Cato is a singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist who plays bass, guitar, percussion, low brass, and others.

At the time, his father was stationed in Portugal by the US military, but the family left the country a few months after Cato's birth,[2] and he grew up in Albemarle, North Carolina.

[4][3][5] Cato met Marcus Miller at a jam session at the North Sea Jazz Festival.

[3] Cato joined the band Stay Human at the inception of Stephen Colbert's Late Show in 2015 and served as interim bandleader whenever the original leader, Jon Batiste, was unavailable.

[11] Cato was involved in a tour bus crash while in Switzerland with Marcus Miller in November 2012.