Howard Levy
Tonight And Tomorrow
Grammy Award winner, founding member of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, and harmonica virtuoso plays piano and harmonica on this new album of original compositions. With Larry Gray (Ramsey Lewis Trio) and Ernie Adams (Al DiMeola Electric Band).
Howard Levy – piano, harmonica; Larry Gray – double bass; Ernie Adams – drums. Recorded 6/1 and 6/2/2009 at Studiomedia Recording Company, Evanston, IL.
REVIEWS:
”His McCoy Tyner-like piano work on the compelling ‘Howard’s F# Blues’ that opens the album announces that he is a force to be reckoned with on the keys. Of course, the harp work is stellar – breathtaking at times (listen to him bend the note upward like he is bending a guitar string on his solo on ‘Chorinho’)… Gray is one of the most melodic and tasteful bass players in the business, while Adams may be the busiest and most in-demand drummer in town, and the recording lovingly captures every nuance clearly. Levy himself is playing better than ever, and on ‘Tonight and Tomorrow’, Levy and co-producer Nick Eipers have recorded one of Chicago’s most important jazz artists in the prime of his career.”
-Brad Walseth, JazzChicago,net, November 2009.
”Larry Gray and Ernie Adams are ideal allies to complement Levy’s boundless range. As a pianist, his relationship with the instrument is so intimate and playful… Musically, it’s a feast. The Latin influences are there in the lovely ‘Slanted Samba’, ‘Chorinho’, and ‘Aha’; the blues are given an elegant nod in the upbeat ‘Howard’s F# Blues’; and the power of improvisation flows throughout ‘Triosity’.”
-Layla Macoran, JazzInsideNY, December 2009.
”When you combine this iconoclastic skill with his energetic yet lyrical approach to improvising, you get a style that has beguiled artists from across the musical spectrum – from newgrass banjoist Béla Fleck to post-bopper Ben Sidran, folkies Steve Goodman and Bonnie Koloc to the Lebanese oud player Rabih Abou-Khalil, Cuban saxist Paquito D’Rivera to “word jazz” creator Ken Nordine, all of whom have featured Levy’s harmonica on their recordings. His harp playing can easily detract from Levy’s piano praxis, which he displays on many of the more than 200 recordings he’s made. The piano remains his first instrument, and he always greets it like an old friend, embracing it in his lanky limbs and long thin fingers, before putting it through its paces. Levy has technique for miles, matched by a sterling musicianship that lets him blister the ears with rapid-fire runs or soothe the senses with lullaby harmonies. And his piano work, like his repertoire, reflects his unique and wide-ranging set of influences, comprising balkan folk tunes, bluegrass, several Brazilian idioms, klezmer, mainstream jazz, various middle-eastern traditions, and rock through the ages.”
- Neil Tesser (from the liner notes)
BIO:
Howard Levy is a musician without limits. His musical adventures include journeys into jazz, pop, rock, world music, Latin, classical, folk, blues, country, theater and film. He has appeared on hundreds of CD’s, won a Grammy and a Joseph Jefferson Award, and performed many times on American and European television.
Acknowledged to be the world’s most advanced diatonic harmonica player, Howard has revolutionized the playing of his instrument and taken it into totally new territory. He is also an accomplished composer and pianist, and plays many other instruments including flute, ocarina, mandolin, saxophone and percussion.
Throughout his career, Howard has performed and recorded with scores of famous artists including Paul Simon, Kenny Loggins, Donald Fagen/Steely Dan, Dolly Parton, Styx, Paquito D’Rivera, Kurt Elling, Ken Nordine, John Prine, Rabih Abou-Khalil and many others. He was a founding member of the trailblazing group Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, with whom he won a Grammy in 1997 . Howard has made many appearances on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion”, is music director of Chévere, Chicago’s hottest Latin-Jazz-Fusion Band , and tours and records with Trio Globo. He has given over 20 performances of his Concerto for Diatonic Harmonica and Orchestra.
Howard studied classical music at The Manhattan School of Music, pipe organ with Carl Lambert, and Jazz at Northwestern University. As a music educator, he has taught hundreds of students privately and guest lectured at Harvard, Berklee, Dartmouth College, Northwestern University, and many others. Born in New York City, Howard Levy is a long-time resident of Evanston, IL.
Jazz: Modern Creative Jazz