NEWS
Some
of the latest happenings and check back for more
updates here.
November 2007
Howard has been really busy with a lot of different things. November included a European tour with the Riessler, Levy, Matinier Trio, right off the plane from Frankfurt to play with the fantastic Django Reinhardt Festival band at Birdland in NY. Then down to Florida to record 3 tracks for a cd with composer/pianist Scott Routenberg, back to Chicago for a concert at The Old Town School with Corky Siegel and Chamber Blues. A concert in Michigan with ¾ of Acoustic Express, a holiday concert with the wonderful finger-style guitarist Muriel Anderson, playing at the dvd release party for Chris Steinmetz’s Acoustic Chicago project, a benefit concert for relocating Joe Segal’s Jazz Showcase, playing with Luis Ewerling and A Cor do Brasil, 2 concerts playing a John Williams piece on harmonica with the Chicago Symphony, and finally a mostly classical concert with Fox Fehling.
August 2007
We have launched a new Video
page for your enjoyment.
Over time we will add new vintage clips and new
footage as it is captured. You can keep updated
here and via Howard's new MySpace
page .
July 2007
It has been an eventful few weeks. Some great
things, and one very sad one.
After a lifetime of bringing joy to people through
his music, art, and
poetry, the great jazz violinist John Frigo passed
away at the age of 90 on
July 4. He was a dear friend and musical co-conspirator,
and I will be
posting a tribute to him here at levyland.com.
On more cheerful notes, on
successive nights in Chicago, I sat in with Steely
Dan at The Auditorium
Theater and The Flecktones at Symphony Center.
Then I played shows in
Montreal with The Flecktones and Kurt Elling.
The show with Kurt was
recorded and filmed, so watch for the dvd. I
also played at Ravinia with A
Prairie Home Companion. One of the high points
for me was playing an
emotional version of “Don’t Think
Twice” with Garrison and Rambling Jack
Elliot. I also played “The Ravinia Merengue”,
a tune I’ve been doing in
Europe with the Riessler/Levy/Matinier trio.
Esther Cepeda, a reporter for
the Chicago Sun Times who was in the audience,
was so surprised to hear
Latin music on APHC that she raced up onto the
stage, interviewed me, and
published a little item about it in the paper
a few days later.
(webmaster note: Thanks to Howard for giving me
the John Frigo 'tour' while
visiting with him last year in Chicago. Frigo
was truly an amazing human being)
March 2007
The
last few weeks have been very intense. In a short
period of time, I played concerts with 3 artists
whose cd’s I played on- Matt Geraghty,
Siora, and Kurt Elling- in New York, Quito, Ecuador,
and Chicago. With Matt and Siora, I played full
concerts, which meant intense rehearsing and
learning of repertoire. With Kurt, it was just
3 tunes, but intense nonetheless.
After that,
I flew to Germany and played several concerts with Michael Riessler and Jean
Louis Matinier that were recorded by NDR in Hamburg. Totally different
music, with pieces composed by all three of us. We also recorded music for
a radio play composed by Michael at Luna Studios in Hamburg.
Upon my
return home, I played “Listen Here”, Neil Tesser and Mark Ruffin’s
syndicated radio show, with Acoustic Express. Then, it was right into the world
of ETHEL, a marvelous classical/improvisational string quartet. We performed
their music and 3 of my compositions in concert at Northwestern’s Pick
Staiger Auditorium. Included in the program were an arrangement of parts of
the second and third movements of my chamber suite “Harmonia Mundi”,
and the first live performance of “Raga Fantasy”, a piece I composed
for my new harmonica instructional dvd. This was a fantastic experience for
me. We hope to collaborate again in the future. The next night, I came back
to NU and sat in with my friend, the amazing guitarist/composer Chris Siebold,
at his joint concert with Fareed Haque.
February 2007
On Feb 8, 2007, Howard played a concert in Richmond,
England, with a trio of excellent English Jazz
musicians. The concert was sponsored by the National
Harmonica League, which featured Howard on the
cover of their magazine, Harmonica World.
www.harmonica.co.uk
Brad Walseth wrote a review of Chevere for Jazz
Chicago available here
http://www.jazzchicago.net/chevere.html
Interview with Howard Levy in Musicians Professional
Resource
on Chevere
http://www.musicians-professional-resource.com/interview3.html
November 09, 2006
Recording activities in the last few months:
Howard recorded harmonica on 2 tracks of a cd by French harmonica
player David Herzhaft. Harmonica on 2 tracks on Alan Jackson’w new cd, “Red
Like a Rose”, produced by Alison Krause in Nashville. One song for New
York singer/songwriter Stacey Wilde, 5 tunes for Chicago singer/songwriter Ernie
Hendrickson. Howard composed and recorded the music for “The One-Room Schoolhouse
in the 21st Century”, a radio documentary by noted author and producer
Neenah Ellis, to be broadcast on Public Radio. Trio Globo recorded a cd with
the amazing singer Amikaeyla Gaston in Washington, DC. Howard also recorded harmonica
on the soundtrack of a movie by Brasilian filmmaker and composer Rodrigo Assad.
June 10, 2006
For those of you who wonder what I’ve been up to recently- I wrote 9 new compositions for a new harmonica instructional video filmed at my house by my webmaster Chris Sampson with filmmaker Otis (blanked on Otis’ last name). They are in 9 keys, and I played them on a C harmonica for the sake of music theory. There is an Indian - style piece in Db, a Spanish tune in Ebm, a swing tune in E, a Klezmer- style piece in Fm, a Tango in F#m, a funk tune in Abm, a bossa in A, a bluesy swing tune in B, and some Blues in C and Bb.
Recently, I read the biography of film composer Bernard Hermann- Citizen Kane, Psycho, etc. An amazing story. Also another book of interviews with film composers. On my long plane rides to Europe and back, I became addicted to crossword puzzles. I did them till my brain shut down and I fell asleep.
On piano, I have been trying to become more proficient at playing classical piano music. As someone who is primarily a jazz musician, this can be an incredibly frustrating endeavor. But it is very gratifying, and the hard work pays off, especially for my left hand. I’ve been tryiong to play some of the 24 Preludes and Fugues of Shostakovich- they stuck in my head from hearing Sviatoslav Richter recordings years ago. I’ve been revisiting several Mozart Piano Sonatas, the Debussy Arabesque #1, several Scarlatti Sonatas that I used to play 30 years ago (…), the Brahms Rhapsody Passionato and his beautiful Intermezzo in Bbm.
Fox and I have been playing a lot of Dvorak pieces- the Sonata in G, Songs my Mother Taught Me, 4 Romantic Pieces, and the Romance in Fm, as well as playing through the Beethoven, Tchaikowsky, Brahms, and Glazounov violin concertos, with me stumbling through the more difficult orchestral passages. We always go back to the Mozart and Beethoven sonatas, too.
In Jazz, I continue exploring the ins and outs of Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” period, trying to more thoroughly internalize the 7 modes of the Lydian Augmented scale system, and I am always writing little tunes, which sometimes develop into bigger ones.
Just last night (June 9), I sat in with The Flecktones at The Chicago Theater. It was a lot of fun- we played “Sex in a Pan” and “The Sinister Minister”, with an amazing Victor Wooten bass solo at the end. A few months ago in the same theater, I sat in with Donald Fagen, playing “What I Do” from the “Morph the Cat” cd. That was a thrilling experience for me. I had to rush down there on a break from Chévere at The Green Mill, play, and then rush back. It was an experience I will never forget.
Also went on a wonderful outing to Iceland in May, courtesy of Garrison Keillor. We played a 3 hour show carried live on Icelandic Radio, which was edited down and broadcast May 20 as “A Prairie Home Companion”. The morning after the show, I got to see some spectacular scenery- waterfalls, geysers, etc. The images stayed in my mind for weeks. I hope to go back some time.
I recorded 4 tracks on harmonica for bassist/composer Matt Geraghty at CRC in Chicago. Also recorded 12 tracks on piano for a very diverse cd featuring Alberto Mizrahi, produced by Stuart Rosenberg at The Tone Zone in Chicago, Roger Heiss engineering. But wait, there’s more….Anthony Molinaro and I recorded our June 3 concert for our 2nd cd, Joel Fox engineering.
A project released earlier this year is Bonnie Koloc’s “Here to Sing”. I produced it at my house. Joel Fox engineered and mastered. I played piano and harmonica, and hired great musicians who played their hearts out on this. It’s special. The cd is available at www.bonniekoloc.com. Here is a review from Sing Out Magazine:
Sing Out! review
BONNIE KOLOC
Here To Sing
Reviewed by Rich Warren
Bonnie Koloc is not a folk singer. Now that is out of the way, I can say she is fabulous. She sings blues, jazz and the odd folk song. Her versatile, fluid soprano pours forth effortlessly wrapping itself around whatever song it touches. Similarly, the songs wrap themselves around Koloc. Wisdom and passion burnish her performance to a fine patina. While Koloc has been singing and recording since the early 70s and is something of a super star in the Chicago area, Here to Sing is the first album to do her justice. Much of this can be attributed to producer and multi-instrumentalist Howard Levy. Although Levy is joined by other accompanists, the CD is far from over-produced and the musicianship shows exceptionally high quality. Koloc penned seven of the 12 songs on this CD. Her opening “Red Hot Red” ignites the CD with a sizzle, but her song that follows “Slow Dancing to the Blues” shows the remarkable range of her voice. Her intriguing song “The Snake” is an involving allegory. Koloc also does great justice to North Dakota farmer Chuck Suchy’s folk-style songs “Dancin’ in the Kitchen” and “Its Great When It Rains.” She has a lot of fun with Willie Dixon’s “Little Red Rooster.” Her interpretation of “Skylark,” the classic by Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer is an absolute keeper. If I set the CD player to repeat a single track, that would be it.
Koloc’s “I Love You Waltz,” written for her husband, sure sounds like a folk song. However, on the next track Koloc also displays a sense of humor with her song about the foibles of marriage “Crumbs in the Butter,” which she performs like a 1950s doo-wop classic. If you want to hear a knockout performance of diverse, well-chosen material, Koloc is Here To Sing.
Reprinted with permission from Sing Out! v.50#3. (c) 2006 Sing Out!
All rights reserved.
May 24, 2006
Howard has been nominated for a Jazz Journalists Award in a category with so many words that we will make it into an acronym “POTYOIRIJ”. $25 for anyone who can figure it out. Just kidding- it’s “Player of the Year of Instruments Rare in Jazz.” You can check it out at www.JazzJournalistsAwards.com.
07-12-05
New projects- Howard will teach
Harmonica, Odd Time Meter Improvisation, and Piano
at The Outer Banks Harmonica Intensive in a beautiful
setting on the Atlantic coast of North Carolina.
This is part of what actually is a Trio Globo Music
Insitute. Eugene Friesen and Glen Velez, both superb
teachers, will also be teaching classes, and Trio
Globo will perform as well. This takes place from
Oct. 8- 14. Details are available at www.classactsontour.com/special.
Recent recordings:
Howard recently recorded 2 tracks at Avatar in NYC
for Donald Fagen’s new solo cd. He also recorded
music for storyteller Sid Lieberman, several tracks
for Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, played on 6 songs
for singer/songwriter Melissa Rhine, a track for
electric bass phenom Jon Reshard, and recorded a
live radio concert with Theodore Bikel that was
broadcast on WFMT in Chicago. The new CD by Glen
Velez, "Rhythms of Awakening" features
harmonica work by Howard and is now out on SoundsTrue.
1-23-05
I have finished 3 important recording
projects. The first, “Cappuccino”, is
a cd I recorded with my fiancée, Chicago
Symphony violinist Fox Fehling. It will be coming
out in January of 2005, and is the first cd on Balkan
Samba Records. On it, we play 3 movements from Mozart
Violin and Piano Sonatas, a fiddle tune, some Jazz,
and 4 of my compositions.
The second is another duo cd with
guitarist/singer/composer Paul Sprawl. It will be
a joint release on Balkan Samba/Vagabond, and will
be out by late January. This is a very bluesy and
eclectic cd. It is also my recorded vocal debut.
Both of these cd’s were recorded
at my home studio. The Levy/Fehling cd was mixed
and mastered here. The Levy/Sprawl cd was mixed
and mastered at Sutton Sound in Atascadero, CA.
Also coming out in late January, is
the 3rd project, the long –awaited Cheveré
cd. Entitled “Secret Dream” after the
tune by Ernie Denov, this is the 3rd release on
Balkan Samba. Half of the music was recorded in
1993 and the other half in 2003. I have played in
this band since 1979, and composed much of the music.
We have recorded at least 4 other times in the studio,
but this will be the first material to be released.
In June of 2004, I performed and recorded
my Concerto for Diatonic Harmonica and Orchestra
with The Czech National Symphony. I will be mixing
it in Prague in February.
Other recorded events and cd’s in 2004:
I produced “A Bestiary”
for Bonnie Koloc (recorded and mixed at my studio,
Levyland) performed on PBS’s “Soundstage”
with Cyndi Lauper, recorded 2 shows for BET’s
“Studio Jams”, appeared 3 times on A
Prairie Home Companion, and recorded tracks for
Paul Asbell, Ken Ramm and Euphoria, Alberto Mizrahi,
Michael Manson, Butch Stewart, Phil Roy, Taylor
Mesplé (Song for Autumn), Christie McKreary
(Akimbo), Lenny Capp, , Rick Peregoy, and others.
Wishing all of you a happy, productive,
and peaceful 2005.
Howard Levy
Oct 17, 2004
Howard is featured on a new cd, "At Night
The Roses Tango" by Paul Reisler, also featuring
singer/songwriter Angela Kaset. It is available
through www.paulreisler.com.
Sep 23, 2004
Recently I was priviledged to play for
two very touching and worthwhile events in two
days. The first, Halliestock, took place in Queens,NY
on Saturday, Sept. 18. The second, a gathering
in memory of Steve Goodman, was the following
evening on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago.
Halliestock was an all-day celebration of the
life of Hallie Geier, struck down by a car in
front of her house in Springfield Gardens, Queens.
She was the niece of my old friend George Andoniadis,
the daughter of his sister Sofia. I was friends
with both of them at Northwestern in 1970, and
we all moved to New York in 1971.
When George told me about this, I decided to
go and play. You can find out more about it at
www.lovehallie.com, It is a beautiful website
set up by Sofia and her husband, Ted. I played
several songs with guitarist/singer/songwriter
John Guth, then played Stephanie’s Dance
and Amazing Grace solo. We all performed a song
composed by George to Hallie’s words, entitled
“Stage Fright”.
I flew home the nest morning, played a rehearsal
and a recording session, then drove down to Lucille’s
on Lincoln Ave, the former site of Somebody Else’s
Troubles, a club owned jointly by Steve Goodman
and John Prine back in the ‘70’s.
A memorial gathering for Steve took place, with
many old musical friends getting up and singing
his great songs. It was the 20th anniversary of
his passing. I joined Tom Dundee, Barbara Barrow,
Mick Scott, Jim Tullio and others and played a
bunch of tunes on harp. It was inspiring and uplifting,
and re-reminded me of what a great person and
artist Steve was.
I played with him in the late 70’s. As
a producer, he hired me to play on sessions in
Chicago with John Prine, Martin, Bogan, and Armstrong,
and Malvina Reynolds. He was one of the all-time
great guys- brilliant, generous, intense, funny,
and fierce, not to mention a true friend and a
hell of a musican. He wasn’t your typical
singer/songwriter guitarist- he could really play
guitar. And the songs…topical, universal,
sad and funny at the same time, cosmic.
Summer
2004
I arranged, engineered, and played
on a project for Bonnie Koloc, 13 songs about animals,
a modern bestiary. The cd will be packaged with
a book of woodcuts by Bonnie. The songs are unique
and beautiful, set like modern chamber music. The
instrumentation includes bass, cello, accordian,
sax, flute, piano, harmonica, guitar, and mandolin.
The recording was made in my house, a great place
to record acoustic instruments. The Bestiary should
be available soon at www.bonniekoloc.com.
I had the great pleasure of recording
with the wonderful Indonesian band Krakatau at Steve
Ford Studios in Chicago in June. Alfred Ticoalu,
who runs john frigo’s website, introduced
me to them. I played harmonica on several tunes.
Their music is a true fusion of Indonesian and Western
styles. As I have been an avid fan of Javanese and
Balinese music for 30 years, it was a thrill for
me to play with a gamelan gong, suling, rebab, and
other instruments. Then we played a free improvisation
that crossed just about every musical boundary.
I look forward with great anticipation to the release
of this cd. If you’re interested in hearing
them, check out their cd “Magical Match”.
Also in June, I played for the BET
show Studio Jams with guitarist Dominick Miller,
bassist Doug Wimbish, drummer Will Calhoun, keyboardist
Nick Pappas, and percussionist Emedin Rivera. We
played 4 tunes of Dominick’s and one of mine.
Then, the highlight for me was a free improv where
we got really loose. Again, I really look forward
to hearing this stuff when it airs.
Feb, 29, 2004
New releases:
Howard appears prominently on both harmonica and
piano (on 13 tracks) on Bonnie Koloc’s "Timeless",
a new double cd containing mostly live tracks
from 30 years of stellar performances with many
different musicians. This cd is available at www.bonniekoloc.com,
is her first real album since "With You on
my Side" in 1987, and is a must for all her
fans.
Another beautiful cd is "Vis-a-Vis"
from Siora, a very eclectic band co-led by keyboardist
Dan Kleiman and vocalist Phyllis Chappel. Howard
appears on 3 tracks on harmonica, bamboo flute,
and double ocarina.You can find this fine cd at
www.SioraJazz.com.
Another interesting cd is "Elephant Hotel"
from Glen Velez and Lori Cotler. Howard is featured
on 2 tracks. One of these, “Sixfold”
, is originally from "Border States",
a duo album that Howard and Glen recorded in the
1990’s. Lori composed and sang a vocalese
Jazz solo with lyrics to Howard’s harmonica
solo on this tune. It is pretty amazing. www.glenvelez.com.
Jan 22, 2004
* The Molinaro-Levy Project in DownBeat.
Look for a story on the duo in the February issue.
Jan 06, 2004
How I Bent My First Note
New story added to the Levy
Logs
Dec 18, 2003
Trio Globo has new representation.
Margie Farmer (www.classactsontour.com) will be
booking the band. The Trio will be playing showcases
at the APAP convention at The New York Hilton
on W. 54 St on Jan. 11 and 12, sharing the space
with Margie's roster of artists. Anthony Molinaro
will play showcases there as well, both as a soloist
and as a duo
with Howard Levy.
Sept 20, 2003
New Dates added to the calendar
Aug 22 , 2003
New calendar dates added including gigs with Anthony
Molinaro and solo Jazz piano calendar
July 30, 2003
Howard's new project-Howard Levy's Acoustic Express
more info
July 28, 2003
New Dates added to the calendar
June 22, 2003
Read Howard's new article:
Getting the Overblows
and Overdraws
June 18, 2003
New Dates added to the calendar
April 29, 2003
The New CD featuring Howard Levy and Anthony
Molinaro is now available on nineteeneight records
more info...
Feb 22, 2003
New story added to LevyLogs
Miroslav, Mark, Howard and Todd enjoy a nice time
in Japan before makinging The Old Country
More...
December 22, 2002
New dates added to calendar
November 26, 2002
New clips added to the audioclips
and project pages for
Howard's work with Brazilian drummer, Luis Ewerling
August 8, 2002
Howard will be headed to Texas for a concert with
long time friends Glen Velez and Steve Gorn. The
three of them will give workshops earlier in the
day.calendar
July 10, 2002
The LevyLogs add 2 new ones while getting
a face lift. Enjoy the new stories of Amsterdam
and The One-Note Piano
May 16, 2002
New dates added to calendar
March 21, 2002
Read the information on Chévere, Chicago's
leading Latin/Jazz/Funk/Blues Band, mixing Afro-
Cuban, Brasilian, Jazz, Blues, and just about
everything else together into an exciting and
unique collage of sound
Projects page
March 14, 2002
New dates added to calendar
February 13, 2002
New dates added to calendar
January 10, 2002
New dates added to calendar including January
19th with Glen Velez and Steve Gorn
calendar
December 30, 2001
Wrapping out an intense year for everyone,
we add the story of the Stolen Harmonicas and
a new addition to the poetry section from Howard
December 6, 2001
A dose of good dates are coming up for 2002, including
tours with Rabih Abou-Khalil, and Michael Riessler
and JL Matinier, and another performance of Concerto
for Diatonic Harmonica calendar
October 30, 2001
Howard has some new concerts posted, including
a concert of Indian music with Howard, John Wubbenhorst,
bansuri, Homayun Khan, vocalist, and Anil Datar,
tabla, on November 30th. Howard performs his Concerto
for Diatonic Harmonica and Orchestra on December
16th. calendar
October 3, 2001
New additions to the schedule including a workshop
a The Guitar Works in Evanston.
calendar
September 24, 2001
New addition to the Levy Logs-East Meets Jazz.
Howard's notes from the road about the tour with
Sandip and Friends. Levy
Logs
September 13, 2001
The remainder of the tour with Sandip and Friends
has been cancelled due to the tragedy in our country.
The shows had been going very well, but the transportation
shutdown and the general mood required the cancellations
to occur. We apologize to those who didn't get
to see the remainder of the shows. Our hearts
go out to the families and friends of the people
who suffered from this attack.
August 29, 2001
Read 'Trane'
by Howard, a dedication to one of his strongest
influences.
August 25, 2001
We add a new chapter to the Levy Logs section
with Howard sharing his experience playing 'Latin
Music'
August 14, 2001
Classical Howard and a little more-
Hard to find Howard clips and clips from never
before released material debuts here on Levyland.com.
Audio clips include exerpts from Harmonia Mundi,
Concerto for Harmonica, Aitz Hayim services, and
rare jewels from hard to find recordings. Take
a listen
July 24, 2001
More calendar updates
for the upcoming tour.
July 5, 2001
We announce the tour dates for Howard's outing
with Sandip Burman, Jerry Goodman, Victor Bailey,
Steve Smith, and David Pietro, Randy Brecker and
Paul Bollenback. For more info see the calendar
May 25, 2001
Recent recording projects include: Two tracks
on a cd of Stevie Wonder tunes by Chicago bandleader
Ken Arlen. A session in Milwaukee with sitarist
Debu Chaudhury and tabla player Sandip Burman.
Howard recorded 4 tunes with the wonderful Jazz
vocalist/bass player Eldee Young. They were produced
and arranged by Marshall Vente for two separate
projects of Brasilian music and Jazz. Howard recorded
with Christian R&B artist Nicole Mullin. The session
was produced by Justin Niebank at Hinge Studios
in Chicago. During his trip to Montreal, Howard
recorded 5 tunes for the CBC with guitarist Greg
Amirault and his trio. These will be broadcast
sometime soon by the CBC in Canada. Also, Howard
played piano, harmonica, percussion, and ocarina
on a CD by eclectic musician/composer and logtime
friend Willy Schwarz, now living in Bremen, Germany.
The sessions were at Rax Trax Studio in Chicago,
will be mixed at Studio Zerkall in Germany, and
the resulting CD will be released on a German
label later this year. Howard is recording a CD
this week (May 22) in Galena, Illinois with legendary
singer/songwriter Jim Post, of music from Jim's
one man show about Mark Twain.
May 10, 2001
Projects page updated
with information on Howard's participation in
Aytz Hayim
Services in the Chicago area.
May 6, 2001
Schedule updated, information
on the Neon Street Programs for Homeless Youth
Now available - Song of Rivers, with Trio Globo
and special guest Chuck Loeb
on guitar.
This cd features the compositions of Eugene Friesen,
and is dedicated to preserving our nation's rivers.
For those of you who want to hear new Trio Globo
material, order this cd from Eugene by going to
www.celloman.com.
April 19, 2001
Updated Levy Log with a story of Mistaken
Identity
March 13, 2001
Calendar updated
March 9, 2001
Updated Levy Log with a story about the tour with
Rabih Abou-Khalil
January 29, 2001
Audio added added for Stranger's
Hand, The Old
Country, Trio Globo,
and Carnival of
Souls.
January 12, 2001
Star Spangled
Banner story added
New dates added to calendar
November 21, 2000
The new Website!
