With their unique blend of Latin pop and American Jazz, Level 10 Band creates memorable compositions, compelling melodies and deep toe tapping grooves. Levy DeAndrade, Yovannis Roque, Rex Freligh and Tony Cintron make up this dynamic group of seasoned players and is living up to its name and taking it to the top with blistering live performances, an incredible international following and now a brand new CD titled Crossover. Level 10 has a large worldwide fan base and has already attracted music lovers from Brazil, Japan, England, Germany and, of course, the U.S. But fans aren’t the only ones picking up on this high-energy brand of contemporary jazz! The band was nominated by the Los Angeles Music Awards for Best New Independent Jazz Artists of the Year plus they’re semi-finalists in the Florida Grammy Awards and were voted the number one Jazz band in Tampa Bay! Level 10 also recently won second place in Billboard’s World Song Contest that drew thousands of entries.
More About Level 10 Band
Full Bio
When a band can create memorable compositions, compelling melodies and deep toe tapping grooves, how would you rate them? Well the fans of Levy DeAndrade, Yovannis Roque, Rex Freligh and Tony Cintron rate them a 10 and beyond! This dynamic group of seasoned players that make up Level 10 is living up to its name and taking it to the top with blistering live performances, an incredible international following and now a brand new CD titled Crossover. Level 10 has a large worldwide fan base and has already attracted music lovers from Brazil, Japan, England, Germany and, of course, the U.S. But fans aren’t the only ones picking up on this high-energy brand of contemporary jazz! The band was nominated by the Los Angeles Music Awards for Best New Independent Jazz Artists of the Year plus they’re semi-finalists in the Florida Grammy Awards and were voted the number one Jazz band in Tampa Bay! Level 10 also recently won second place in Billboard’s World Song Contest that drew thousands of entries.
Levy DeAndrade, Level 10’s foiunder & keyboardist, was born in Brazil and absorbed the music styles of his homeland when he started playing the guitar and piano at a very young age. After high school he moved to San Francisco, and quickly became part of the city’s jazz scene. Next he relocated to New York and worked as a first-call studio musician for the Hit Factory where he composed, arranged and shared the stage with many amazing performers like Al Jarreau, Keiko Matsui, Kim Waters, Wayman Tisdale, Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul, Norman Brown, Brenda Russell, Soulive, Jessy J and Little Feat. With a solo career in mind, Levy went to Florida where his goals evolved as he began to assemble the finest group of musicians he could, this band is now Level 10!
Joining Levy on his musical mission is Cuban native, bassist, Yovannis Roque, who studied at the world renowned National School of the Arts in Havana. He’s performed for many great talented and Grammy Award winning artists (Candy Dulfer and Gloria Estefan, Gypsy Kings, Cesar Camargo Mariano,) and has toured throughout the US, Central America and Russia. Level 10’s saxophonist, Rex Freligh, grew up in Florida’s Tampa Bay area and earned recognition in the National High School “Who’s Who in Music” and earned “Top 12 in the World” honors while playing in the Suncoast Sound Drum & Bugle Corps. On Drums is native New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent, Tony Cintron. He’s recorded and toured with some of the entertainment industry’s best performers like Roberta Flack, Patti Austin, Angela Bofill, Phil Perry, Dizzy Gillespie and even Latin pop star Ricky Martin and more. He was also a member of the legendary instrumental jazz group Spyro Gyra. Level 10 is an incredible group of gifted and truly talented artists who are at the top of their game.
On Stage:
To catch a Level 10 show live is to see the band at its apex of energy. “We are a show band”, Levy says. “We funk it up and put a little denser arrangement on our songs. We’re lucky because when we play live people absolutely love it. I mean, it’s really exciting. When we played in London recently, there wasn’t one person sitting and we’re talking a packed house!” That gig, The Lancaster Music Festival in England has already invited the band back, but this time as the headliner! The band will also be touring Germany. “Live music is incredible”, says DeAndrade, “and that’s what I wanted to accomplish on the new CD.”
Music
In 2009, when the band released their first CD titled Together - more than 1,100 fans showed up for the CD release party. What a way to start things off! The band’s new CD, Crossover recalls the energy and jam ethos as such luminary contemporary jazz bands as Spyro Gyra and the Yellowjackets. In a nod to his Brazilian roots, Levy DeAndrade selected two cover tunes. On the first, Sergio Mendes’ “Mas Que Nada,” saxophonist Freligh gets a workout before DeAndrade steps in with a rapidly-increasing keys solo. The second is “Dinorah,” a classic from Ivan Lins that Level 10 accents with funky twists.
The remaining eight songs are all originally written, composed by Levy DeAndrade and arranged by Level 10, including the first single, “Oasis,” a smooth-out track featuring Freligh’s soprano sax and a snaking fretless bass solo from Roque. “Liquid” is a tune Levy DeAndrade wrote a decade ago and here freshens it up as a memorable, midtempo tune. “Maravilha” and “First Start” both have touches of lovely bossa nova music, and Levy DeAndrade’s piano leads are a fresh and bouncy as that of the great pianist David Benoit, who has been known to throw out a few bossa nova tunes himself. Of course, if you’re looking for straight-up funky jazz, you’ll find that here as well, on the cover tune and on “Soup for Thought.”
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