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Howard Levy

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 hundred of cd’s, won a Grammy (1997), won a Joseph Jefferson Award (1986) for Best Original Music for a Play, and has performed many times on American and European television and radio.

Universally acknowledged as the world’s most advanced diatonic harmonica player, Howard developed a fully chromatic style on the standard 10 - hole diatonic harmonica, revolutionizing harmonica playing and taking the instrument into totally new territory. He is also an accomplished pianist and composer, and plays many other instruments as well, including flute, ocarina, mandolin, saxophone, and percussion.

Howard was a founding member of the Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. He toured and recorded two albums with Kenny Loggins, and formed Trio Globo with Eugene Friesen and Glen Velez . Howard has also performed and/or recorded with Dolly Parton, Styx, Bobby McFerrin, Paul Simon, John Prine, Paquito D’Rivera, Ken Nordine, and many others, as well as touring and recording extensively in Europe with artists such as Rabih Abou Khalil and Michael Riessler. Recent Highlights

In 2003, Howard released a jazz duo cd with Naumberg Award-winning pianist Anthony Molinaro, entitled The Molinaro/Levy Project “Live”. In 2002, he performed “On the Other Side...” (a triple concerto composed for him, a clarinetist and an accordianist) with The Bavarian State Radio Orchestra in Munich, Germany. In 2001, Howard was commisioned by The Illinois Philharmonic to compose a Harmonica Concerto, the first ever written for diatonic harmonica. Since the debut, he has performed it 9 times, with more perfomances scheduled.

Awards

Grammy Award, 1997.


Tags

6
Album Review

Shawn Maxwell: Expectation & Experience

Read "Expectation & Experience" reviewed by Jack Bowers


On Expectation & Experience, his tenth recording as a leader, Chicago-based woodwind specialist Shawn Maxwell is accompanied by almost thirty musicians—but never by more than three on any of its seventeen tracks. Maxwell says the compositions were written during the global Covid-19 pandemic, and the musicians were mustered singly, most in their own homes. While each of the compositions has a “theme," none is readily apparent from its performance, and listeners should feel free to overlook that aspect and focus ...

6
Album Review

Joanie Pallatto: My Original Plan

Read "My Original Plan" reviewed by Jack Bowers


"Give my new disc a spin," Chicago-based vocalist Joanie Pallatto e-mailed. “I think you'll like it." That was more than twenty years ago, and Pallatto was right. That album, Words & Music (Southport Records, 1999), was splendid, as was Pallatto, reciting memorable lyrics by Rodgers & Hart, the Gershwin brothers, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Hoagy Carmichael, Bob Dorough and others. It's now 2021 and Pallatto has recorded another “new disc," My Original Plan, on which she sings as well as ever. ...

380
Album Review

Howard Levy: Tonight and Tomorrow

Read "Tonight and Tomorrow" reviewed by Matthew Warnock


Tonight and Tomorrow is an intellectually stimulating and highly enjoyable album by virtuoso harmonicist Howard Levy. Featured on both harmonica and piano, even performing both simultaneously on “Sandi," Levy and his trio--bassist Larry Gray and drummer Ernie Adams--perform together as if they've been on the bandstand for years. With an uncanny ability to interpret and anticipate each other, the trio sounds as one instrument as it weaves its way through the album's various tempos, feels, grooves and harmonic progressions.

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Recording

Jonathan Scales Fourchestra Announces Self-Titled Summer Album Release To Feature Guest Collaborators Victor Wooten And Howard Levy

Source: Crissa Requate

Jonathan Scales Fourchestra are no strangers to pushing musical genre boundaries and on July 9th, Jonathan Scales Fourchestra will release a self-titled album of cerebral tunes that further blur the lines of jazz. Each member of Jonathan Scales Fourchestra contributes a distinctive voice to the ensemble. Wielding steel pans, Jonathan Scales incorporates a contemporary jazz attitude into arrangements that tap into funk, rock, jam, and Latin sensibilities. Drummer/ percussionist Phill Bronson grounds the trio’s compositions with an agile, metronome-like sensitivity ...

116

Education

Howard Levy Named Harmonica Player of the Year, Hosts "A Chat with Bela Fleck" at HLHS

Howard Levy Named Harmonica Player of the Year, Hosts "A Chat with Bela Fleck" at HLHS

Source: Christen

Original “Flecktones" Bandmates Howard Levy and Bela Fleck Reunite in the Studio ArtistWorks, Inc. (AWI) Howard Levy, recently named the SPAH Harmonica Player of the Year, has completed a busy month by recording “A Chat with Bela Fleck," a two-part exclusive video series available only at the Howard Levy Harmonica School online in which the two compare creative processes, the incredible uniqueness of their banjo and harmonica playing styles, and how they synergize to create a legendary sound. Fleck and ...

215

Education

Grammy Award Winning Harmonica Virtuoso Howard Levy Launches the First Online Personal Video Exchange Harmonica School

Grammy Award Winning Harmonica Virtuoso  Howard Levy Launches the First Online  Personal Video Exchange Harmonica School

Source: 1888 Media

Grammy Award winner Howard Levy in conjunction with ArtistWorks Inc. (AWI), is excited to launch The Howard Levy Harmonica School (HLHS) - the first ever online personal video exchange school that will teach students around the world to play harmonica, including the various genres of jazz, blues, folk, classical and world music. Partnered with online video technology experts AWI, Levy integrates years of experience as a player and educator with their innovative video exchange teaching technology. Students around the world ...

134

Education

Grammy Award Winner & Founding Member of the Flecktones Howard Levy to Launch Online Harmonica School

Grammy Award Winner & Founding Member of the Flecktones Howard Levy to Launch Online Harmonica School

Source: Public Emily

Levy Announces Partnership with ArtistWorks, Inc.

Grammy Award winner Howard Levy is thrilled to announce he has partnered with online video exchange pioneers, ArtistWorks, Inc. The team will be launching The Howard Levy Harmonica School (HLHS) later this month- the first ever online portal that will teach harmonica to students around the world. Levy is widely known as a founding member of the Flecktones. He has also performed and recorded with Kenny Loggins, Dolly Parton, Bobby McFerrin, Paul Simon, John ...

127

Performance / Tour

Matt Geraghty Project at the Blue Note Sat. Late Night Featuring Grammy Winner Howard Levy!

Matt Geraghty Project at the Blue Note Sat. Late Night Featuring Grammy Winner Howard Levy!

Source: All About Jazz

WHO: Matt Geraghty: Bass/Compositions FEATURING Howard Levy: Harmonica Satya Gummuluri: Vocals Rez Abbasi: Guitar Adriano Santos: Drums Sean Wayland:Keys

WHAT: Performing Music from Latest CD 'Passport'

WHEN: Saturday August 9th After Midnight Set 12:30 AM

WHERE: Blue Note 131 West 3rd New York, NY (212)475-8592

312

Recording

New Double CD From David Herzhaft: "Jazzin' Around" Featuring Howard Levy, Frank Gambale

New Double CD From David Herzhaft: "Jazzin' Around" Featuring Howard Levy, Frank Gambale

Source: All About Jazz

Jazzin' Around, a New Double CD from David Herzhaft: world jazz music from Coltrane to Paganini played by one of the most original harmonica virtuoso. A 2-CD set featuring Howard Levy, Frank Gambale and many more.

THE MUSIC: Jazzin' Around is a musical journey travelling into the jazz idiom. The first cd has tracks rolling like a live set of modern jazz with funk and fusion accents melting nice and original re-arranged standards with strong compositions. “Summertime" is bouncing and ...

142

Recording

NYC Bassist Matt Geraghty Releases 3rd CD "Passport" w/Grammy Winners Paul Wertico and Howard Levy

NYC Bassist Matt Geraghty Releases 3rd CD "Passport" w/Grammy Winners Paul Wertico and Howard Levy

Source: All About Jazz

NYC Bassist and Composer Matt Geraghty this week releases his new world jazz CD Passport (MGP Music), adding depth and dimension to his signature jazz blend by drawing upon the rich musical traditions of India, Brazil, and Spain.

The new CD was recorded in Rio De Janeiro, New York and Chicago and has contributions from 4 Grammy Award winners. This new project features grammy award winning harmonica player Howard Levy (Bela Fleck and the Flecktones) and 6-time grammy award winning ...

"...Playing an extended solo that somehow merged quasi- baroque techniques with swing rhythms, snippets of hokey holiday tunes with passages of brilliant jazz improvisation, Levy unleashed more ideas in this opening solo than many musicians do in an entire set." —Howard Reich, The Chicago Tribune, Dec. 1996

"...Howard Levy is a revelation; there are times when it is hard to believe he is playing only a harmonica, for he has the expressive range and depth of a saxophonist." —Geoff Dyer, The London Observer, March 1994

"...may be the most radical single technical innovator in the history of his instrument..." —Kim Field, Harmonicas, Harps, and Heavy Breathers, Simon & Schuster 1993

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

My Original Plan

Southport Records
2021

buy

The Art Of...

Nardis Music
2021

buy

Expectation &...

Self Produced
2021

buy

As You Spend Your Life

Southport Records
2011

buy

My Original Plan

From: My Original Plan
By Howard Levy

Videos

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