Sea Level was an American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band from Macon, Georgia. Formed in 1976, the band was an offshoot of

the Allman Brothers Band The Allman Brothers Band was an American rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman (founder, slide guitar and lead guitar) and Gregg Allman (vocals, keyboards, songwriting), as well as Dickey Betts (lead guita ...

. Between 1977 and 1980, the band released five studio albums which incorporated elements of funk,

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

and

Latin music Latin music ( Portuguese and es, música latina) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America (including Spain and Portugal) and the Latino United States inspired by Latin Amer ...

. Sea Level took on a life of its own as tensions grew between

Gregg Allman Gregory LeNoir Allman (December 8, 1947 – May 27, 2017) was an American musician, singer and songwriter. He was known for performing in the Allman Brothers Band. Allman grew up with an interest in rhythm and blues music, and the Allman Br ...

and other members resulting in the loss of two of ABBs founding members. After the Allman Brothers Band broke up when Gregg Allman and Dicky Betts left, the remaining members who evolved into Sea Level were "We Three" comprising bassist

Lamar Williams Lamar Williams (January 14, 1949 – January 21, 1983) was an American musician best known for serving as the bassist of The Allman Brothers Band (1972–1976) and Sea Level (1976–1980). Early years Williams was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, ...

, drummer

Jaimoe John Lee Johnson (born July 8, 1944), frequently known by the stage names Jai Johanny Johanson and Jaimoe, is an American drummer and percussionist. He is best known as one of the founding members of the Allman Brothers Band. Johanson played ...

and piano player Chuck Leavell. The trio would occasionally open shows for the group in 1975 and 1976. The trio added

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

ist

Jimmy Nalls Jimmy Nalls (born James Albert Nalls III; May 31, 1951 – June 22, 2017) was an American guitarist mostly known as a founding member of the rock band Sea Level. Biography Born on May 31, 1951, in Washington D.C., Nalls embarked on a busy session ...

and took their name from the

phonetic Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...

of their new bandleader Chuck Leavell's name: "C. Leavell." They toured relentlessly, experimenting and refining their sound, eventually signing with

Capricorn Records Capricorn Records was an independent record label founded by Phil Walden and Frank Fenter in 1969 in Macon, Georgia. Capricorn Records is often credited by music historians as creating the southern rock genre. History Label and studio foun ...

(home of the Allman Brothers) and recording their self-titled debut album in 1977.

Musical style

Sea Level's music fuses elements of funk,

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...

. A

jam band A jam band is a musical group whose concerts (and live albums) are characterized by lengthy improvisational " jams." These include extended musical improvisation over rhythmic grooves and chord patterns, and long sets of music which often ...

, Sea Level's sound has been classified as

southern rock Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music and a genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country music, and blues and is focused generally on electric guitars and vocals. Author Scott B. Bomar specula ...

jazz rock Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and keyb ...

, and funk pop.

Career

After the release of their first album, the group expanded to a

septet A septet is a formation containing exactly seven members. It is commonly associated with musical groups but can be applied to any situation where seven similar or related objects are considered a single unit, such as a seven-line stanza of poetry. ...

with the additions of Davis Causey (

), George Weaver ( drums, percussion) and Randall Bramblett (

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

and

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

). That configuration recorded the group's second album, ''Cats on the Coast'', in 1978 (with the leadoff track, "That's Your Secret", reaching #50 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100). By the time of the third album, '' On the Edge'', Jaimoe and Weaver had both left, replaced by Joe English. The sextet of Bramblett, Causey, English, Leavell, Nalls and Williams recorded the fourth album, ''Long Walk on a Short Pier'' (1979), unreleased in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

for nearly twenty years, adding

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

ist Matt Greeley for their fifth and final album, ''Ball Room'', issued on Arista in 1980. Their greatest hits album (CD) wrapped up their body of work, minus a handful of appearances on various compilation albums (mostly

Southern Rock Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music and a genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country music, and blues and is focused generally on electric guitars and vocals. Author Scott B. Bomar specula ...

). They were also featured on a 1978 live Southern Rock album which included a live version of "Grand Larceny."

Later years

Leavell later emerged as a much sought-after session musician and producer, touring with Eric Clapton and eventually becoming a "permanent" session player touring with

the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

. In 1998, he issued his debut solo LP, a Christmas album called ''What's in That Bag?'' and more recently ''Forever Blue'' that includes solo versions of two classic Sea Level compositions: "Whole Lotta Colada" and "Song for Amy." He also released ''Southscape'', an album of Southern anthems that hearkens back to his Southern roots. A documentary of Chuck Leavell's career and life outside of music,"Chuck Leavell: The Tree Man
IMDb Listing
directed by Allen Fars
IMDb
premiered at Dayton, Ohio's "The Neon" theatre on November 6, 2020. The film, featured in a number of film festivals in 2020, won the

Sedona Film Festival The Sedona International Film Festival (SIFF) is an annual, eight-day film festival in Sedona, Arizona. The festival was founded in 1994. The Sedona Film Festival screens feature films, documentary films, short films, animated films, and studen ...

's People’s Choice Award. The film, featuring

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...

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, Charlie Watts,

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, John Mayer,

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, Bonnie Raitt,

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, Chris Robinson,

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, and

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among others will be available for streaming beginning December 1, 2020
Chuck Leavell: The Tree Man website

Deaths of members

Lamar Williams died from lung cancer on January 21, 1983, at age 34. Jimmy Nalls, who suffered from Parkinson's disease, died on June 22, 2017, at age 66.Guitar Star Jimmy Nalls Dies Amid A Celebration Of His Life
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Discography

* ''

Sea Level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

'' (1977, Capricorn) * ''

Cats on the Coast ''Cats on the Coast'' was the second album by United States, American rock music, rock band Sea Level (band), Sea Level. It was released in 1977 on Capricorn Records. The leadoff track, "That's Your Secret", reached #50 on the Billboard Hot 100, ...

'' (1977, Capricorn) * '' On the Edge'' (1978, Capricorn) * ''Long Walk on a Short Pier'' (1979, Capricorn) * ''Ball Room'' (1980, Arista) * ''Best of Sea Level'' (1990, Polydor) * ''Best of Sea Level'' (1997, Capricorn)

Group members

* Chuck Leavell – piano, Moog synthesizer, organ, clavinet, keyboards, percussion, vocals (1976–1980) *

– bass, vocals (1976–1980) *

– guitars, vocals (1976–1980) *

– drums, percussion (1976–1978) * Davis Causey – guitars (1977–1980) * Randall Bramblett – saxophones, piano, keyboards, vocals (1977–1980) * George Weaver – drums (1977–1978) * Joe English – drums, percussion, vocals (1978–1980) * Matt Greeley – percussion, vocals (1980) Timeline

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sea Level (Band) American southern rock musical groups American jazz-rock groups Jam bands Rock music groups from Georgia (U.S. state) Capricorn Records artists