloric origins so I taught myself by listening to
any albums I could get a hold of. My mother had Mongo
Santamaria albums from the 60's and I listened to those
plus Santana. I mostly listened to west coast Afro Latin
influenced groups like War (I met Papa Dee Allen and he
encouraged me), Azteca, Malo, The Escovedo Family, El
Chicano, etc. Even R&B bands I liked had these instruments
arranged in their songs, the Ohio Players, Earth Wind
& Fire, Mandrill, even the Commodores and Tower of
Power.
My first gig was in front of 2,000 people with our
first group, "Funk Experience". I was hooked on music
at this point, and the band moved a few miles to Seattle
and became "Cold, Bold & Together". This live R&B
group not only sang and played covers (before disco),
but also produced original music and released several
45's becoming one of the most popular acts in the Northwest.
CBT was filled with exceptional musicians and writers.
Several of our band members are very active in the music
industry, including our sax player who became the world's
#1 instrumentalist, Kenny Gorelick (G).
Cold, Bold and Together show off
the latest in `70's funky fashion.
I also got into the habit of listening for congas and
percussion first, then the melody in a song. I heard
Ralph McDonald (who also wrote great songs), Airto,
Lenny Castro, Paulino DaCosta and Luis Conte on various
records. I saw wonderful players perform live like Master
Henry Gibson with Curtis Mayfield, Tito Puente, Armando
Perraza and the Santana percussion section and Bill
Summers and Summer's Heat (which showed me that the
conga player could be the band leader in a non-salsa
group).
As a member of Cold Bold & Together, I not only
got an education in music, but in life, playing soul
music and learning about different cultures and people.
It didn't matter what color you were, if you could jam.
Along the way we had the opportunity to perform with
legendary artists such as Earth Wind & Fire, Kool
& the Gang, Bobby Womack, Canned Heat, K.C. &
the Sunshine Band, Rufus Thomas, the Dramatics, Harold
Melvin and the Bluenotes, and the Ohio Players. To share
the stage and hang out with performers you admired,
and whose music you bought was encouraging and extraordinary.
I formed the Jet City Band after the breakup of CBT and
continued to release original music we called `Ronk'--Rock
and Funk. Music experiences grew as our homeboy Kenny
G was gaining in popularity as the sax player in the Jeff
Lorber Fusion, and then with his own albums. The G-man
didn't forget his roots and included musicians from Seattle
in his touring band and recording on his platinum selling
albums. All of our lives continued to grow with world
tours, videos, music festivals and touring or performing
with Miles Davis, Whitney Houston, George Benson, Chick
Corea, Chuck Berry, Ruben Blades, Dizzie Gillespie and
Wynton and Bradford Marsalis, and I loved meeting and
talking to Cab Calloway. This experience was especially
rewarding to me because I was able to tour with my good
friend, former CBT and Northwest players, including my
younger brother Andre Montague, who, at the time was the
lead singer in Kenny's band.
I was used to singing lead and background vocals in CBT
(I sang the Barry White and Isaac Hayes baritone husky
tunes). My favorite vocalist is Phil Perry, who was singing
with Lee Ritenour on a Riverboat when we were performing
in New Orleans with the Kenny G group.
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TG with Mongo Santamaria,
one of his favorite Congeros. |
Listening to jazzy-R&B-fusion instrumental artists
like Ronnie Laws, George Duke, Grover, Sanborn and groups
such as the headhunters, Steps Ahead, Weather Report,
Return To Forever, Jeff Lorber Fusion, Spyro Gyra, Yellowjackets
and others gave me enjoyment and the inspiration to eventually
put together my dream concept - a band that could not
be defined into a labeled category, but just be accepted
as great music that anybody could listen to.
I want to thank my instrument makers - Norbert at
Meinl Percussion and Cymbals, Peavey, Pete Englehart
Metal Percussion, OM Percussion, my old friends at Sabian,
Chris Hart at Remo, Rhythm Tech, Vic Firth, Tommy Bahama
and John's Music.
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