Tony Levin
Tony
Levin was born in Boston on June 6, 1946. He grew up in the suburb
of Brookline and began playing upright bass at 10 yrs old. In high
school, he picked up tuba, soloing with the concert band. He also
started a barbershop quartet. But he primarily played classical
music on the upright, most notably performing at the White House
with a youth orchestra for John and Jackie Kennedy.
He then attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY and
played in the Rochester Philharmonic. Also at the school was Steve
Gadd, now a renowned drummer, who introduced Tony to playing a
higher level of jazz and rock. He traded in his Ampeg baby bass for
an old (at that time) Fender Precision bass, which was his only
instrument for many years.
In 1970, Tony moved to New York City, joined a band called Aha, the
Attack of the Green Slime Beast, with Don Preston of The Mothers of
Invention. Soon after, he began working as a session musician and
through the 1970's he played bass on many albums.
In the late '70s wanting to do more live playing, Tony joined Peter
Gabriel's band. He had met Peter through producer Bob Ezrin (with
whom Tony had recorded Alice Cooper's Welcome to My Nightmare, and
Lou Reed's Berlin .) Tony has played with Gabriel, both on the road
and in the studio, since then. On that first Peter Gabriel album,
Tony played some tuba as well as bass, and directed a short
barbershop quartet version of a song.
It was in these early years with Gabriel that Tony developed his
playing of the Chapman Stick. More recently, the song Big Time, from
Gabriel's So album, inspired the development of Funk Fingers, which
are chopped off drumsticks used to hammer on the bass strings. Levin
credits Gabriel with the idea, and Andy Moore, his tech at the time,
with actually making them workable.
In 1978, Tony moved to Woodstock NY, to join the band L'Image ,
which included his old friend Steve Gadd, as well as Mike Mainieri
and Warren Bernhardt. The band, which did some very special music,
broke up after a year, and Tony stayed in Woodstock, where he still
lives.
On Peter Gabriel's first album, Tony met Robert Fripp and, in 1980,
after having played on Fripp's solo album Exposure, he became a
member of the '80s incarnation of King Crimson.
Through the years, Tony has toured with quite a few artists
including: Paul Simon (with whom Tony appeared in Simon's 1980 film
"One Trick Pony"), Gary Burton, James Taylor, Herbie Mann, Goro
Noguchi, Judy Collins, Joe Yamanaka, Carly Simon,Peter Framptom,
Anderson/Bruford/Wakeman/Howe, Tim Finn, Richie Samborra, and
Claudio Baglioni.
In 1984 Tony released "Road Photos," a collection of black & white
photos taken during his travels with Crimson, Gabriel, Simon and
others. Tony's brother, Pete, is a New York keyboardist and writer
who is best known for his work with Gil Evans. Back in the 70's,
Tony and Pete collaborated with Steve Gadd in the comedy band The
Clams. Tony still threatens to release some Clams material some day.
Biography from PapaBear.com