Tommy Guerrero

Tommy Guerrero stands as an icon in skateboarding while simultaneously forging a thriving path in music. Working chiefly as a guitarist and bassist, he has put out dozens of predominantly instrumental albums that fuse rock, jazz, Latin, soul, trip-hop, and a host of additional genres, citing influences that range from John Coltrane and Bill Withers to Bad Brains and Gabor Szabo. His first solo full-length, Loose Grooves & Bastard Blues, arrived in 1997, followed by well-received efforts such as A Little Bit of Somethin' in 2000 and Soul Food Taqueria in 2003, both issued on the storied down-tempo imprint Mo Wax; he has also explored experimental post-rock with Jet Black Crayon and jazz-inflected material through Blktop Project. Additional partnerships include the 2009 self-titled album by Lord Newborn & the Magic Skulls, a collaboration with Money Mark and Shawn Lee. Throughout the 2010s he maintained a steady output, delivering solo works like No Mans Land in 2014 and The Endless Road in 2016, as well as Dub Tunes in 2019, a project with Trevor Jackson.

Born in San Francisco, Guerrero first played music alongside his brother Tony during the late '70s and co-founded the high-energy skatepunk outfit Free Beer in 1981. He signed with Powell Peralta in 1984, becoming an original member of the renowned Bones Brigade team. Music took on greater importance for him in the '90s. A 12" EP credited to Beats of San Francisco surfaced in 1996, and his debut album, Loose Grooves & Bastard Blues, followed in 1997 on the Galaxia label. To promote the record he assembled Jet Black Crayon with fellow skateboarder and bassist Monte Vallier, DJ Gadget, and ex-Threeo drummer Tim DeGaugh; the group toured with Isotope 217 in 1999. Assisted by Gadget, he issued Hoy Yen Ass'n in 2000 along with the solo album A Little Bit of Somethin' on Mo Wax. Jet Black Crayon meanwhile began releasing boundary-pushing abstract rock on several albums and EPs, starting with Low Frequency Speaker Test in 2000. In 2002 Guerrero teamed with Tokyo's DJ Yas for the mini-album Angler Fish. He also supplied remixes for Nigo and Poets of Rhythm while appearing as a guest on Prefuse 73's 2003 full-length One Word Extinguisher.

Guerrero's warm, soulful approach persisted on Soul Food Taqueria in 2003. After the five-song EP Year of the Monkey he joined Quannum and released From the Soil to the Soul in 2006. That same year Galaxia issued the self-titled debut from the jazzy Blktop Project, which featured Guerrero. Return of the Bastard appeared on the same label in 2007. Four years later Lifeboats and Follies arrived, again on Galaxia, and largely reunited the same musicians, including Money Mark, who had joined Guerrero for the one-off 2009 project Lord Newborn & the Magic Skulls. Guerrero tracked his seventh solo album, No Mans Land, in 2012; the set surfaced first in Japan and gained worldwide release via Modulor in 2014. The Japan-only Perpetuum emerged in 2014, followed by the worldwide edition Perpetual in 2015. Another limited edition, The Endless Road, appeared in 2016, succeeded by Road to Knowhere in 2018. Ed Banger put out Dub Tunes in 2019, an album by Guerrero featuring mixes from Trevor Jackson.