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Alex Levin

Alex Levin has a rich and varied musical background. Born into a family of musicians, he was drawn to the piano at an early age. He began performing on the instrument when he was fifteen, and he hasn’t stopped since.

After studying piano and composition at The New School Jazz Program in New York, he received his degree from Brown University. He moved to Berlin in 1998, where he founded his own trio and quartet. Both groups were popular and critical successes, and his name was found on the bill at many European jazz festivals. He appeared at such popular Berlin jazz clubs as A Train, B Flat, and Cafe Bebop.

Since returning to New York City in 2001, Alex has been extraordinarily busy. He has recorded and released three popular and well-reviewed CDs, Night and Distance (2005), A Reason for Being Alone (2006), and New York Portraits (2010). In 2008 his trio worked and taught as artists in residence at Middlebury College's prestigious Bread Loaf School of English.

Alex currently performs weekly gigs at Manhattan Youth Downtown Community Center in Tribeca. His all-ages show continues to grow in popularity amongst area children and adults alike. Please come down and check out the band on Fridays from 7-9. Performances are free.

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12
Album Review

The Alex Levin Trio: A Sunday Kind of Love

Read "A Sunday Kind of Love" reviewed by Don Phipps


There is a dinner jazz quality to A Sunday Kind of Love by the Alex Levin Trio. And even though there is no pretense of art here, the infectious happiness of the album would certainly destress anyone who has had a rough day. Pianist Levin composed five of the ten numbers on the album, and he is accompanied by the spry playing of bassist Phil Rowan and drummer Ben Cliness. In addition to originals, the album covers standards. ...

295
Album Review

Alex Levin: New York Portraits

Read "New York Portraits" reviewed by Edward Blanco


New York-based pianist Alex Levin borrows standards from the jazz-rich era of the 1940s,' 50s and '60s, and includes a couple of originals for New York Portraits, his third album as leader. Along with bassist Michael Bates, (leader of the Outside Sources ensemble) and drummer Brian Floody, the trio lays down a relaxed shuffle of rhythm-based music, lending superb interpretations to some time-honored classics. Influenced by the music of Ahmad Jamal,, who the pianist met while pursuing studies at The ...

379
Album Review

Alex Levin Trio: New York Portraits

Read "New York Portraits" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Artists do not evolve in a vacuum. Collectively, they assimilate all they have learned and heard into a new creative paradigm that they call their own. A durable respect for the past characterizes the trio art of pianist Alex Levin. Listening to his collection New York Portraits, the spirits of pianists long gone are present in that fecund humus existing between the notes of Levin's treatments of original and standard compositions alike. Levin's treatment of Johnny Mercer's ...

188
Album Review

Alex Levin: A Reason for Being Alone

Read "A Reason for Being Alone" reviewed by Donald Elfman


Pianist/composer Alex Levin has penned a fine set of tunes for his sterling players--bassist Diallo House and drummer Taylor Davis; and the complementary playing (on selected tunes) of guests Max Hacker and Stacy Dillard on tenor saxophones, Chad Coe on guitar and William Martina on cello--to bring to fruition. This music is very much in the straight-ahead tradition but Levin understands how to put his own signature on what sounds like familiar material. Cellist Martina, for example, states the theme ...

282
Album Review

The Alex Levin Trio: A Reason for Being Alone

Read "A Reason for Being Alone" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


The title of this disc might suggest an inward-looking or melancholic listening experience; but the Alex Levin Trio, plus a couple of tenor saxophonists sitting in--Max Hacker and Stacy Dillard--blows the roof off on the opener, “Blues on Thursday." It's a bright, gregarious, Art Blakey-esque sound, the horns sparring like a couple of free-swinging welterweights, snapping off jabs and flurries in front of a zingy rhythm. Put another quarter in the jukebox!This is a “with guests" disc--the trio ...

338
Album Review

The Alex Levin Trio: A Reason For Being Alone

Read "A Reason For Being Alone" reviewed by Victor Verney


Pianist Alex Levin, a Philadelphia native, has demonstrated a two-track mindset scholastically, geographically, professionally and artistically. After moving to New York City to study piano at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, Levin transferred to Brown University, where he earned a degree in English literature. He then moved to Berlin, where his quartet The Living Room achieved popular and critical success, gaining notoriety for unique interpretations of pop songs by the likes of Björk and Tom Waits.

After ...

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Primary Instrument

Piano

Willing to teach

Intermediate to advanced

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

A Sunday Kind of Love

Alex Levin Music
2019

buy

New York Portraits

Self Produced
2010

buy

A Reason for Being...

Apology records
2007

buy

A Reason For Being...

Apology records
2006

buy

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