Ray Monteiro

Trumpet player Raymond C. Monteiro joined "The Tonight Show Band" horn section in 2010 under the musical direction of Rickey Minor.

A native of Long Beach, Calif., Monteiro credits his culturally diverse family (his mother is of African-American descent and his father is from Goa, India) for his enriched musicality. As a youth he demonstrated an aptitude for and an interest in music and the trumpet was the instrument that spoke to him the loudest.

Monteiro received a degree in music from the acclaimed Berklee College in 2003 and went on to turn his dream of playing the trumpet professionally into a reality.

Monteiro, Miguel Gandelman, Randy Ellis and Garrett Smith make up the horn section of the "Tonight Show Band." The four musicians have been playing together since 2003. After continually crossing paths they formed their own group, simply called The Horns, and have since gone on to play with some of biggest names in the music business including Christina Aguilera, Prince, the Jonas Brothers, Stevie Wonder, Sting; James Brown, The Black Eyed Peas, Earth, Wind and Fire, James Taylor; Babyface, Whitney Houston, B.B.King, Diana Ross, Justin Timberlake, Jamie Foxx, Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, John Mayer, Jennifer Hudson, Patti Labelle, Aretha Franklin and Shakira.

Monteiro resides in Los Angeles.