Biography
Keyboardist Pete Levin occupies a singular position among musicians through his command of an unusually broad spectrum of timbres both inside and outside the popular mainstream, while simultaneously forging a distinctive identity as a jazz artist of substance. Born December 20, 1942, in Boston to non-musician parents who nonetheless cherished and transmitted their enthusiasm for music, he shares a sibling relationship with Tony Levin, the widely respected jazz and rock electric bassist and Chapman Stick virtuoso whose résumé includes work with numerous celebrated performers. The Levin brothers developed their abilities within the notably music-supportive public school system of Brookline, Massachusetts. Formative listening encompassed Julius Watkins, Art Tatum, Spike Jones, Stan Freberg, Bill Evans, Richard Tee, Herbie Hancock, Billy Preston, Ray Charles, Larry Young, and Jimmy Smith. Pete Levin first took up the French horn; his department head John Corley, who also conducted the concert band at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and performed with that ensemble for two years, together with Osbourne McConathy, second horn of the Boston Symphony and conductor of the Sarah Caldwell Opera Company, encouraged him to attend the Juilliard School of Music and launch a professional career. An early milestone arrived when the Levin brothers joined drummer Steve Gadd to record the Top 40 hit single “Close to You” with the Clams, a Spike Jones tribute band.
After relocating to New York City in the 1970s, Levin encountered Gil Evans and remained a member of the composer’s progressive jazz orchestra for more than fifteen years, initially on French horn before shifting to electric keyboards. When he introduced a Moog synthesizer during a performance at the Village Vanguard, Evans welcomed the expanded palette, permanently altering Levin’s function as the ensemble evolved into an electric-acoustic hybrid that drew sustained audience interest and earned two Grammy awards. Levin subsequently added Clavinet; Evans later recruited John Clark to handle French horn duties, freeing Levin to focus exclusively on electric keyboards. In 1990 Gramavision Records issued his debut solo jazz album, Party in the Basement, followed in 1991 by Solitary Man. With drummer Danny Gottlieb he recorded The New Age of Christmas for Atlantic and Masters in This Hall for Gramavision; four additional new-age albums appeared on Alternate Mode Productions. As a sought-after New York session keyboardist, Levin supplied electronic realizations for hundreds of television commercials, dramatic series, and feature films, among them Missing in Action, Lean on Me, Silver Bullet, Red Scorpion, The Color of Money, Maniac, Spin City, America’s Most Wanted, and updated versions of the Star Trek franchise. He composed orchestral scores for the feature Zelimo and the stage production The Dybbuk, and created the official anthem for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit. He served as co-composer and orchestrator for the Discovery Channel film Secrets of the Humpback Whale and as composer-arranger for America’s Most Wanted as well as the long-running soap opera The Guiding Light.
Among the dozens of artists with whom Levin has collaborated are Terence Blanchard, Carla Bley, Donald Byrd, Miles Davis, Liza Minnelli, and Gregg Allman on the latter’s final tours and recordings. Following Gil Evans’s death, Levin settled in Woodstock, upstate New York, returning to his foundational instruments by playing B-3 and Nord Clavia organ in a contemporary soul-jazz idiom. Motema Records released Deacon Blues in 2007; the independent Certified Organic appeared in 2008. He leads the Pete Levin Band, whose repertoire fuses blues-rooted funk and soul, and writes, records, and produces the group at his own Moon Palace NYC studio in Brooklyn, whose credits encompass albums by Public Enemy, Korn, the Beastie Boys, and the Blind Boys of Alabama.
He issued the self-released Live in Foggia: Pete Levin Trio in 2009 and Jump! the following year. Throughout 2011 he appeared on collaborative recordings with European musicians including Paul Dunmall and Conrad Bauer. A 2012 festival performance surfaced as Iridium Live 008: 4-8-2012. That same year he earned a gold record for production assistance on Gym Class Heroes’ The Papercut Chronicles II. The Levin Brothers’ self-titled album came out on Lazy Bones Recordings in 2014, the year he also received a platinum record for his work with Train on Save Me, San Francisco. In 2015 he featured prominently on Mamadou Kelly’s Djamila. Although touring and production dominated 2016, three albums appeared in 2017: his own octet-backed Mobius, the Levin Brothers’ Special Delivery, and Kathy Ingraham’s Cool Night. Audio & Video Labs, Inc. re-released Mobius in March 2018.
After relocating to New York City in the 1970s, Levin encountered Gil Evans and remained a member of the composer’s progressive jazz orchestra for more than fifteen years, initially on French horn before shifting to electric keyboards. When he introduced a Moog synthesizer during a performance at the Village Vanguard, Evans welcomed the expanded palette, permanently altering Levin’s function as the ensemble evolved into an electric-acoustic hybrid that drew sustained audience interest and earned two Grammy awards. Levin subsequently added Clavinet; Evans later recruited John Clark to handle French horn duties, freeing Levin to focus exclusively on electric keyboards. In 1990 Gramavision Records issued his debut solo jazz album, Party in the Basement, followed in 1991 by Solitary Man. With drummer Danny Gottlieb he recorded The New Age of Christmas for Atlantic and Masters in This Hall for Gramavision; four additional new-age albums appeared on Alternate Mode Productions. As a sought-after New York session keyboardist, Levin supplied electronic realizations for hundreds of television commercials, dramatic series, and feature films, among them Missing in Action, Lean on Me, Silver Bullet, Red Scorpion, The Color of Money, Maniac, Spin City, America’s Most Wanted, and updated versions of the Star Trek franchise. He composed orchestral scores for the feature Zelimo and the stage production The Dybbuk, and created the official anthem for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit. He served as co-composer and orchestrator for the Discovery Channel film Secrets of the Humpback Whale and as composer-arranger for America’s Most Wanted as well as the long-running soap opera The Guiding Light.
Among the dozens of artists with whom Levin has collaborated are Terence Blanchard, Carla Bley, Donald Byrd, Miles Davis, Liza Minnelli, and Gregg Allman on the latter’s final tours and recordings. Following Gil Evans’s death, Levin settled in Woodstock, upstate New York, returning to his foundational instruments by playing B-3 and Nord Clavia organ in a contemporary soul-jazz idiom. Motema Records released Deacon Blues in 2007; the independent Certified Organic appeared in 2008. He leads the Pete Levin Band, whose repertoire fuses blues-rooted funk and soul, and writes, records, and produces the group at his own Moon Palace NYC studio in Brooklyn, whose credits encompass albums by Public Enemy, Korn, the Beastie Boys, and the Blind Boys of Alabama.
He issued the self-released Live in Foggia: Pete Levin Trio in 2009 and Jump! the following year. Throughout 2011 he appeared on collaborative recordings with European musicians including Paul Dunmall and Conrad Bauer. A 2012 festival performance surfaced as Iridium Live 008: 4-8-2012. That same year he earned a gold record for production assistance on Gym Class Heroes’ The Papercut Chronicles II. The Levin Brothers’ self-titled album came out on Lazy Bones Recordings in 2014, the year he also received a platinum record for his work with Train on Save Me, San Francisco. In 2015 he featured prominently on Mamadou Kelly’s Djamila. Although touring and production dominated 2016, three albums appeared in 2017: his own octet-backed Mobius, the Levin Brothers’ Special Delivery, and Kathy Ingraham’s Cool Night. Audio & Video Labs, Inc. re-released Mobius in March 2018.
Albums
