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Tony Guerrero

Since his first solo release in 1988, Tony Guerrero has established himself in a variety of areas. His work as a contemporary jazz flugelhornist, trumpeter, composer, and producer has garnered him both critical success and a worldwide audience. He has toured the United States and much of the world as a headliner in major jazz festivals, concert halls, and clubs and has enjoyed commercial radio success not only with his own releases but with music he's written for other artists. To date, he has released twelve solo CDs, some of which have charted on the Billboard Top 20, as well as a variety of special releases. He has appeared on around 200 albums as either producer, composer, arranger or as a musician performing on either trumpet, flugelhorn, piano, guitar and more. Guerrero’s work as a musician and composer can also be heard in movies and on television.

Guerrero’s resume reads like a who’s who of contemporary music. He’s worked with a diverse roster of artists, including jazz legends Freddie Hubbard, Tom Scott and Joe Sample, rock icons Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney, Slash and Billy Idol, pop sensations Chance the Rapper, The Jonas Bros and the quadruple-platinum soundtrack to Disney's High School Musical, as well as Hollywood icons Dick Van Dyke, Jane Lynch, Merv Griffin and more. (See below for details or visit his Resume for a complete list.)

EARLY HISTORY

Guerrero began playing trumpet at Jefferson Elementary (Santa Ana, CA) at the age of nine. It was the inspiration of his McFadden Junior High (Santa Ana, CA) music teacher, Mark Takeuchi, that led him to fall in love with music and pursue it as a life-long passion. Guerrero began experimenting with learning other instruments with the encouragement of Takeuchi. In his eighth-grade year, Guerrero joined fellow students to form a rock trio called “Rad”. Guerrero played drums and the group performed at school dances performing rock classics by Led Zeppelin, KISS, Eric Clapton and more.

While attending Saddleback High School (Santa Ana, CA), Guerrero was encouraged by band director, Walter Houston, to compose and arrange music for the school band and orchestra. While still in high school, Guerrero had the opportunity to take over the school’s fledgling jazz band when its volunteer conductor moved away. His tenure was short-lived, but it gave him valuable experience in band leading. It was in this band, shortly before he took it over, that Guerrero was introduced to the music of Chuck Mangione, an artist that would eventually help define his own writing and playing style and to whom Guerrero would often be compared.

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Album Review

Betty Bryant: Lotta Livin'

Read "Lotta Livin'" reviewed by Jack Bowers


First, double-check to make sure there aren't any misprints. No, it's an honest-to-goodness fact that Betty Bryant--who sings, plays piano, wrote four of the nine numbers and arranged half a dozen on her fourteenth album--really was almost ninety-four years old when Lotta Livin' was recorded in 2023. Bryant's rough and edgy voice is remarkably strong and steady, while her piano playing simply defies any generational labels. As a vocalist, no note seems out of her reach, and ...

31
Album Review

Matt Barber: The Song Is You

Read "The Song Is You" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Matt Barber is a pretty good singer: pleasant voice, decent range, fair sense of swing, healthy respect for a lyric. On his seventh album, The Song Is You, Barber has chosen to revisit a number of evergreens from the Great American Songbook and placed himself in a variety of musical settings designed to enhance the experience. A couple of those songs ("Oh! Look at Me Now," “You Make Me Feel So Young") were closely associated with the ...

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In Pictures

Mid-Century Modern Jazz Illustrations

Read "Mid-Century Modern Jazz Illustrations" reviewed by Tony Guerrero


Drawing was a part of my world long before music (I wanted to be a cartoonist as a young kid) but I've only recently rediscovered it as something I genuinely love. It has become a fulfilling creative outlet and a way for me to combine my musical sensibilities with my love of Mid-Century Modern design and illustration. A note about one of the images: Around 1990-91, I had a few single-panel cartoons published in Contemporary Jazz Review, a ...

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Lotta Livin'

Self Produced
2024

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The Song Is You

Self Produced
2023

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