Howard Levy - Harmonica

New website for Howard's label BalkanSamba.com with a new recording by Norman Savitt

July 2008
This year has been an extraordinarily diverse musical experience so far. Here are some, but not all, of the highlights from the first half:

2 trips to Mexico to play private parties and concerts with the great Jewish Cantor and singer extraordinaire, Alberto Mizrahi.
Performing my Harmonica Concerto, music of Bartok, Piazzola, etc with the Catskill Symphony Orchestra
A reunion concert with my old boss, Paquito D’Rivera
Several concerts and the start of recording a new cd (!) with Trio Globo
Great concerts in Europe with the Riessler/Levy/Matinier Trio
A concert with Paul Reisler and friends at Loren Maazel’s beautiful little concert hall in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Sitting in with Steely Dan at The Chicago Theater
Playing 2 Prairie Home Companion Shows with people like Sam Bush and Gearlyn Steele, and getting to act in several comedy sketches.
A great concert with Ethel in NYC
A string of wonderful concerts with Chris Siebold and my son Miles on the East Coast
A Bluegrass show with Special Consensus
Playing harmonica with Sylvester Harper’s group at Chicago’s Gospel Fest
And Chévere, like Proud Mary, keeps on burnin’ with shows in Glen Ellyn, Evanston, and at The Green Mill and Fitzgerald’s.

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

Howard Levy

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!