4/4/17  Great night in New York City at Iridium Jazz Club, the final night of a 7-city swing through the Northeast U.S., concluding our Spring 2017 tour.  Our thanks to all the enthusiastic folks who came to the shows.  We're working on possible dates in December in the NY Metropolitan area, and in January 2018, the West Coast and Japan - and the release of a double live CD later this year.  All tentative at this point, but we're workin' on it.  Stay tuned ....

3/25/17  Final South America concert last night in San Salvador.  Tomorrow, a red-eye flight back to Newark, NJ and home.  2 days off and we start a 7-gig run in the Northeast, beginning in Pawling, New York at Daryl's House Club.  The full schedule is just below this blog, with links (in blue) to the venues' websites.  We'll be recording in Natick, MA and Rochester, NY for a live album to be released later this year.  They're all terrific venues that we played on the 2015 Levin Brothers Band tour.  Hope to see many of you there at these gigs.

3/22/17  Two airplanes and a hell of a lot of paperwork and we've arrived in San Salvador, El Salvador.  We've got a day off here, mostly set aside for PR interviews.  Concert Friday night; then on Saturday we fly to Newark and home. A couple of days to get our heads screwed on, and we're off on a 7-concert swing through the Northeast.  Check the itinerary just above; the blue text has links to the clubs' websites.

3/21/17  Concert tonight in Le Paz, Bolivia.  We arrived in this beautiful city last night, and were blown away by the spectacular views of the millions of lights on the surrounding hills and temperatures in the mid-'60s.  The only down side here is the altitude - 12,000 feet above sea level!  For us gringos, it's an effort just walking slowly up a small incline. What's that like performing?  I guess will find out.
Tomorrow we fly to El Salvador for a concert, and then back home for a couple of days rest before our Northeast U.S. gigs.

3/19/17  Finished in Buenos Aires last night, the last of several sold-out shows in some beautiful old theaters around the country.  Did press conferences, a live radio show with Astor Piazzolla's grandson, and ate lots of great food.  Today, in search of local Tango music and dancing.  Tomorrow, we head for Bolivia.  Hate to say it to our New York friends and neighbors, but the weather here has been beautiful.  Sorry guys!

3/14/17  It's a van tour now, with Leonardo, our agent, and Max, our irrepressible road manager.  All over Argentina.  The weather is beautiful, in contrast to the news we're getting from home - 3 feet of snow in Woodstock so far!  Yikes!

3/8/17  We're camped out in Santiago, Chile.  Beautiful weather, beautiful city and people.  We're rehearsing tomorrow at the ProJazz School.  Then on Saturday, we fly to Montevideo and the tour starts back up for real.  Photos on the 2017 TOUR PAGE when we've got 'em.

3/4/17  The 2017 tour has begun!  We started with a gig in our own Woodstock, New York back yard, playing to a packed house in an intimate local venue.  It served as a warm-up before heading for South America.  Some photos on the 2017 TOUR PAGE and more as we travel.

Rosendale, NY  3/4/17  Photo: Steve Czubara

2015

Tony, Pete, Erik & "Siege" in Albany, NY at WAMC's performance space, "The Linda" June 12, 2015

     "We grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, where we were trained in Classical music from a young age. But we also loved the 1950's recordings by jazz bassist Oscar Pettiford and jazz French horn player Julius Watkins; and those have remained influential, even as we went on to other playing. The catchy melodies, deep grooves, and tight solos made that music memorable, and it's been percolating for years for us to do an album of our own in that style.

     "The two of us have crossed musical paths many times over the last decades, having toured together with Paul Simon, and played in each others groups and albums; but we've never done a Levin Brothers album 'til now, and it's pretty special for us.

     "After writing material for it over the last few years, we invited outstanding players familiar with the musical territory to join in - guitarist David Spinozza, sax player Erik Lawrence and drummer Jeff Siegel. Steve Gadd appears as a special guest on the album, playing drums on two songs, "Bassics" and "Fishy Takes A Walk."
(* Tony and Steve's history dates back to their days in school together, followed by a lot of albums and tours.)

     "The sessions took place at Scott Petito's NRS Studio, in the Woodstock area where we live. The material is all our own, all new compositions except the lovely King Crimson song, "Matte Kudasai." Because we kept the songs short, there was room for a lot of material on this release; the CD has 14 tracks plus 2 exclusive bonus tracks.

     "Another long time wish that's come true with this release - a vinyl LP version of the music. We're told that 'Vinyl is coming back' and we're ready for that. In pre-orders, we're offering a special limited edition LP (1,000) with unique colored vinyl, each signed and numbered by us. The LP has 12 tracks, with a card enclosed to digitally download the CD's 14 tracks. We'll also be autographing the first 1,000 CD's ordered.

August 1, 2014
Woodstock, NY

     "This album's about a few things. It's a long overdue 'first record' by two brothers who've been making records individually for ... well, a lot of years! And it's a return home, for me and Pete, to the music we first shared as kids - the 'cool jazz' of the 50's. So it's been a labor of love to write pieces in that style, woodshed my cello playing, so as to use it as a lead instrument, and put together a record with melody based songs, short solos, and, hopefully, the chemistry of musicians who play like ... like brothers!

     "You'll see us in suits in the session photos - that was an effort to help be immersed in the genre of the music. Back in the 50's, I guess everyone put on a suit and tie to go to work, even jazz players. It took awhile to get used to, but was actually kind of fun. Old school!
 
    "We think this album will appeal to anyone who likes instrumental music, and it's a special treat to be able to offer it in vinyl (with digital download card, of course) as well as CD."

     "Jazz musicians share a common trait; we're standing on the shoulders of a long succession of players, going all the way back to Louis Armstrong. Their spirit is alive in the fabric of everything that we play. It's only natural that, periodically, we want to revisit our roots.

     "Last year, Tony called me to say he was getting into jazz cello and did I have time to get together and play. His idea was to revisit music we listened to as kids, soulful jazz with melodies we could still scat after 50 years. We wrote some tunes, jammed, wrote some more, and talked about doing local trio gigs. It was a natural progression to ... hey wait, let's record this!

     "Style-wise, Tony and I have had divergent careers, although our musical paths have crossed many times, backing other artists and playing in each other's bands. But this is our first time developing a project together. With our common roots, similar music training and decades of recording experience, getting our minds in sync with the concept and the plan was easy. In the Woodstock, NY community where we live, we're surrounded by great recording studios and great musicians. Now, with the enthusiastic support of an indie label, we're rockin'!  (Well, swinging actually.)"

For live performance inquiries
contact Gille Amaral
at Dog & Pony Industries

Lazy Bones Recordings is an indie label and publishing company founded by music producer, Scott Schorr. Lazy Bones works with the finest indie bands and singer/songwriters and fosters a creative environment to produce first rate recordings. With few exceptions, Lazy Bones works with its artists from the inception of the recording through completion of the Master. Their goal: to work with the potential "catalog" artists - one that creates numerous, meaningful recordings that will stand the test of time. Once done, Lazy Bones licenses the artists' songs to the film, television and advertising world.

contact Scott Schorr

(310) 281-6232

BASS PLAYER  by Paul Levin (Tony & Pete's dad) 1957
 

Since graduating from the Eastman School of music, Tony has become the bass and Chapman Stick voice for Peter Gabriel and King Crimson. In addition, he has played on notable recordings for John Lennon, Pink Floyd, Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, Dire Straits, Carly Simon, Judy Collins, and many others. Tony has major jazz credentials, having worked with Buddy Rich, Steps Ahead, L'Image, Gary Burton, Chuck Mangione, and Herbie Mann. He currently records and tours with Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, Stick Men, and The Crimson ProjeKCt.

As a French Horn major, Pete earned a master’s degree from the Juilliard School. In the early ‘70s he switched to keyboards, becoming a synthesizer specialist in the New York City recording studio scene. Over the years, he has graced hundreds of jazz and pop recordings and performances by the likes of Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Jimmy Giuffre, Dave Brubeck, David Sanborn, Joe Louis Walker, Don Elliott, Freddie Hubbard, Annie Lennox, Charles Mingus, Jaco Pastorius and Wayne Shorter. He currently records with his organ trio with Dave Stryker and Lenny White.

Drummer/Composer Jeff Siegel is a veteran of the New York Jazz Scene and has worked with a virtual who's-who of jazz artists. A member of Sir Roland Hanna's Trio from 1994-99, Jeff has performed and recorded with jazz legends including Ron Carter, Kenny Burrell, Jack DeJohnette, Benny Golson, Frank Foster, Helen Merrill and Mose Allison.

An in-demand New York studio guitarist for decades, David has the unique credit of having worked with three of the former Beatles - Paul, John and Ringo. (Not at the same time.) He produced James Taylor's album Walking Man, has recorded with Billy Joel, Dr. John and Paul Simon and was a member of the Saturday Night Live Band from 1980-82. In 2009, David reunited with his band "L'Image" with Mike Mainieri, Warren Bernhardt, Tony Levin and Steve Gadd.

The son of jazz saxophonist and rock guru Arnie Lawrence, Erik is a longtime member of Levon Helm's Midnight Ramble Band.  His innovative band "Hipmotism" features Sex Mob’s slide trumpet player Steven Bernstein. Equally proficient on flute and saxophone, Erik's career as a sideman has included work with Buddy Miles, Chico Hamilton, Joan Osborne, The Spin Doctors and master Tibetan flutist Nawang Khechog.

One of the most in-demand drummers in the world, Steve has worked with an incredible array of artists, including Joe Cocker, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Eric Clapton, James Taylor, David Sanborn, Peter Gabriel, Chick Corea, Aretha Franklin and "Stuff", a band he co-led with pianist Richard Tee. Friends and colleagues since college, Steve and Tony were Chuck Mangione's first rhythm section.

Bassist for the legendary 60’s punk band, The Fugs, Scott is a multi-talented musician with extensive performance credits. A Grammy-nominated recording engineer and producer, Scott owns and operates NRS Recording in Catskill, NY.

 www.scottpetitoproductions.com/

An award-winning engineer based in the San Francisco Bay area, Larry relocated to Saratoga Springs, NY and launched Silvertone Mastering, a dedicated mastering facility that fills a big void in the Upstate New York region. For Larry, Silvertone was the next logical step in his personal quest for sonic audio perfection.

www.silvertonemastering.com/