Marc Bonilla

Marc Bonilla is a guitarist. He has worked with Keith Emerson (including on 1995's Changing States and in Emerson's 2006 touring band), Glenn Hughes (on The Way It Is, 1999, also playing keyboards), David Coverdale (late 2000 live band)[1] and Kevin Gilbert (Toy Matinee live band). He also appears on the Emerson, Lake & Palmer tribute album Encores, Legends & Paradox (Magna Carta Records, 1999).

He has released a number of solo albums. Among them, EE Ticket (Reprise, 1991), and American Matador (Warner Brothers, 1993), which includes two covers of "A Whiter Shade of Pale".

Bonilla currently plays in California Transit Authority, a Chicago spin-off led by drummer Danny Seraphine. He is also working on Emerson's next solo album.[2]

Marc is originally from the San Francisco Bay area and (along with Joe Satriani) was one of the pre-eminent rock guitar teachers in the Bay area during the 80s. Marc moved to LA in the late 80s to work on TV and movie scoring, and had cameo roles in the short-lived TV series Nightman (about a crime-fighting sax player), for which he was the musical director. He also taught at LA's Guitar Institute of technology (GIT).

Although Marc appears in the video for Toy Matinee's "Ballad of Jenny Ledge," he did not actually play lead guitar on the album. Lead guitar work for the "Toy Mainee" LP was done by LA studio guitarist Tim Pierce, though Marc replaced him for the touring incarnation of the band. Pierce did appear as a guest at some performances to perform his signature lead for "Jenny Ledge."

Around the time that Marc's first solo album (EE Ticket) was released, Yamaha musical instruments produced a prototype Marc Bonilla model guitar. This guitar was decorated with comic book superheros, of which Marc was very fond - his teaching studio in the 80s was filled with plastic models of superheros and monsters which he had assembled as a child.