A talented keyboardist, Pat Coil has thus far stuck mostly to the commercial side of jazz in his own projects. He began piano lessons when he was eight and, by the time he was a young teenager, Coil was leading his own bands, playing rock, country and a bit of jazz. He attended North Texas State University for four years, performing with their One Oclock Lab Band. While still in college, Coil often gigged in Dallas and Ft. Worth. His most notable association was playing, touring and recording with Woody Herman's Orchestra for 2 1/2 years in the late 1970's. After leaving Herman, Coil worked in Dallas as a session musician for five years. His band, Recoil, released two albums: Pardon My Fantasy and The Fantasy Continues. He had the opportunity to substitute for Lyle Mays with Pat Metheny's Group on a few occasions. Coil eventually moved to Los Angeles where he worked in the studios. He toured with Carmen McRae for a year, recorded with Ernie Watts, Nancy Wilson, Grant Geissman, Scott Henderson, Natalie Cole (her Unforgettable CD) and a variety of pop artists, and in the early 1990's recorded two solo albums for Sheffield Lab that fell into the "contemporary jazz" genre