Tony Levin (30 January 19403 February 2011
) was an English
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
drummer.
Levin played at
Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club
Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club is a jazz club that has operated in Soho, London, since 1959.
History
The club opened on 30 October 1959 in a basement at 39 Gerrard Street in London's Soho district. It was set up and managed by musicians Ronnie Sc ...
in the 1960s with artists including
Joe Harriott
Joseph Arthurlin Harriott (15 July 1928 – 2 January 1973) was a Jamaican jazz musician and composer, whose principal instrument was the alto saxophone.
Initially a bebopper, he became a pioneer of free-form jazz. Born in Kingston, Harriott ...
,
Al Cohn
Al Cohn (November 24, 1925 – February 15, 1988) was an American jazz saxophonist, arranger and composer. He came to prominence in the band of clarinetist Woody Herman and was known for his longtime musical partnership with fellow saxophonist ...
,
Harry "Sweets" Edison
Harry "Sweets" Edison (October 10, 1915 – July 27, 1999) was an American jazz trumpeter and a member of the Count Basie Orchestra. His most important contribution was as a Hollywood studio musician, whose muted trumpet can be heard bac ...
,
Zoot Sims
John Haley "Zoot" Sims (October 29, 1925 – March 23, 1985) was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor but also alto (and, later, soprano) saxophone. He first gained attention in the "Four Brothers" sax section of Woody Herman's big ...
, and
Toots Thielemanns.
Biography
Levin was born in
Much Wenlock,
Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...
, where his family had been evacuated in the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
; they subsequently returned to
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
, where as a teenager Levin taught himself to play the drums and began an involvement with the jazz scene.
[John Fordham]
"Tony Levin obituary"
''The Guardian'', 23 February 2011.
His first major position came when he joined
Tubby Hayes
Edward Brian "Tubby" Hayes (30 January 1935 – 8 June 1973) was an English jazz multi-instrumentalist, best known for his tenor saxophone playing in groups with fellow sax player Ronnie Scott and with trumpeter Jimmy Deuchar.
Early life
...
' Quartet (1965–9). He worked with numerous groups and artists, including the
Alan Skidmore quintet (1969),
Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton (23 May 1921 – 25 April 2008), also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster from the Lyttelton family.
Having taught himself the trumpet at school, Lyttelton became a professional ...
band (1969),
John Taylor (1970s),
Ian Carr
Ian Carr (21 April 1933 – 25 February 2009) was a Scottish jazz musician, composer, writer, and educator. Carr performed and recorded with the Rendell-Carr quintet and jazz-fusion band Nucleus, and was an associate professor at the Guildhall ...
's
Nucleus
Nucleus ( : nuclei) is a Latin word for the seed inside a fruit. It most often refers to:
*Atomic nucleus, the very dense central region of an atom
* Cell nucleus, a central organelle of a eukaryotic cell, containing most of the cell's DNA
Nucl ...
(1970s),
Stan Sulzmann
Stanley Ernest Sulzmann (born 30 November 1948) is an English jazz saxophonist.
Biography
He was born in London, England.
Sulzmann began playing the saxophone at age of 13 and played in 1964 Bill Ashton's London Youth Jazz Orchestra, later ...
quartet,
Gordon Beck
Gordon James Beck (16 September 1935 – 6 November 2011) was an English jazz pianist and composer. At the time of his death, 26 albums had been released under his name.
Early life
Beck was born in Brixton, London, and attended Pinner Coun ...
's
Gyroscope, duo with
John Surman
John Douglas Surman (born 30 August 1944) is an English jazz saxophone, bass clarinet, and synthesizer player, and composer of free jazz and modal jazz, often using themes from folk music. He has composed and performed music for dance performanc ...
(1976),
European Jazz Ensemble,
Third Eye
The third eye (also called the mind's eye or inner eye) is a mystical invisible eye, usually depicted as located on the forehead, which provides perception beyond ordinary sight. In Hinduism, the third eye refers to the ajna (or brow) chakra. In ...
(1979),
Rob van den Broeck (1982),
Philip Catherine
Philip Catherine (born 27 October 1942) is a Belgian jazz guitarist.
Biography
Philip Catherine was born in London, England, to an English mother and Belgian father, and was raised in Brussels, Belgium. His grandfather was a violinist in the ...
's trio and quartet (1990s),
Sophia Domancich Trio (with
Paul Rogers, double bass; 1991–2000),
Philippe Aerts trio and quartet (2000s).
From 1980, Levin worked extensively with saxophonist
Paul Dunmall
Paul Dunmall (born 6 May 1953) is a British jazz musician who plays tenor and soprano saxophone, as well as the baritone and the more exotic saxello and the Northumbrian smallpipes. He has played with Keith Tippett and Barry Guy.
In the ea ...
, including as a member of the
free jazz
Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians duri ...
quartet
Mujician, also with Paul Rogers (double bass) and
Keith Tippett
Keith Graham Tippetts (25 August 1947 – 14 June 2020), known professionally as Keith Tippett, was a British jazz pianist and composer. According to AllMusic, Tippett's career "..spanned jazz-rock, progressive rock, improvised and contemporary ...
(piano). In 1994, Levin released his solo album ''Spiritual Empathy'', again with Dunmall on saxophones. In 2006 he played a trio gig with Dunmall and Rogers featuring
Ellery Eskelin
Ellery Eskelin (born August 16, 1959) is an American tenor saxophonist raised in Baltimore, Maryland and residing in New York City. His parents, Rodd Keith and Bobbie Lee, were both professional musicians. Rodd Keith died in 1974 in Los Angeles, ...
,
Ray Anderson,
Tony Malaby
Tony Malaby (born January 12, 1964) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist.
Malaby was born in Tucson, Arizona. He moved to New York City in 1995 and played with several notable jazz groups, including Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, ...
as guests at John Zorn's The Stone in NYC. He later recorded with Dunmall with his son Miles Levin on drums.
Levin ran his own monthly club in Birmingham, and often performed duets with Paul Dunmall and guest musicians.
References
External links
Tony Levin's website*
Photos: Tony Levin 70th Birthday Tour with MujicianTony Levin's jazzclub night at The Patrick Kavanagh's, Birmingham
{{DEFAULTSORT:Levin, Tony
1940 births
2011 deaths
Avant-garde jazz musicians
English jazz drummers
British male drummers
Musicians from Shropshire
People from Much Wenlock
Nucleus (band) members
British male jazz musicians
European Jazz Ensemble members
Place of death missing
Mujician members