[1] Luis Bonilla was born and raised in Eagle Rock, California to parents who had immigrated to the United States from Costa Rica.

At Eagle Rock High School he studied under trumpeter John Rinaldo in a well established, award winning music and jazz program that had produced musicians such as Roger Ingram, Carlos Vega, and Art Velasco.

He studied in Los Angeles with Don Raffell, Roy Main, David Caffey and former Stan Kenton trombonist/producer Bob Curnow.

[3] He has supported himself as a session musician and a sideman performing with McCoy Tyner, Dizzy Gillespie, Tom Harrell, Freddie Hubbard, Astrud Gilberto, Willie Colón, and Toshiko Akiyoshi.

He has demonstrated his versatility as a musician working and recording with artists as varied as Tito Nieves, Phil Collins, Tony Bennett, Alejandro Sanz, Diana Ross, Marc Anthony, La India, and Mary J.

He served as main producer and trombonist in 2014 on the Mists: Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra CD (Planet Arts, 2014) which garnered international acclaim.