About the Count

Terry "The Count" Medeiros, the son of second-generation Portuguese immigrants and a novice Zen Buddhist, was born in Honolulu Hawaii in 1950. While attending Star Of The Sea grammar school he took up the ukulele at the age of seven, the guitar followed at ten. Encouraged by his grandfather he attended the Clem Low Music Studios at age eleven. Working out of Mel Bay's Modern Guitar Method he got his first Harmony electric guitar and a Supro amp. In the eighth grade Medeiros performed for the first time in front of his grammar school during the annual May Day celebration. "Outer Limits" and "Walk Don't Run" were the songs performed.

High School happened in the middle sixties. The Beatles, Rolling Stones and the rest of the British invasion left their mark on Terry. It was during this time that Terry started to look to other guitar players to influence his guitar playing with.

Django Reinhart, Les Paul, Tal Farlo, Herb Ellis, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Pass, Sabicas, Andres Segovia, Muddy Waters, B. B. King, Albert King, Freddy King, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Otis Rush, Duane Allman, Jimmy Johnson, Cornell Dupre, and Leo Nocentelli are just a few of the great guitar players/musicians that Terry listened to during his teen years.

It was during high school that "The Count" formed his first band "The Sunday Collection." The band performed their material as well as popular songs of the day. They placed second in a battle of the bands held at the Honolulu Shell supported by Terry's fledgling blues based guitar solos and show stopping harmonica playing. During the show they were spotted by a local DJ that took them into the studio to record a couple of songs that were pressed, released on a local record label and got a moderate amount of local radio air play.

Around this time Terry was introduced to the legendary "Kid Ory." Terry became entrenched in the blues and went off to join two blues based bands "The Silver Bike" and "Luke's Pineapple Store." "The Count's" popularity in the islands grew; he formed his first blues guitar quartet "The First Grade" and performed at the first Diamond Head Crater Music Festival. The band received favorable reviews in the Honolulu Star Bulletin. While performing at the festival he was spotted by drummer Randy Seol from the Strawberry Alarm Clock fame. Terry and Randy along with a bassist formed the blues based power trio "Sun & Moon" and did show openers for the The Doors, John Mayall & The Blues Breakers, John Hammond and The Steve Miller Band.

"The Count" moved to California in 1970. Gigging with a blues band in San Diego he started to give guitar lessons and write album and live show reviews for "The Door" a local newspaper. As a reviewer Terry was privileged to interview Muddy Waters, Albert Collins, Mose Allison, Les McCann, Gabor Zabo, Livingston Taylor, Sonny Terry and Brownie Magee.

During the fall of 1971 "The Count" moved to San Francisco. This moved proved to be pivotal in his musical career. One of his first musical bands in the bay area was with Vanguard recording artist Lisa Kindred. Lisa had a strong blues influence to her music that fit well with Terry's basic style. Lisa also had a country-folk quality that was new to Terry. This beginning exposure to country music would prove to be useful later on in Terry's career. During his stay with Ms Kindred Terry started teaching at a local music store and at a local school. He also enrolled in sight-singing and sight-reading classes at San Francisco City College.

Terry was offered the opportunity to form a band with the great tenor sax player "Boots" Houston. Boots had toured with all of the San Francisco greats including Van Morrison. The band was called "Sword and Stone". Bill Graham took a liking to the band and put them on as an opening act for many of his Fillmore shows. Terry found himself opening for Santana, The Doobie Brothers and Buddy Miles.

After various stints with numerous groups including playing in a duo with the great singer/songwriter David Pomeranz, Terry hooked up with the timbales player Coke Escovido. Through his association with Coke Escovido Terry was introduced to the involved rhythmic syncopation of Latin Jazz. Other members of the band included Linda Tillery, Wendy Haas, David Brown and Dave Garibaldi. This led to a call to record with Lee Oskar, the world-renowned harmonica player from the group War. Terry was a featured guitarist on Lee's "Before The Rain" album that was produced by Greg Errico from Sly and the Family stone fame. Other musicians on the album were Bobby Vega, Herman Eberitzsch and the Tower Of Power Horn Section.

After the Lee Oskar album Terry hooked up with Diane Steinberg. Diane had just completed a staring role in the movie Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band, staring the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton. Through this musical experience Terry got to associate with guitarist/bassist Kenny lee Lewis and the talented drummer Gary Ferguson. It was around this time that "The Count" got a call for his first stint with "the Hoodoo Rhythm Devils" featuring Glenn Walters. The band was signed to Fantasy Records, however the group played locally. This was ideal for Terry because by this time he had a family and a home in San Francisco and a large private student roster to attend to. As a member of the Hoodoos Terry got to associate with his old friend Boots Houston as well as Peter Walsh from Seatrain and Country Joe MacDonald fame. David Rubinson managed the band and the musicians were able to perform their music at many of San Francisco's finest venues.

As a side venture Terry performed with the seminal alternative band Little Roger & The Goosebumps. It was Roger along with maestro Dick Bright that anointed Terry with the stage handle "The Count." From his association with "Little" Roger Clark and Dick Bright, "The Count" Became the house guitarist for the Bay Area Music Awards "Bammies" Orchestra. In this capacity as house guitarist for ten years, Terry got to perform with/accompany Eddie Money, John Rubin, Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt, Robin Williams, Herbie Hancock, "Wah Wah Watson," Randy Jackson, Narda Michael Walden, Bobby McFerrin, Carmine Coppolla, Huey Lewis and the News, The Doobie Brothers, The Starship, John Lee Hooker, Frankie Beverly & Maze, Tower of Power, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Marty Balin, Glenn Walters, Pamela Rose and Darlene Love to name a few. As a Member of the Dick bright Orchestra Terry found himself backing John Sebastian and Ella Fitzgerald.

While all of this was going on "The Count" found time to become a principle member of the alternative country-rock band "The Texas Chainsaw Band" that proudly played country music with bare teeth headed by Todd "T-Bone" Holcomb and featuring the pedal-steel wizardry of Joe Goldmark and Billy Lee Lewis from the Tommy Castro band on drums. Secondary gigs were done with Don Baskin from "The Syndicate of Sound" fame. Terry also has/had participated as musical director/guitarist for many "oldies" acts including, The Coasters, The Diamonds, The Shirrells, Mary Wells, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Del Shannon, Fabian, Little Anthony, Tommy Sands and Ronnie Spector.

During the summer of 1987 Terry and his wife, Ruth Adelman, decided to move to Los Angeles. "The Counts" first gig in LA was at the Starlight Amphitheatre with Donnie Brooks from "Mission Bells" fame. The show was a tribute to Ritchie Valens featuring Low Diamond Philips. Terry also hooked into Ronnie Mack's "Barn Dance" scene. Impressing players like Billy Block, James Intveld, Ed Tree, Taras Prodaniuk, Dave McKelvey, Paul Marshall, Norm Sancho, J.D. Manus, Al Vescovo, Al Bruno, George Green, Dean Dobbins, Will Ray, Larry Dean, Jerry Donahue and Steve Duncan with his country skills on guitar "The Count" was soon working seven nights a week in various honkytonks throughout So Cal. Terry also became a principal member of the alternative rock band "The Rockafellas" that connected Terry with Bob Mothersbaugh from the band Devo.

The Count worked as the guitarist for the Élan Awards house band under the direction of Bruce Mishkit. In that capacity he performed with Ben E. King, Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Martin Mull, Jerry Hubbard, Lucy Arnez and Dick Clark. Tour work with the Tex Mex great Freddy Fender led to a musical association with Augie Meyers from the Sir Douglas Quintet band. Working with Preston Epps, The "Bongo Rock" percussionist, re-introduced Terry to some of the early DooWop performers that he had associated with years before. It was with great respect that via accompanying Preston Epps Terry got to perform with Moses Armstrong (Louis's nephew) and Ron Ellington Shy, Duke Ellington's nephew. Terry was first call for the casual contractor Rob Conove. As primary guitarist with Rob, the Count has had the opportunity to perform at some of the swankiest locations in southern California. Work was also to be had working with the great r&b vocalist Maurice Wade.

Since 1999 the Count has taught private guitar lessons at Baxter-Northup music in Sherman Oaks California three days a week. Between 1999 and 2004 Terry was a principal member of Steve Copeland and Raging Sun. Raging Sun was a So-Cal blues band that combined west coast swing with Chicago sting in their repertoire. Featuring the vocals talents of Steve Copeland, harmonica skills of River Blue and the Bass styling of Larry Nannenga, the band Raging Sun was "an ensemble of modern day blues performers who celebrate life with every note that they play and every discerning fan that they reach." (Robert Kinsler, The Orange County Register) The band released three CDs entitled "More Than Ready" "Highway Bound" and "Live at the Blue Café" which received rave reviews from the band's fan base. Terry participated as producer, guitarist, songwriter, musical arranger and back-round vocalist on the CDs. During this time the Count also served as the guitarist for the Peperdine Pep band. Members included J.D. Bender keys, Vince Suzuki, tenor sax, Pete Gallagher drums, Jay Zemliak Bass and Jeff Eliot trumpet. You could also find the Count lending his musical skills along with the great bassist Leslie Baker to the vocal duo of Patrice Zappa and Nolan Porter at various venues around town including the House Of Blues. "Just Dave" and Finis Tasby also called on the Count for Musical help too. Internet exposure was to be had from performances at Kulak's Woodshed in No Ho. There you could find the Count sharing the bill with Jack Tempchin, Guitar Shorty amongst others.

Along with long time guitar buddy Danny Ciarfalia, Terry produced and released "The Rhythm Meth'od" (D&T Records). "Fans of everything from traditional blues, classic rock and modern jazz-and every musical genre in between - will find plenty to celebrate on "The Rhythm Meth'od," a collection of instrumental gems showcasing the stunning guitar craft of Terry Medeiros and Danny Ciarfalia." (Robert Kinsler, The Orange County Register).

In 2004 the Count put together an off night R&B quartet billed as Terry "The Count" Medeiros & The Blue Academics. The instrumental configuration of this musical outing was in the classic quartet format of guitar, bass (Norm Sancho), drums (Steve Kida) and Hammond organ (Dave Jacques).

In the fall of 2005, Terry got involved in three musical projects. The first was a blues & jazz duo in which Terry pairs up with the great jazz and blues vocalist Shari Cyrkin. Second was and is an acoustic blues duo with the Orange County guitar shredder Pat Hennessey. The two blues men released a CD in 2006 and have been steadily performing. The third project finds the Count working and recording with the lovely singer/songwriter Connie Rae. Playing acoustic guitar with Connie put the Count back on the big stage at the Coach House opening for the likes of Tower Of Power, Eddie Money and Dave Mason. All projects are ongoing.

2005 was also a recommitment year for The Count. Terry made the decision to relearn the guitar with jazz as the musical vehicle. Through the intervention of Terry's long-time musical mentor, Al Vescovo, Terry was able to start a mentor, musical appreciation relationship with guitarist and educator Mike Saluzzi. Amongst other gigs Mike had been Roger Williams musical director for many years. Mike set Terry straight as far as the guitar was concerned. With direction from Mike, lessons from Sid Jacobs, Frank Potenza, weekly attendance at John Pisano's Guitar Night, healthy discussions with the great guitarists Ron Anthony, Barry Zweig, Ted Mayer, Bruce Forman, Pat Kelley and many hours of study and practice, in January of 2008 The Count felt ready to go. He started to compose and started work on a self-produced CD. Recording and mastering were completed at Nolan Shaheed's studio in Pasadena at the end of 2008. Accompanying the Count were William Bonjiovanni on bass and Korey Mall on drums. The CD "Forever More was released in March of 2009.