Tony Cohan is an American travel writer, novelist, and lyricist

Lyricist

A lyricist is a songwriter who specializes in lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.-Collaboration:...

. His best known work of travel writing is On Mexican Time. His novel Canary was selected New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and his novel Opium was a Literary Guild Selection. His memoir Native State was chosen Los Angeles Times Notable Book of the Year. His essays, travel writings, and reviews have appeared in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

, and the Times of London.

He was a jazz drummer as a teenager, and attended Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 and the University of California, Santa Barbara

University of California, Santa Barbara

The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...

. In 1962, he drummed for Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and an Academy Award-nominated actor . He is regarded as one of the first and most important musicians to adapt the bebop musical language of people like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell to the tenor saxophone...

 and Bud Powell

Bud Powell

Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American Jazz pianist. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk...

 in Copenhagen. Later in that year, he drummed for Tete Montoliu

Tete Montoliu

Tete Montoliu was a jazz pianist from Catalonia, Spain. His real name was Vicenç Montoliu i Massana.- Biography :He was born blind, in the Eixample district of Barcelona, and died in the same city....

 and Memphis Slim

Memphis Slim

Memphis Slim was an American blues pianist, singer, and composer. He led a series of bands that, reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues, included saxophones, bass, drums, and piano. A song he first cut in 1947, "Every Day I Have the Blues", has become a blues standard, recorded by many other...

 in Barcelona. He worked as a studio musician with Lowell George

Lowell George

Lowell Thomas George was an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, who was the main guitarist and songwriter for the rock band Little Feat.- Early years :...

, Ry Cooder

Ry Cooder

Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder is an American guitarist, singer and composer. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing...

, and others. During the 1970s he designed media campaigns for musical artists including Van Morrison

Van Morrison

Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...

, Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...

, and Prince

Prince (musician)

Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...

. In 1975 he founded the long-running independent press Acrobat Books, publishing nonfiction books in the arts.

He and his former wife Masako Takahashi relocated to San Miguel de Allende

San Miguel de Allende

San Miguel de Allende is a city and municipality located in the far eastern part of the state of Guanajuato in central Mexico. It is 274 km from Mexico City and 97 km from the state capital of Guanajuato...

, Mexico in 1985. San Miguel de Allende became the subject of On Mexican Time.

Non-fiction

• On Mexican Time (2001) (ISBN 0-7679-0319-6)
• Native State (2003) (ISBN 0-7679-1022-2)
• Mexican Days (2007) (ISBN 0-7679-2091-0)

Essays and short stories

• Nine Ships (1975) (ISBN 0-9182-2600-7)
• The Flame (1983) (ISBN 0-9182-2610-4)