"Aside from my
family, playing creative music
is my only reason for being on this earth."
~ Arnie Lawrence
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this page.
Thanks.
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October 25, 2024 news: Gil Evans
Remembered band @ The Cutting Room - 11/21/14 The
live recording of our 2-hour set in New York City is
now an official release on Dot Time Records.
Recorded by Robert Frazza and mixed and mastered by
legendary engineer Scott Petito, the sound is
fantastic and the band's performance inspired - a
memorial to Gil by his friends and to trumpet player
Lew Soloff, who we lost shortly after this gig.
The album is now available for listening,
downloading or as a physical CD. Some links:
On Dot Time Records website: dottimerecords.com/product/gilevansremembered/ Links to
listen or buy via Spotify, Apple, ITunes, Bandcamp,
etc.
hypeddit.com/gilevansremembered/liveatthecuttingroomnyc
The
Gil Evans Remembered band.
Made up of alumni of the Gil Evans Orchestra of the
'70s and '80, the band just played at two major
European
jazz festivals this summer:
Friday, 12 July, Estival Jazz in Lugano,
Switzerland and Monday, 15 July, Umbria Jazz in Perugia, Italy.
Click on the image for the full page.
In November 2014, the band did a 2-hour set in New
York City at The Cutting Room. Dot Time
Records will be releasing the album on October 25th.
11/17/24
Personal item. Over the last year I've been having some
Atrial Fibrillation issues - "A-Fib" for short. Basically
that means that your heart is not grooving to a click track.
It hasn't bothered me, but it can cause more serious problems so
its best not to ignore it. Last week I had some mild chest
pain and thought I'd better talk to someone. Better safe
than sorry, I went to the ER at Northern Duchess Hospital in
Rhinebeck, NY. Good place and great staff. They
checked me in, poked, prodded and tested me for 3 days, then
kicked me loose. Good news and bad news: The good news is
that all tests were negative - I didn't have a heart attack.
The bad news is that they don't know why I had that chest pain.
This coming week I'll be at Vassar Brothers Hospital in
Poughkeepsie, NY for more poking and prodding, this time by my
cardiologist, who is also an electrophysiologist. (I had to look
that up, and I still don't know what it means. But you
have to go to school for that.) It'll be interesting to
compare the cuisine between the two places. I don't expect
Stanley Tucci will be reviewing either one.
To be continued ...
10/5/24
Woodstock guitarist Rennie Cantine organized the annual guitar
street exhibition with the sidewalks lined with guitars
decorated by local artists. When its over, the guitars are
auctioned off with the proceeds going to the Family Of Woodstock
charity. And of course, being Woodstock, there has to be
live music at the auction - loud and rocking! This year I
sat in with Rennie and Sabrina Sa in Woodstock at The Pub for a
warm-up set before the auction. The band, "Sabrina & The
Gems" had 'em dancing in the isles!
10/1/24
Having caught our Band of Brothers West Coast tour last January
with Pat and Joe Labarbara, Jazz Weekly journalist George Harris
did in-depth interviews with Tony Levin and I. Tony does a lot
of those; me not so often, so it really makes me think about my
career, my life, and the iconic musicians I've worked with. The
reviews were done separately, so its interesting to see how our
thoughts and memories sync up - like our Jewish parents'
disappointment when first I and then Tony opted for music rather
than medical school.
The interviews just came out, nicely timed for Tony's solo album
and my Gil Evans project releases. If you've got a few minutes,
its a fun read. Thank you, George.
7/12/24 ESTIVAL JAZZ - LUGANO, SWITZERLAND
The Gil Evans Remembered band. After one show in NYC 9
years ago, we're in Europe to play two major jazz festivals.
From the first show the band fell right into the
old groove we had with Gil in the '70s. And we did it to
2000 people! The band was smokin!!
Lugano remembers Gil too. I shamelessly
got everybody to wave.
Pete Levin
Mark Egan
Dave Stryker
Danny Gottlieb
Beth Gottlieb
John Clark
Chris Hunter
Alex Foster
Alex Sipiagin
Dave Taylor
Tom Malone
7/15/24 UMBRIA JAZZ FESTIVAL - PERUGIA, ITALY
2nd show, in the beautiful old city of Perugia. Again, to
a huge festival crowd in the Arena Sam Giuliana
7/7/24 As you can see by my "LIVE" window above, I'm
taking time off from live gigs this month.
Usually I do 4 or 5 local gigs a month here in the Hudson
Valley, plus traveling to wherever and recording. With the
thunderstorms and brutal 90 degree weather over the last few
weeks, schlepping amps seriously takes the fun out of the
playing. So this month, my focus is the European trip with
the Gil Evans Remembered band next week. All the guys are
really looking forward to the trip. The return to Perugia,
Italy is extra special. We played at the Umbria festival
there many times with Gil over the years. And coinciding
with the trip, the live 2014 recording is being released by Dot
Time Records. In about a week there will be physical CDs, with
streaming downloads from Dot Time to follow. Photos
coming. More news. Stay tuned ...
6/26-27/24 The Levin Brothers played 2 nights, 4 shows, at
the Rochester International Jazz Festival. One of the
biggest and best jazz festivals in the U.S., we've been hoping
to land this gig for years. For 9 days, the festival takes over
the city of Rochester. Music everywhere, from early
evening until the wee hours. The band did shows at 2
downtown venues, The Montage Music Hall and the Wilder Room.
With Ken Gioffre on another tour in Europe, Tony, Pete and Jeff we were joined by our
friend, sax virtuoso Pat LaBarbera. Also 3 days of hanging
with our friend Steve Czubara, which started with an excellent
dinner at Pane Vino.
Four hungry travelers. Photo by Steve
Czubara
5/30/24 Sweet trio gig in Port Imperial, New Jersey by the
Hudson River. Perfect eather. The view in back of us
didn't suck either! Jeff Siegel, Steve Raleigh and I
finished the evening at El Unico de Elena, a little restaurant
in Union City that makes killin' Spanish food, and so
inexpensive its almost embarrassing when you go to pay!
Our friend Kath Oliger has been running this Sunset Music Series for a
few years.
5/19/24 Nice project coming up. This
Thursday, I'll be
recording with master Brazilian percussionist Emilio
Martins at Scott Petito's NRS Studio for his upcoming album.
In the studio: Ken Gioffre, Tony Levin, Jeff Siegel and I.
We didn't plan it this way, but it looks like The Levin Brothers
Quartet playing with Emilio. Of course it won't be
promoted that way, but it's kind of a hoot. Should be
great!
Emilio Martins, Pete, Tony Levin, Jeff Siegel,
Ken Gioffre
Recording att Scott Petito's NRS Studio 5/23/24
4/7/24 Back home from a Levin Brothers tour of
Eastern Canada. We played 2 great shows, co-billed with
old friends of ours, the California Guitar Trio. The Club
Soda in Montreal - the name is misleading. Its a theater,
with great seating and tech support. 350 seats - sold
out!! The Palais Montcalm in Quebec is an incredible
venue. Beautiful inside and out, impeccable sound and
facilities, and a terrific crew. 930 seats - sold out.
That might be the biggest audience the Levin Brothers Band has
played to. Paul, Bert and Tom of the California Guitar
Trio say its one of their favorite venues in the world!
From The Palais Moncalm - The Levin Brothers play King Crimson's
"Starless"
CLUB
SODA - MONTREAL APRIL 3, 2024
The next morning: Springtime in Montreal - Traveling to Quebec
April 4
The Trans-Canadian Highway in Spring - Yikes!
PALAIS
MONTCALM - QUEBEC CITY APRIL 5, 2024
The California Guitar Trio, with Tony sitting in
Both bands take a bow
2/21/24 After the long tour and 5 more gigs afterward,
I've been taking it easy through February. Took a week off
in Florida, got a new dog, cleaned out my instrument storage
locker. (OK, that last wasn't restful, but it needed
doing.) Cleaning it out, I got my Leslie speaker cabinet
out. I haven't had it out on a gig in 10 years. I
cranked it up and played for a while. Works great. I
was thinking to use it on an organ trio gig last night in Abany
but decided not to. Good thing. The club had moved a
huge dumpster in front of the club's load-in door. I
wouldn't have been able to get it in!
Recording projects coming up for Kathy Ingraham, Michael Veitch,
Tony Levin, and the band Sidestep. And I'll be working on
new projects of my own. Then looking ahead, Levin Brothers
tours in April and June, and taking an 11-piece band to Europe
in July, "Gil Evans Remembered" followed by a tour with Beledo.
Its looking to be a good year!
Big
news and a plan for this summer. I've revived the "Monday
Night Band" a Gil Evans tribute band I put together a few years
ago. What fell in my lap was an offer to bring the band to Perugia, Italy in July for a show at the Umbria Jazz Festival, a
festival I played at with Gil many times.. Somewhat
mind-boggling touring with an 11-piece band, but with a lot of
help from two good booking agents, I'm going for it. It'll
be the same band that did the Cutting Room show in New York City
in 2014, although sadly without Lew Soloff. To be
continued ...
Music
journalist Anil Prasad did an extensive interview with me for
INNERVIEWS, strolling through the last 50 years of my diverse
music career. Even I'm amazed! Anil posted this
summary intro on Facebook. Link to the full interview is
at the bottom.
"Pete
Levin's journey as a musician is one of diversity, discovery,
and serendipity. While his core focus is as a soulful jazz
keyboardist and composer, his six-decade career also includes
high-profile experiences across the pop, rock, and soundtrack
realms.
From 1973-1988, he was a key member of The Gil Evans Orchestra.
His jazz credentials also include working with Jimmy Giuffre,
Carla Bley, Mike Mainieri, Charles Mingus, Jaco Pastorius, John
Scofield, Wayne Shorter, Lenny White, as well as The Levin
Brothers, which he co-leads with his sibling, bassist and
Chapman Stick player Tony Levin.
On the pop and rock side, he's contributed to
the work of Bryan Ferry, Melissa Manchester, Liza Minnelli,
Robbie Robertson, Annie Lennox, Carly Simon, and Paul Simon. And
on the soundtrack front, you'll hear him on the scores of
America's Most Wanted, The Color of Money, Red Scorpion, Lean on Me,
Missing In Action, Invasion U.S.A., Maniac, Maniac Cop, Spin
City, and Star Trek: The Next Generation."
Two pairs of musical brothers - Tony & Pete
Levin, and Pat & Joe La Barbera - unite to form this jazz
quartet. Their individual professional backgrounds are
formidable: Pat (Elvin Jones, Buddy Rich), Joe (Bill Evans, Tony
Bennett), Tony (Peter Gabriel, King Crimson), Pete (Gil Evans,
Jimmy Giuffre).
January 2024 A West Coast tour with a new
quartet project. In Los Angeles a while ago, Tony bumped
into legendary drummer Joe La Barbera. They chatted a
while and agreed, "Let's get together and play!" 2 things
came out of that. First, a jazz quartet - Tony and I with
Joe and saxophonist Pat La Barbera - that we immediately named
"BAND OF BROTHERS." Second thing - a 3-week U.S. West
Coast tour in January 2024. Schedule is just below.
If you're somewhere in California, Oregon, Washington or
Vancouver, hope you can make one of these gigs. This is
gonna be smokin!
Trivia: We just found out that there's another band "Band
Of Brothers." So far, we don't think they know about us.
Neither band can really copyright the name, since the TV series
pretty much locked it up. Anyway, Shakespeare used it in
Henry V. By the time Bill notices, the tour will be over.
1/22/24 A ferry ride from Washington to Orcas
Island, a very large and very beautiful place to be.
The community has built a wonderful Center For The Arts
which includes an intimate theater with excellent
seating and excellent sound. A great crew helped
all the way.
Tony & Pete, on the ferry
to Orcas Islane
my office for the evening
My amps were shipped in these boxes. We put one
inside the other 2 weeks ago to save space. Now we
can't get them apart. I need them to ship the amps
home on Tuesday.
1/15/24 A return for Tony and I to Arcata,
California at the Arcata Playhouse. We played here
years ago with the Levin Brothers. As before, we
were made very welcome and greeted with a sold out
house. We love Arcata! I was still buzzing
from the Fazioli piano I got to play the night before in
Oakland. Tonight I had a sweet Yamaha grand -
perfect for jazz. No complaints.
1/12/24 Piedmont Piano Company in Oakland,
California. Being a huge room filled with expensive
pianos, it was an unusual venue for a jazz concert.
But the sound in the room is great, and they're able to
set up seating for 75 people. It was a special
treat for me. They had earlier asked me what piano
I wanted to use for the show, my choice of a Steinway or
a Yamaha or whatever. Not wanting to be a pest, I
told them that I'd be fine with anything - just don't
make it one of the 9-foot grands because their stage
isn't very big. What they gave me to use - a
gorgeous 7-foot Fazioli with a $185,000 price tag!
Made in Italy, Faziolis are considered by many to be the
best pianos in the world. I'll go along with that!
I was a very happy camper!!
Pete, Pat La Barbera, Tony Levin, Joe La Barbera
My date for the evening.
1/11/24 Concert in Stockton, CA at the remarkable Haggin Museum. Fortunately we had some time to
explore the exhibits and rare paintings. Every so
often its opened up for a concert. The
enthusiastic audience was standing room only tonight, 25
over fire regulations capacity. (Don't say
anything, OK?)
1/6&7/24 First gigs on the tour, 2 nights in Los
Angeles at the legendary jazz club Baked Potato.
Mostly feeling our way into playing together, there were
some great moments. 4 sold-out shows to
enthusiastic audiences.
1/4/24 The Band of Brothers West Coast tour begins with
rehearsals at AFM Local 47 in Los Angeles.
11/12/23 Gearing up for a short Levin Brothers
tour next month. Just 5 shows, but they're all nice ones.
Joining us this time out is Ken Gioffre, a dynamite sax player
who is a featured soloist with Nile Rogers, Chic, Smokey
Robinson and Blood Sweat & Tears. Hope to see some of you
at one of these shows.
12-15-23 First show on the tour, and the first
with Ken Gioffre. Sellersville Theater in Sellersville,
PA. We've played here before. Nice venue, great
crew, great audience.
12-16-23 The Levin Brothers, back in the Hudson
Valley in Albany, NY at WAMC's fine performance space
"The Linda." Another packed house and a great
night.
Pete
Tony
Ken Gioffre
Jeff "Siege" Siegel
New album on Bandcamp!
All the jazz and rock aside, I'm a longtime fan of J. S. Bach.
Looking for stuff to do during the pandemic, I dusted off my old
classical hat, fired up the Moog and launched into this labor of
love. With Classical music not being a big seller, this project
was never intended to be a money-maker. Believe me, I was just
having fun, and grooving on the very remarkable Mister Bach! Its
on Bandcamp. Cheap download.
Take a look ...
9/19/23
One more with Steve Raleigh's
"Soul/Jazz Collective" - this time in
Albany, NY at the Lark Street Tavern, a
sweet listening room in the heart of Albany.
We're joined here by the remarkable drummer
Dean Sharp. Love the room, but the lighting
is a bit bizarre - we look purple!
9/15/23
Steve Raleigh's "Soul/Jazz Collective" in
Beacon, NY at the Reserva Wine Bar.
Matt Garrity on drums.
8/20/23
Jazz brunch at Pearl Moon restaurant in the
heart of Woodstock. Guitarist Steve
Raleigh's "Soul/Jazz Collective" - this time
an organ trio with me and Jerry Marotta on
drums. I had just played here 2 weeks
ago with a jazz piano trio. This was a
whole lot funkier!
8/9/23
After being suspended for 2 years during the
pandemic, The TOAPP Music Camp was back this
summer with 120 campers in attendance.
Hosted by Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto and
Adrian Belew, the music is eclectic but
mostly Prog Rock. My contribution on
Wednesday each year is a 3 hour jazz set
with Tony and I on bass and piano joined by
dozens of campers in shifting
configurations. The campers perform
for each other in the Roadhouse Club at
night. Playing jazz classics with open
soloing, the jazz jam is a lot more relaxed
by nature. It always proves to be one
of the week's popular events. Below
are a few of the groups that performed.
8/6/23
Piano trio jazz brunch in Woodstock today at
Pearl Moon restaurant. The usual
suspects - bassist Rich Syracuse and drummer
Jeff Siegel. Love this place. So
does the rest of Woodstock - its always a
full house there. The TOAPP music camp
in Big Indian, NY starts tomorrow. Many of
the campers were in town early today for a
kick-off dinner in Kingston. Several
of them came to hang at our brunch gig.
One of them, Chris Cowan, took these great
shots of the band.
7/25/23
Some good stuff brewing for the end of the
year. Working on a Levin Brothers tour
- Northeast U.S., for 2 weeks starting in
mid-December. We caught sax player Ken
Gioffre between Nile Rodgers tours and are
excited to be having him join us for this
tour. Details to be posted as things
develop.
Then, in
January 2024, Tony and I will be on the West
Coast for 2-3 weeks with BAND OF BROTHERS,
a new jazz quartet with Tony and I with 2
other superb musicians, saxophonist Pat
La Barbera and drummer Joe La Barbera.
Really looking forward to that. Tour
schedules for both in a couple more months,
here and on
Facebook.
7/13/23
Kath Oliger puts together this free summer
music series on the walkway in Port
Imperial, New Jersey, with spectacular views
of Manhattan in the background. The
3rd time I've done it, this time an organ
trio with guitarist Mike DeMicco and drummer
Jeff Siegel. All the forecasts were
for torrential rains and a heat index of 95
degrees. They were all wrong - sunny
skies and temps in the 70s with a breeze
coming in from the river. Lots of
folks walking by, sitting a listening.
The little kids were the best. A
beautiful evening!
Kath Oliger & Jeff
7/2/23
I've been playing a lot of local gigs this
year with guitarist Steve Raleigh.
Good music, lots of fun. Here we're in
Woodstock, NY in the lounge at the Mill
Stream Tavern, buy the entrance to
Woodstock. The bassist is Jim Curtin.
5/23/23
For the last 9 years, Jeff Siegel and Rich
Syracuse have been doing Tuesday night jazz
gigs at Catskill Mountain Pizza in the heart
of Woodstock Village. Each time they
have a guest in to round out the band.
Two guests tonight: Pete & vocalist Lisa
Markley.
Pete, Rich Syracuse, Jeff
"Siege" Siegel, Lisa Markley.
Photo: Brock Purdy
5/21/23
Back at the Lark Street Tavern, a nice,
intimate listening room in Albany, NY.
Organ trio led by guitarist Steve Raleigh
along with Cliff Brucker on drums. The
trio does very little 'straight-ahead' jazz,
leaning more toward funk tunes from the '60s
and '70s. Steve has dubbed the group
"Soul Jazz Collective."
Photo by Kathy Conway
Photo by Bill McCann
5/7 23
Levin Brothers news:
While Tony is out touring with Peter
Gabriel, we're developing two projects.
The Levin Brothers quartet will be
touring in mid-December through the
Northeast U.S. We won't have an
itinerary for a while but we should be able
to announce some shows by August.
Beyond that, something new. Tony was
chatting with an old friend, drummer Joe
LaBarbera and they hit on the idea - "Band
Of Brothers" a jazz quartet with Tony
and Pete, and Joe and Pat LaBarbera.
Both Joe and Pat are known for their work in
groups with jazz icons, Joe with the
legendary pianist Bill Evans, and Pat with
drummer Elvin Jones. The goal is a West
Coast tour in January of 2024. Its
still in the planning stage, but we're all
excited about it. More news coming as
the project develops - here, on
Tony's website, on the
Levin Brothers' website, and on
Facebook.
5/2/23
Tracking for singer/songwriter Chris
Mitchell in Mt. Tremper, NY at Ken
Lovelett's Sonart Recording Studio.
Chris has been working on this album for
years. With this session, he'll have
something like 20 songs in the can.
Too many for a single album. We're
waiting to see what it will turn out to be.
Great rhythm section for this date - Jerry
Marotta (drums), Mike Visceglia (bass), Jeff
Zona (guitar) up from Nashville, and Pete on
keyboards. Julie last engineering the
date.
L to R: Julie Last, Jerry
Marotta, Chris Mitchell, Mike Visceglia,
Jeff Zone, Pete
Mike Visceglia
Jeff Zona
Chris Mitchell in the booth,
Jerry Marotta
Stupid selfie while we set up
the group pose above
4/23/23
Midday jazz in Woodstock and my favorite
brunch place, Pearl Moon. For whatever
reasons, jazz brunch gigs are coming out of
the woodwork these days. That's fine
with me. Good food, good money, good
music with good players, and I'm home in
time for dinner! Today's gig, piano
trio with John Menegon (bass) and Matt
Garrity (drums).
4/22/23
Long recording session today in Wilton,
Connecticut for singer/songwriter Dwight
Moody. Along with tracking piano and
organ on some good songs, it was a reunion
with some old friends I hadn't seen or
worked with in years: Project producer Bob
Riccio, drummer John Cutrone, and master
engineer Alec Head. Alec recorded and
mixed my first solo album for Gramavision
Records in 1989. He was also the
engineer for 2 feature films I worked
on for composer Jay Chattaway. We've
got some good history!
4/11/23
Once again, we're loving the Lark Street Tavern's
Tuesday night jazz series. Aside from the great
food, The Lark is a real listening room. Its gratifying to
see people respond to that. Last
night's organ trio with guitarist Steve
Raleigh and drummer Matt Garrity.
Trumpet player Chris Pasin sitting in.
Also loving these photos by Ed Conway
4/1/23
Concert For Charlie The only April
Fool issue this year was that we needed a bigger venue!
A full house - standing
room only - at The Rosendale Theater watched
a 3-1/2 hour concert by Charlie Kniceley's
close
friends and musical colleagues. The
lineup: Machan Taylor, Danny Louis, Jimmy
Eppard, Joey Eppard, Gilles Malkine, Mikhail
Horowitz, Lara Hope, Brenda Bufalino, Vena
Gillis, Matt Goldpaugh, Matt Finck, Bob
Shaut, Randy Ciarlante, Steve Rust, Harvey
Sorgen, Chris Bowman, Paul Verdon, Kitt
Potter & Pete Levin. After
intermission, many of the players and
singers gathered on stage to form Phelonius Phunk,
the front rows were cleared to create a
dance floor, and the party moved into high
gear with the dance floor packed. What
a night! Photos by Ed Conway.
Charlie & Pete
photo: Pete Santora
Phelonious Phunk!
L to R: Pete Levin, Matt Finck, Machan
Taylor, Randy Ciarlante (hidden behind
Machan),
Steve
Rust, Danny Louis, Chris Bowman (hidden
behind Danny)
Harvey Sorgen, Bob Shaut.
Joey Eppard
Horowitz & Malkine
Matt Goldpaugh and Lara Hope
Jimmy Eppard fronting the
band
Brenda Bufalino: 85 years old
and still dancing up a storm!
Phelonious Phunk rocks the
house and packs the dance floor!
3/22/23
Congratulations to Leonardo Pavkovic -
fantastic full page profile of Leonardo and
MoonJune Records in this month's issue of
Downbeat Magazine.
3/16/23
Jazz duo at Aroma Thyme in Ellenville, NY
with bassist Rich Syracuse. Rich's
biggest fan - or maybe littlest - is
definitely gonna be a bass player some day.
Alden getting a quick bowing lesson while
his dad Jeremy looks on.
3/15/23
I've been pretty busy, but lazy about
keeping up this blog. I was never good
at that. Mostly local live gigs but a
lot of recording projects in the works.
Currently working on tracks for Roseanne
Sureda, Rob Carlson, Ken Lovelett, Kevin
Kuhn and Tony Levin. Plus chugging
along with two projects of my own. One
of those is an album of all J.S.Bach pieces,
done entirely on synthesizer - something
I've been wanting to do for a long time.
Don't know what I'll do with it.
Obviously not a band that can sell CDs at
live gigs. Remains to be seen.
Bottom line: I'm busy and I'm having fun!
1/29/23
Nice organ trio gig at the beautiful
Millstream Tavern in Woodstock, NY - with
guitarist Steve Raleigh and drummer Matt
Garrity. Steve loves to take full-band selfies! (Actually, I just did that a
few days ago. Scroll down.)
1/26/23
Drummer Cliff Brucker's "Full Circle"
project. 2 albums released, but with
the pandemic, live performances have been
rare. This one, at WAMC's amazing
performance space in Albany, paid special
tribute to saxophonist Leo Russo, part of
the project since the beginning. Leo
is 86 years old, looks and acts 66, and is
playing his butt off! Great band with
Leo, Dylan Canterbury (trumpet), Mike
Novakowski (guitar), Pete Toigo (bass) Cliff
on drums, and me, lucking out with the
Linda's beautiful Yamaha grand. No
schlepping! There were 80 advance
tickets sold by soundcheck, and a lot of
walk-ins. Full house!
The rhythm section - my obligatory
soundcheck selfie. Me, Pete, Mike,
Cliff
Leo, warming up
1/25/23
Levin Brothers on hiatus. Doing mostly local gigs
through the winter, this one with my favorite rhythm
section, bassist Rich Syracuse and drummer Jeff Siegel.
We've been playing occasionally in an intimate listening
room in Albany, NY, the Lark Street Tavern, as part of
their Tuesday night jazz series. I'm loving doing
these piano trio gigs.
1/13/23
Mid-winter - and not much winter happening. Only 2
snowfalls so far this season, and yesterday's storm has
already melted. 7am this morning, its 45 degrees
and headed for 50. Global warming? Ya think?
Meanwhile, doin' gigs and sessions and feeling pretty
good. Nice day in the studio Wednesday with
vocalist Lisa Markley playing on a couple of her songs.
At home, doing tracks for people and working on a
project of my own. But the biggest news: New hot tub
delivered yesterday! Woo Woo! Now gotta get
it wired up and filled with water. Then, around
midnight every night, you'll know where to find me.
11/1/22
November - something in the air I think! The usual
handful of live gigs but also playing on several
recording projects, mostly in Woodstock area studios. I
just finished a tracking session for Elise Pittelman and
Julie last. Coming up, I'll be recording this
month with Roseann Sureda, Andy Toomey, Derek Dempsey
and Ken Lovelett. Tracking in my home studio for
Nanny Assis and others. Great to see all this
music production happening. Gettin' it all in
before Thanksgiving!
11/3/22
The Sharp 5 band, finally doing some
live shows to mark the release of our
album "SHINE A BRIGHT LIGHT." Led
by jazz vocalist Teri Roiger, the band
includes bassist John Menegon, drummer
Jeff Siegel, and percussionist Nanny
Assis. Previous shows were
canceled due to Covid, and regretfully,
Nanny was unable to make this Bearsille
show. We'll get it going
eventually. Great photos by our
friend Neil Segal.
10/25/22
Its been a tough month.
Covid!
Not the killer level, just quarantined at home for a
couple of weeks feeling like shit. Of course that
meant missing several live gigs. The worst of
those - Progstock with Beledo on the 8th, The Jazz Forum
with Sharp 5 on the 9th, and The Tasting Lab with "Funkshin"
on the 16th - Scott Petito was also down with Covid for
that one. Beledo's set went on - big festival -
but the 9th and 16th were cancelled. Getting back
to normal now, gigs and recording sessions coming up.
If anybody asks, Covid sucks!!
LEVIN BROTHERS
FADE TO BLUE TOUR SEPTEMBER 2022
10/2/22
"Fade To Blue" tour is done, wrapped up with two nights
at The Jazz Forum in Tarrytown, NY. Great club, 2
nights of great audiences, lots of CDs sold and signed.
As always, our thanks to all the venues who took such
good care of us, and to the folks who came out to hear
us play. You are all helping to keep the music
alive in this nutty world! Thank you! Scroll
on down to follow the tour.
Finishing up the tour in Manchester, Vermont - great
photos by our friend David Cerilli
With the tour
covering only a few sections of the U.S., many folks
have asked about getting the new "FADE TO BLUE" CD or
being able to download it. We've finally made it
available for downloading. Please visit the Levin
Brothers' Bandcamp page. As always, thank you for
your support. Click on the link or the photo.
8/27/22 The Levin Brothers with Ali
Ryerson - all set to hit the road for our September tour.
Seems like we just got back off the road and its
time to start packing again. Meanwhile, post
production for the
new CD - "FADE TO BLUE" - is finished and its out
being manufactured. We'll have it with us in
September.
Here's the itinerary: * September 18th just added
Tues
September 6
Rochester, NY
Lovin' Cup
Wed
September 7
Rochester, NY
Lovin' Cup
Thu
September 8
Waterloo, ON, Canada
The Jazz Room
Fri
September 9
Sarnia, ON, Canada
Royal Canadian
Legion
Sat
September 10
Westland, MI
Joy Manor
Sun
September 11
Benton Harbor, MI
The Livery
Wed
September 14
Milwaukee, WI
Shank Hall
Thu
September 15
Moline, IL
Rascals
Fri
September 16
Chicago, IL
Reggie's
Sat
September 17
Indianapolis, IN
Irving Theater
Sun
September 18
Pittsburgh, PA
This Is Red
Tue
September 27
Manchester, VT
S. Vermont Arts
Center
Fri
September 30
Tarrytown, NY
Jazz Forum
Sat
October 1
Tarrytown, NY
Jazz Forum
LEVIN BROTHERS BAND
with Ali Ryerson
FADE TO BLUE TOUR
September 2022
9/6&7/22 The tour starts
with a return to a wonderful
venue in Rochester, NY, The
Lovin' Cup. The shows were
promoted by Tom Kohn, who owns
one of the most amazing record
stores I've ever seen -
thousands of vinyl albums
carefully wrapped and sorted by
genre. The venue, great as
always - and a terrific audience
that turned out on a couple of
school nights. Rochester
is one very cool town! Our
thanks to Aaron Winters for these great photos.
9/8/22 Canada, and a
surprisingly easy trip through
immigration - no lines!!
Waterloo, Ontario, returning to
The Jazz Room, an intimate club
that is a pleasure to play in.
One again a full house,
enthusiastic audience, great
food, and for me a real nice
piano. What's not to like!
9/9/22 Canadian leg
continues in Sarnia, Ontario.
The concert venue was at the
Royal Canadian Legion Hall.
Sounds like it'd be more suited
to bingo games, but it turned
out to be a wonderful venue,
with great sound and a sold out
audience. Further, we
stayed in a 5-star hotel, a 60
second walk from the venue.
Goes to show, you never never
know!
9/10/22 The pendulum swings.
The club had been booked for a
bizarre event of some kind, so
our show was moved to another
building, a function hall -
translate "Wedding Mill."
That in itself would have been
weird, but there was a big
wedding reception in the room
above us, with a DJ's subwoofers
very audible below. Take
out Italian was awful.
Suffice to say that we got
through it.
No photos.
9/11/22 Once again,
surprised by a venue. At
first glance, a basic beer and
pizza joint. Turned out to
be a wonderful, intimate music
venue with great sound,
fantastic food and an
enthusiastic audience.
Many folks had seen Tony's
Stickmen Group there earlier
this year. Benton Harbor
is pretty much a has-been
industrial town with not much
going on. Predictably,
everybody we chatted with loves
this local venue.
Our ride, "The Black Beast" -
good mileage not a
consideration.
9/14/22 Found ourselves
with 2 days off, so we headed
for Milwaukee, Wisconsin and
camped out in a nice motel near
the airport. (Cheaper!)
Lucked out to find ourselves in
a neighborhood with several
excellent Middle Eastern
restaurants. Then on the
14th, into town for a show at
Shank Hall.
Got
our name and image up in lights!
We haven't performed in suits
and ties or used that image for
4 years, but its a hoot to see
it.
Setup and soundcheck. Some
things never change.
9/15/22
Great evening at this
family-owned club in Moline.
Full house, a great audience,
great sound, and a nice Mexican
restaurant next door. (Hey, its
the road. We've gotta eat!)
9/16/22
Reggie's - Chicago, IL. A
return to this bustling music
club. Tricky load-in, including
a novel dumpster in the back,
but a beautiful music room. On
the menu - killer fried pickles!
9/17/22 Another return, to
Indianapolis, IN. A new
venue for us, a charming vintage
theater, The Irving Theater
9/18/22 This Is Red
Pittsburgh, PA
Amazing church converted into a
center for the arts. The
stage, the high ceiling ...
amazing! Add to that a
great audience turnout, and it
was great evening. An
unplanned extra: Erik
Lawrence, who toured with the
Levin Brothers for 2 years, now
lives in Pittsburgh. Erik
brought a flute and sat in with
us for 2 tunes, including an
inspiring version of Jimi
Hendrix's "Little Wing" for our
encore. We never did
figure out what "This Is Red"
means.
9/27/22 Arkell Pavilion at
the Southern Vermont Arts Center
in Manchester, Vermont. An
amazing spot and venue, on acres
of large sculptures and the kind
of breathtaking landscape you
expect to see in Vermont.
Beautiful theater. Great
sound. Great audience.
And Manchester, the kind of
picturesque town you usually
only see in films. What a
great evening!
Hanging out before showtime ...
9/30/22 & 10/2/22 What a great
way to wrap up the tour, with 2
nights at the beautiful Jazz
Forum in Tarrytown, NY.
Great club, 2 nights of great
audiences, lots of CDs sold and
signed. Great!
Jazz Forum owner/promoter
talking about the venue and
introducing the band.
Ali
was staying in Manhattan during
these 2 gigs. On Friday,
she stopped Zabar's on the way
up. Post-soundcheck snack
was killin' lox, whitefish
salad, and real-deal New York
City bagels. Yum!
8/25/22 Lately I've been doing a regular
Thursday night gig at the Aroma Thyme Bistro in
Ellenville, NY with Rich Syracuse and Jeff
Siegel. Nice, intimate restaurant with
great farm-to-table food. Jeff was out of
town this week, so on a whim we called guitarist
Steve Raleigh to fill in. Steve's a wonderful
player. No drums, but we were groovin!
7/7/22 The Levin Brothers spent 2 days at
NRS Recording Studio in Catskill, NY with
engineer Scott Petito. This will be our
first "studio" recording since our debut 2014
album. We recorded much of the material
that we were performing on the tour last month.
Now getting into post-production. We'll be
releasing a new CD soon, probably in late August
to make available on our upcoming September
tour. The photo below: The band -
Ali Ryerson, Jeff, Tony & Pete - with Scott
Petito.
6/15/22 The tour starts! Full house
and an enthusiastic audience at The Falcon in
Marlboro, NY. What a great way to start a
tour. The group was a little hesitant at
first but we found our groove quickly.
Great night! Photos by Jane Goodis Ciresi.
6/16/22 The Turning Point
Piermont, NY
6/17/22 Natick Center for the Arts (TCAN)
Natick, MA Photos by Cheryl Gaines
Casey
Every time we play
this venue, the next morning means breakfast at
Zaftig's!
6/18/22 Broad Brook Opera House
Broad Brook, CT Photos by Alice
Moore
6/19/22 Strand Theater Hudson
Falls, NY Photos by Rudy Lu
6/21/22 Homestead Bar & Kitchen
Morristown, NJ
6/22/22 The Room at Cedar Grove
Lewes, DE
6/23/22 Kennett Flash Kennett
Square, PA Photos by Avraham
Bank
6/12/22 Starting rehearsals today. Ali
Ryerson flying in from California. First show
on Wednesday. Gettin' excited!
6/11/22 Happy Birthday, Jeff!
6/6/22 Happy Birthday, Tony!
6/5/22 Fun pickup gig with a great group of
players. Organized by bassist Scott Petito, the
group featured Eric Person on sax, percussionist Minu
Cinelu, drummer Jeff Lipstein, and me on keyboard, Scott
named the band "Funk-Shins." The venue, a new one
for me, was a marvelous bar and restaurant in a remote
part of Green County, NY - the Tasting Lab. Always
new stuff to discover out here in the boonies!
Photos by our photographer friend Rudy Lu.
5/24/22 Levin Brothers will be touring the
Northeast U.S. in June and
later in September.
Jazz flautist
Ali Ryerson will be joining the core trio of Tony,
Jeff Siegel and myself. Ali is a fantastic player
and an internationally-known recording artist who
consistently places in the Downbeat Reader' Poll.
It'll mean a refreshing change in what the band does,
and a great shot of new energy. 8 confirmed dates
in June, a couple of new venues and returning to a few
of our favorites. Hope to see you at one of them.
Up to date info will be
posted here and on the
Levin Brothers website.
Wed June 15 - Marlboro, NY (The Falcon’s)
Thu June 16 - Piermont, NY (The Turning Point)
Fri June 17- Natick, MA (The Natick Arts Center)
Sat June 18 - Broad Brook, CT (Broad Brook Opera House)
Sun June 19 - Hudson Falls, NY (Strand Theater)
Tue June 21 - Morristown, NJ (Homestead Bar & Kitchen)
Wed June 22 - Lewes, DE (The Room at the Cedar Grove)
Thu June 23 - Kennett Square, PA (Kennett Flash)
Meanwhile, we're just back from Los Angeles where we
were celebrating Tony's daughter Maggie's wedding to
Scott Derrickson. Beautiful couple, beautiful
ceremony and fantastic reception. My first
time on an airplane in quite a while. Nothing
there has changed - flying sucks, but it gets you
where you need to be.
4/2/22 Spring finally happening, and April
showers on the way. Combined with local gigs
picking up, that translates to loading gear in the rain.
Nothing's perfect - but great to have the gigs picking
up again. I'm continuing to do keyboard tracks for
people at home and in studios. Did a couple of
sessions for singer/songwriter George Barrett at
Carriage House Studio in Stamford, CT. Hadn't been
there in a few years. 1 or 2 tours being planned
with guitarist Bele Beledo. I did a short tour
with him last November. Looking forward to more -
its a great band! Meanwhile, we're working on plans for
the Levin Brothers Band - local gigs, touring maybe, new
music likely. Stay tuned ...
2/6/22 Big ice storm and sub-freezing temps.
Today is the 3rd day of no electricity = no heat, no
water, no internet, no cable, no Breaking Bad binging.
Wah! :( Friday night, my trio with Rich
Syracuse and Jeff Siegel had a gig in Albany.
Cancelled due to hazardous driving conditions.
We've rescheduled it for Friday, February 18th.
We'll keep trying until we do the gig!!
2/2/22 February: Deep in the throes of moving
now. Not an easy undertaking with single-digit
temps every day and night, but the end is in sight.
Looking forward to getting settled. Meanwhile, the
live music scene is pretty rocky. 3 gigs scheduled
and cancelled this month. 2 survived. In the
balance, I need the time and physical energy for the
move this month. March is already looking better -
5 gigs scheduled and more coming in, lots of talk about
tours being planned, my own music projects being
planned. So far, 2022 is looking good.
1/1/22 Happy new year. Hope it'll be a
better one than 2021. With the new Covid surge
going on, almost all live gigs are being cancelled.
Spring and Summer tours are tentative - Levin Brothers,
Beledo, Sharp 5, my own trio. Hoping it'll turn
around. Meanwhile, I've moved into a new house
next door - same neighborhood, same gorgeous view.
My son Paul came up this weekend, and together we moved
my studio into the new digs. Lots of bugs to iron
out, but it went better then I expected. Several
projects await.
12/2/21 Lots of music happening. Things aren't back
to normal, but for a while it feels like it. Did a
great holiday show at the Bearsville Theater with
Marc Black and the band.
And just coming down from a terrific set at Bearsville -
Rich Syracuse, Jeff Siegel and I backing the dynamic
vibraphonist Bill Ware to an enthusiastic sold-out
audience. All of us saying that 'we've gotta do
this again!' More coming up this weekend. An
organ trio gig with guitarist Mike Jackson. In
addition, my trio with Rich and Jeff is now doing all
the Sunday jazz brunch gigs at Pearl Moon this month.
Not quite an artist-in-residence situation, but close to
it.
11/21/21 Not getting to this as often as I
should. Very much tied up with building the new
house. Moving some furniture in tomorrow.
The rest in 2 weeks. So Thanksgiving in the new
digs won't happen, but its looking good for Christmas.
Still making music. Doing a few trio gigs every
month with Rich Syracuse and Jeff Siegel, and enjoying
that. We've been doing an occasional Sunday jazz
brunch at Pearl Moon in Woodstock, with great success.
They've offered us every Sunday in December. With
that and some dates with Beledo,
it'll be a good month.
10/14/21 Scattered local gigs this month,
mostly piano trio gigs with Rich Syracuse and Jeff
Siegel. I'm really enjoying those. Starting
to woodshed a few new Bill Evans pieces, and working on
Beledo's music. Meanwhile, the house is coming
along. Trying to plot out fitting all my studio
stuff into a smaller space. For starters, the
couch has got to go. That was the easy part.
Looking to move in early November. Thanksgiving
dinner in the new digs! Hope the stove works.
9/1/21 Lots going on. Building a house,
planning the move, doing local gigs. Many gigs
booked and cancelled as restaurants struggle with low
attendance and difficulties getting staff.
Meanwhile, recording projects go on. Looking
toward November and December, touring with Beledo to
celebrate his new album release. For recreation -
Tony gets back from England on Saturday and we'll be
headed for a Met performance of Boris Godunov.
Great to have The Met back!
8/24/21 Two beautiful albums I took part in
are being released next week: "To Love Again" by
vocalist Karuna Shinsho, and "Shine A Bright Light"
by the group 'Sharp 5' featuring Teri Roiger and
Nanny Assis. We did a video shoot with Karuna
last week, a couple of pieces from the album.
They'll be on Youtube shortly. Meanwhile,
'Sharp 5' has live gigs coming up in September,
including a CD release show at the unique Senate
Garage in Kingston, NY. More info soon ...
8/12/21
Big Indian, NY at the TOAPP Music
Camp (Three of a Perfect Pair). Some 75
enthusiastic musical campers make for a great hang.
I'll be heading up a clinic and jazz "jam" as well
as sitting in with several ensembles.
Cancelled last year - what wasn't? - this is an
annual gathering, hosted by Tony Levin, Pat
Mastellotto and Adrien Belew, and attended by a
great bunch of folks. We're having a ball!
A few photos below - more coming .
Later this week: Friday - Duo with bassist John
Menegon in a small Saugerties eatery "Love Bites" -
great food! Saturday - Duo with virtuoso
bassist Don Miller. Sunday - Hudson Valley
Jazz Festival, organ trio with Jeff Ciampa and Jeff
Siegel. Our event is at the Buckbee Center in
Warwick, NY.
* New tour photos below. Click the image in the
right column.
The Levin Brothers band just wrapped up an eight-city tour
in June. We were carrying a new CD release,
recorded live in 2020 at Daryl's House, and tour
t-shirts - first time we've done that. We
returned to some of the venues we played a year ago.
Great to see that they've survived the pandemic when so
many haven't. With audience size restrictions
still in place, some of these shows were sold out to a
limited audience; toward the end, houses were at full
capacity again.
Here's Tony, modeling our spiffy new designer
VACCINATING RHYTHM TOUR T-shirt.
My catalog
of solo CDs and albums and Levin Brothers' releases are
now available on line through MOONJUNE
RECORDS on the Bandcamp website, both the physical
albums and downloads. The first catalog re-releases
are "Mobius" "Jump!" and The Levin Brothers' "Special
Delivery." Moonjune has just added 3 more:
"Certified Organic" "A Solitary Man" and "Icarus."
Click on any of these
images.
Featuring an
array of extraordinary musicians:
CLIFF ALMOND
(A Solitary Man),
RAY ANDERSON
(A
Solitary Man), NANNY ASSIS, (Möbius), MANOLO BADRENA (Jump!,
A Solitary Man), JOE BECK (Icarus, Certified Organic),
JEFF BERLIN
(A Solitary Man),
JOHN CARIDDI
(Certified Organic), JEFF CIAMPA (Möbius),
ERNIE COLON
(Certified Organic), KAL DAVID
(Möbius),
MIKE
DEMICCO (Icarus, Certified Organic), ALEX FOSTER (Möbius, A
Solitary Man),
DANNY
GOTTLIEB (Icarus), JESSE GRESS (Certified Organic), ERIK
LAWRENCE (Special Delivery, Certified Organic),
TONY LEVIN (Special
Delivery, Möbius, Icarus),
KEN LOVELETT
(Icarus, Certified Organic), JERRY MAROTTA
(Möbius), CHRIS PASIN (Möbius),
ROB PAPAROZZI
(Möbius),
JEFF SIEGEL
(Special Delivery), LEW SOLOFF
(A Solitary Man), HARVEY SORGEN
(Certified Organic), DAVE STRYKER (Jump!), LENNY
WHITE (Möbius, Jump!)
Levin Brothers
December 2019/January 2020 "Snowtire Tour"
Take the tour with us on our photo page. Click the snowtire.
I recently completed a new movement for a project I'm
working on with percussionist Ken Lovelett. What
started as just casual recording of some of Ken's more
experimental American Percussion instruments and sound
sculpture pieces has turned into multi-movement piece. Along with
many beautiful still images, the new piece "Serengeti" is up
on Youtube. Click the image.
September 2020: With the pandemic going on and
few live gigs, taking the opportunity to tackle a
long overdue rebuild of my home studio, with a lot
of help from my son Paul, who's a skilled video
editor and a tech whiz.
5/8/22
Mothers' Day jazz brunch at Pearl Moon in
Woodstock. With the regular piano trio
with Rich Syracuse and Jeff "Siege" Siegel and
our special guest, vocalist Kitt Potter.
Great afternoon of music! Photos by our
friend Neil Segal.
5/7/22
Organ trio with Jeff "Siege" Siegel and
guitarist Mike Jackson in Stone Ridge at Lydia's
Cafe. Lydia's has been closed for quite a
while, for the pandemic and more recently for an
extensive remodeling. This was their first
weekend open with live music back. Great
to play there again.
4/23/22
A reunion of old friends for this live streaming
event at the Green Kill Gallery in Kingston, NY.
The core of the experimental/improvisational
group "Sidestep" - Barbara Truex - dulcimer,
Vinnie Pasternak - guitar & viola, and Ken
Lovelett - percussion - have been together for
decades. For this video recording, Jordan
Jancz was added on bass, as well as
percussionist Brian Melick and me on keyboards,
as well as poetry by Chris White. Live
streamed on Youtube, its also there for viewing
now -
SIDESTEP @ GREENKILL
4/10/22
Jazz Brunch in Woodstock, NY at Pearl Moon Cafe.
Singer/songwriter Lisa Markley leading a nice
quartet with Rich Syracuse and myself and
special guest Don Byron.
3/16/22
One more quartet gig with Ali Ryerson before she
headed back home to Florida - in Bethel, CT at
La Zingara. Tom Carruthers of the
Connecticut Film Festival puts on a continuing
Wednesday night series of jazz gigs at this
wonderful Italian restaurant. Ali and I
both lived nearby for many years, so a lot of
old friends turned out. Full house!
Gotta love that!
Ali Ryerson
Pete
Rich Syracuse
Jeff "Siege" Siegel
3/4/22
Our paths hadn't crossed in a few years, so it
was a treat to play with virtuoso guitarist Mark
Sganga and a groovin' band at the '76 House in
Tappan, NY.
3/3/22
Reunited with my old friend, jazz flutist Ali
Ryerson, for a great show at The Bearsville
Theater in Woodstock. They made it "dinner
show" and we had a full house. In
addition, this gig seems to mark the beginning
of live shows coming back after the Covid
Doldrums. The band was smokin' and we had
a great time. Rich Syracuse on bass, Jeff
Siegel on drums. Photos by our friend Neil
Segal.
2/18/22
Nice trio gig in Albany, NY with drummer Jeff
Siegel and bassist Adam Cote at Grappa '72, a
terrific Italian restaurant. Still not
much happening, so it was good to get out and
make some music.
1/23/22
Not much happening this year. Covid
cancellations. But this one went ahead.
Organ trio with guitarist Jeff Ciampa and
drummer Jeff Siegel at the beautiful Cove Castle
Restaurant in Greenwood Lake, New York.
This is the 2nd time I've played here.
Enthusiastic crowds turn out for these jazz
brunches. Looking forward to doing it
again soon.
12/7/21
Winding up shows with Beledo for 2021 in
Hudson Falls, NY at the beautiful Strand
Theater. Beledo, Scott Petito on bass,
Kenny Grohowski on drums, and me on a killer
9-foot Steinway. Don't see them too
often on jazz gigs! Looking forward to
touring with this quartet in 2022.
Soundcheck. 9-foot Steinway!
Woo Woo!
Leonardo catching some z's
12/2/21
Kicking off a new jazz series at Woodstock's
Bearsville Theater, Rich Syracuse, Jeff
Siegel and I backed up dynamic vibraphonist
Bill Ware in a terrific set to an
enthusiastic sold-out audience. Jazz
is alive and well in Woodstock! Some
excellent photographs here by our friend
Neil Segal, and a nice band shot by
Siouxzanne Harris.
11/27/21
Folk/Rock singer/songwriter Marc Black for a
Thanksgiving weekend dance-fest at
Woodstock's Bearsville Theater. Mar is
a long-time fixture in Woodstock.
Always an enthusiastic audience turns out
for his shows. I'm relatively new to
the band; Amy, Eric, Mike and Don have been
playing with Marc for a long time.
11/21/21
Jammin' old-school organ trio style with
guitarist Mike Jackson and drummer Jeff
Siegel at Cove Castle. First time in
this beautiful venue overlooking Greenwood
Lake, NY, and a full house appreciative
audience - unusual for a weekly Sunday
brunch gig.
November
2021 Supporting the release of his new
album, "Seriously Deep", I've started
touring with Uruguayan guitarist, pianist,
and composer Bele Beledo. Its a
wonderful quartet. Besides myself,
bassist Scott Petito and drummer Kenny
Grohowski. The music is complex and
difficult, but its coming together nicely.
More shows coming up in December.
Pete, Kenny,
Scott, Beledo - and our agent/manager
Leonardo Pavkovic
Rehearsing
Shows
10/17/21
Trio jazz at a new venue in town. For
years it was a funky Chinese restaurant,
"Wok & Roll" now converted and completely
transformed into "Pearl Moon" a beautiful
venue with music 4 nights a week.
Predictably, folks are coming out.
Today's gig - a piano trio with bassist Rich
Syracuse and drummer Jeff "Siege" Siegel.
9/3/21
Friday night at The Colony in Woodstock, NY
with vocalist Lisa Markley, along with a
great rhythm section, Lew Scott on bass and
Matt Garrity on drums. Lisa's a
wonderful jazz vocalist, relatively new to
the Woodstock area but people are starting
to discover her. The Colony back yard
is knicknamed "The Beer Garden" and has
almost continuous live music on weekends.
Its a beautiful venue inside, but they're
still not opting for indoor music.
Soon, we hope.
Soundcheck
Showtime, under a full moon
8/29/21
Sunday jazz brunch at the newly renovated
Millstream Tavern - with Rich Syracuse/bass and
Jeff Siegel/drums. Beautiful setting on
the deck by the stream and overlooking the
Woodstock golf course. The heat wave had
finally broken, it was a comfortable 70 degrees.
8/13/21
Nice, relaxed gig at one of my favorite
local eateries, Love Bites in Saugerties, NY
- a duo with bassist John Menegon.
They have interesting art work on the walls,
including that very goofy heart behind me.
Looking at the photo, it looks more like I'm
playing The Muppet Show!
7/28/21
Organ trio in the lounge at Annarella with
guitarist Mike DeMicco and drummer Jeff
"Siege" Siegel. Usually the room is
quiet and laid -back, with a semi-formal
dining room adjacent. Not tonight; the
place was hoppin! 3 friends came up to
sing and tore it up! No mic, just
belting it out - and the packed room love
it. This might be a new trend for the
restaurant.
Pete, Jeff & Mike - groovilating!
Yeah, I'm happy!
Our friend Barry "Sweet"
Jackson came up to sing - tore it up!
7/25/21
Long, beautiful drive through the
Adirondacks to Norwood, New York for a
concert with Brazilian
percussionist/vocalist Nanny Assis and a
terrific band. The music - all
Brazilian and almost all completely new for
me. An afternoon rehearsal let me
catch up to them. A wonderful evening.
Apparently vocalist Maggie Gould was
scheduled to sing with us, but was unable to
board her flight. 2020 - it ain't over
yet!
Paul Meyers, Nanny Assis, Pete, Leo Lucini
7/18/21
Summer jazz series continues at Annarella.
Tonight - Rich Syracuse, Jeff Siegel and I
backing vocalist Lisa Markley. Full
house. A couple of friends
sitting in. Nice night!
7/14/21
Trio night at Annarella, this time with
guitarist Mike DeMicco and bassist Rich
Syracuse. No drums, but we were
groovilating! Phtos by Neil Segal
6/30/21
Piano trio at Annarella Ristorante in
Saugerties, NY with Rich Syracuse and Jeff
Siegel
6/26/21
Back home where we wrapped up the
Vaccinating Rhythm Tour at the newly
renovated Bearsville Theater in Woodstock,
NY. Great to have a hometown crowd
come out, and great to have a terrific stage
and sound situation thanks to our friend
Robert Frazza and his crew. For the
past 3 weeks, we've been hearing and seeing
over and over how exuberant folks are at
being able to finally get out and hear live
music again. For us, there are no
words to express how great we feel about
performing live again after 15 months of
purgatory. Our heartfelt thanks to
everyone who came out to hear us, to the 8
venues that hosted us and to their crews who
made us look and sound good, and to our
agent/manager/merchandise guru and friend
Leonardo Pavkovic who put the tour together
and kept it running smoothly.
Custom t-shirts and masks - it doesn't get
any classier than this!
6/20/21
First gig of a double header today: Brunch
jazz in the lounge at the newly renovated
Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, NY.
Love working with this rhythm section - Rich
Syracuse and Jeff Siegel - and a treat to
just walk into a venue and play their piano.
No amplifier schlepping!! Great photos
by our friend Neil Segal
6/20/21
After a long time down, Annarella Ristorante
in Saugerties, NY has resumed Wednesday
night jazz, and a few Sunday nights too to
make up a summer series. Played there
last night with a smokin' piano trio - Rich
Syracuse on bass and Jeff "Siege" Siegel on
drums. Bottom line, this is my
favorite kind of gig - winging it with no
set list, no rehearsing, just having a great
meal then seeing where the music takes us.
Live music is coming back, for sure.
6/18/21
After years of touring, this was our first
time in Syracuse, NY. The Westcott
Theater, perhaps more theater-like at one
time, is now a prog-rock type club with some
seating but mostly standing. Lack of
air-conditioning made it kind of funky.
But the upside is that clubs like this are
really focused on music and often have a
very good sound system and crew. The
Westcott does. The on-stage sound for
us was as good as we ever get. If you
don't count getting sweaty, it was a perfect
show.
6/17/21
Hudson Falls, NY at the Strand Theater.
Oddly, we had no plans for this June at all.
Then, a few months ago, The Strand contacted us
and asked if we'd come back. We built this
tour around that show. Its a wonderful
venue that also provides top notch hospitality
to visiting performers.
6/16/21
Returning to one of our favorite venues -
Daryl's House Club in Pawling, NY.
They do a great job with the sound and live
video streaming, and the food is great.
Still restricted as to audience size, but we
still had a great crowd. As always,
thanks to everybody who came out.
6/13/21
Returning to Kennett Flash, in
Kennett Square, PA.
This time out, instead of playing in the
club, concerts were being held on the upper
level of a huge parking garage, open to the
stars. Thunderstorms were predicted,
but they never happened. Wonderful
outdoor concert. We're doing all the
shows now wearing our Vaccinating Rhythm t-shirts.
Our friend and booking agent
Leonardo Pavkovic
6/12/21
Far down the shoreline in Lewes Delaware, we
played a charming room to a full house - The
Room At Cedar Grove. Stage smaller than
what we're used to, so a bit cramped, but it all
worked out nicely. Good show Nice
people. Many thanks to our host, chef and
music enthusiast Paul Cullen.
6/10/21
Great returning to this beautiful theater in
Sellersville, PA - great capacity crowd, great
stage and sound crew - that's the stuff that
makes a traveling band happy! We've
decided to wear our VACCINATING RHYTHM TOUR
t-shirts on stage for a while. Lots of
folks buying them after the show. We love
that too!
Leonardo at the merch table - and
a nice lady with her new Vaccinating Rhythm tour
shirt!
6/9/21
The Levin Bothers VACCINATING RHYTHM TOUR kicks
off with a show at the Falcon in Marlboro, NY.
We love this very special venue. We played
to a capacity crowd who snapped up many
t-shirts. Hoping we have enough to last
the tour! Thanks to everybody who came
out. Now, off to Pennsylvania.
Photos by our friend Neil Segal
6/6/21
Sunny (hot!) afternoon in Woodstock Village.
Played an afternoon show on the Colony's
outdoor stage with singer Lisa Markley.
Lou Pappas on bass and Matt Garrity on
drums. Lisa's teriffic. This was
my first gig with her - hopefully there'll
be more soon.
6/2/21
First jazz gig of 2021 - and many more to
come! Back at Annarella, my favorite
local hang for years, to kick off the
Wednesday night jazz series - this with
bassist Rich Syracuse and drummer Jeff
"Siege" Siegel. The whole music scene
is exploding everywhere. Great to be
back!
5/6/21
New project with jazz vocalist Teri Roiger
and a new band, "Sharp 5 Quintet" doing
Latin-flavored jazz. Teri, Pete,
bassist John Menegon, drummer Jeff Siegel,
and featuring percussionist Nanny Assis.
Our first live gig - and my first in a long
time - and Cafe Lena in Saratoga Springs,
NY.
5/1/21
First live gig in 7 months! Organ trio
with Mike DeMicco and Jeff "Siege" Siegel.
Just a house concert with a small but
appreciative audience, but it was great to
be back playing live - and a glorious day to
be outdoors. Photos by Lisa Saalfield
and Rudy Lu
4/13/21
Video shoot for the Holocaust Survivor Song
Project with Woodstock singer/songwriter
Michael Veitch at the historic, newly renovated
Bearsville Theater. For the same video
session, I also played piano for Judy Kass,
doing a song I had previously recorded for her.
In the 2nd photo below, Michael caught me doing a
candid selfie and photobombed it. In the
bottom row, producer Julie Last and I.
11/11/20
Groovin' with the Teri Roiger Quartet at
Annarella, possibly the last one we'll be able
to do until next year. Chilly, but totally
manageable. Teri on vocals, with bassist
John Menegon, drummer Jeff Siegel and me.
11/4/20
The Teri Roiger Quartet, on the patio at
Annarella, under a full moon and a gorgeous
clear winter sky. A little chilly, but
you can see that we're dressed for it.
10/28/20
The music continues on the patio at
Annarella with the Teri Roiger Quartet.
Teri backed by bassist John Menegon, drummer
Jeff Siegel, and myself on Piano. A
bit chilly, but totally enjoyable.
10/14/20
Piano trio at Annarella Ristoranti with
bassist Lou Pappas and drummer Peter
O'Brien. Nice playing with these 2
guys - they make it easy. Not quite so
nice, the temperature drops quite a bit
between starting at 6:30 and finishing up
around 9:00 Not sure how much
longer we can keep this. Still no
practical (or legal) way to move it indoors.
Don't know how lond we can keep this up.
10/09/20
Organ trio at Annarella Ristoranti in
Saugerties, NY - with guitarist Mike DeMicco
and drummer Jeff "Siege" Siegel. A bit
chilly, but not so you'd notice.
Anyway, they've got these big propane
heaters on the patio that keep everybody
comfy.
10/3-4/20
Recording at Dreamland Studio in Woodstock,
NY for Andy Toomey's album project. My
favorite rhythm section - my brother Tony on
bass and Jerry Marotta on drums. It
doesn't get more solid than that!
Special treat for me is Dreamland's
collection of vintage keyboard instruments.
I had my choice of some exotic
instruments, but with time a factor I went
with the conventional ones. We laid
down 11 basic tracks in 2 days. Its
gonna be a good one.
Happiness is when they set
you up a keyboard "station"
singer/songwriter Andy
Toomey
Jerry Marotta
Tony Levin
My favorite sweatshirt:
"Celebrating 25 years of lousy car advice"
9/30/20
Back on the patio at Annarella in
Saugerties, NY with vocalist Teri Roiger and
bassist John Mennegon. Tuesday's
rainstorm had moved on, leaving us with a
clear sky and a bright, full moon. Its
getting chilly on these fall evenings
though. Not sure how long this weekly
gig will continue. Photo: Siouxanne
Harris
9/24/20
Public concert in Schenectady, NY with
drummer Cliff Brucker's "Full Circle" -
organ trio with guitarist Chad McLoughlin
and myself. Perfect day to be doin' it
outdoors. Great that this kind of
thing is happening in Schenectady.
Nice town!
9/12/20
The Levin Brothers do a fun local jam at our
favorite local watering hole, Keegan Ales in
Kingston, NY. Just a trio - Tony,
Pete and Jeff Siegel. We hadn't done a
show since January, so some of our originals
were a bit shaky. But it was great to play
live for a couple of hours. Great local
crowd, great Middle Eastern food, and of course
our favorite beer, "Mother's Milk" Photos
by our friend Neil Segal.
9/3/20
Finally getting to a long overdue overhaul to my
studio. My son Paul is up for the long
weekend, and masterminding the job. Paul
is a highly skilled video and audio editor, and
he knows PCs and Protools inside out. 2
long days so far. The room is a wreck, but
it looks like everything is functional, or close
to it. Back at it tomorrow, trouble
shooting and cleaning up. Still many hours
work to go getting my keyboard and sampler gear
interfaced with the recording systems, but its
looking good!
The client
couch is a bit cluttered. OK, so I'm not
finished yet.
8/26/20
The Levin-DeMicco-Siegel organ trio, on the
patio at Annarella Ristoranti in Saugerties, NY.
I played here in a Wednesday night jazz series
for a long time. They've been doing
outdoor dining on their new patio, and just now
started the jazz Wednesdays up again.
Obviously good-weather dependent, so we're not
sure how long it will last. But its great
to be back playing at what is my favorite
restaurant in the Hudson Valley.
8/8/20
The Levin-DeMicco-Siegel organ trio - after
5 months of quarantining with no live music, its
really great to be back to playing live.
Lydia's Cafe in Stone Ridge, NY - well set up
for outdoor dining and hanging picnic-style on
the lawn. Terrific crowd came out,
actually more than th was table seating
available for. Live music is slowly coming
back to the Hudson Valley.
Photos below by Lisa Saalfield and Samantha Levin
Pete, Jeff "Siege" Siegel, Mike DeMicco
3/9/20
The Levin-DeMicco-Siegel organ trio, groovilating
at Quinn's in Beacon, NY. The 2nd of
our whirlwind 4-city world tour. Photo
by James Keepnews
3/7/20
The Levin-DeMicco-Siegel organ trio,
groovilating at Lydia's in Stone Ridge, NY.
The first of our whirlwind 4-city world
tour. Love playing at this intimate
restaurant. Owner Mark Usvolk has
built the place into one of the best small
music venues in the area.
Photos by our friends Rita Ryan and Neil
Segal.
2/14/20
Vocalist Roseann Sureda at The Beverly in
Kingston, NY. Backing trio - Peter
O'Brien, Ari Goldstein and Pete
2/7/20
Jazz piano trio in Albany, NY at Grappa '72
with Rich Syracuse and Jeff Siegel.
This is how it started. Headed for New
York City for the 1st show.
11/25/19
Rehearsing for the upcoming Levin Brothers
tour. Photos by
Avraham Bank
11/6/19
Guitarist John Cariddi joined John Menegon
and I for an evening of trio jazz at
Annarella. Cariddi and I have been
playing together for many years, including
recordings and European tours with my organ
trios. Great to have him come up for
this laid-back gig. Making the evening
more special, a couple of good friends sat
in with us - vocalist Janice Hardgrove and
trumpeter Chris Pasin. We were groovin'!
Our friend Rudy Lu took these great photos.
(That's what he does!)
10/23/19
Trio at Annarella Ristoranti in Saugerties,
NY - with trumpeter Chris Pasin and Jim
Curtin on bass. Photo by Kath Oliger
10/18/19
The annual Parker Brothers Extravaganza with
The Levin Brothers and Vito Petroccitto.
This amazing family of world-class drummers
- Chris, Eric, Tony, Nick and their father
Bob - throw this annual celebration at The
Falcon in Marlboro, New York, one of our
favorite Hudson Valley venues. 4 bands
and many special guests, playing to a
sold-out house. The headlining band
had Vito Petroccitto fronting a quintet with
Chris and Eric drumming and Tony and I.
Great evening - lots of fun!
Tony, Pete, Chris, Vito,
Eric
Setting the stage up -
lots of drums!
Tim Moore & Pete - Tony
Parker, Eric Parker & Tony Levin in back
My office today
Tony Parker, Eric Parker &
Tony Levin
Eric Parker & Vito
Eric Parker & Tony
Nick Parker & Vito
Tony
Tony Parker
David Laks
c
Pete, Chris, Eric
10/12/19
Lydia's Cafe in Stone Ridge, NY: Organ trio
with Mike DeMicco and Jeff "Siege" Siegel
10/9/19
Jazz Wednesdays continue at Annarella
Ristoranti in Saugerties, NY. Joining
Pete this
week, guitarist Mike Jackson and bassist Lou
Pappas
10/2/19
Jazz Wednesdays continue at Annarella
Ristoranti in Saugerties, NY. Joining
Pete this
week, guitarist Jeff Ciampa and bassist Lou
Pappas
9/18/19
Jazz Wednesdays continue at Annarella
Ristoranti in Saugerties, NY. This
week, vocalist Teri Roiger & bassist John
Menegon
9/7/19
Organ trio night at The Wherehouse in
Newburgh, NY - a very hip neighborhood bar
and restaurant with great food and live
music. Hard groovin' trio with
guitarist Mike Jackson and drummer Jeff
"Siege" Siegel - and of course, my new
Hammond SKX was on the gig. Love it!
9/4/19
Jazz Wednesdays continue at Annarella
Ristoranti in Saugerties, NY. This
week, trumpet player Chris Pasin joined Lou
Pappas and I. Nice surprise to have
German saxophonist Julia Banholzer sitting
in. We've been getting more of that
these days, people sitting in. There's
no PA, but several singers who come up sing
a tune or two. So by necessity its low
volume acoustic, intimate. Love it.
Joining us recently - Janice Hardgrove,
Sarah Fimm, Lindsey Webster, Bruce Milner.
Pete and Bruce Milner
8/11/19 The Hudson Valley
Jazz Festival, at The Rustic
Wheelhouse in Chester, NY,
formerly the famouse Bodles
Opera House.
Nice quartet with Rob Paparozzi
on vocals and harmonica, John Menegon on bass, and Jeff Siegel
on drums.
Rob Paparozzi,
Pete, John Menegon, Jeff Siegel
8/9/19 The Hudson Valley Jazz Festival, at
Warwick Valley Winery with the Jeff Ciampa
Group. Jeff on guitar, Dave Mann
on sax, Bob Meyer on drums, and me with my
brand new Hammond SKX organ. UPS
delivered it at 11am this morning. At
2pm it was in my car and heading for
Warwick. At 6pm it was doing its first
gig; I'd only had it for 7 hours!
8/7/19 Trio jazz at Annarella Ristoranti in
Saugerties, NY with guitarist Mike DeMicco
and bassist Lou Pappas
7/25/19 Sometimes they're easy:
Jeff Ciampa and I playing jazz duo by the
Riverfront in West New York, NJ. (Who
thought up that name?!?) Amazing view
of the NYC skyline in back of us. Our
friend Kath Oliger books the summer music
series there, and hooked us up. Wonder
what apartments are renting for around
there. Better not to ask ..
Kath crashing a band photo.
(Oh, wait. She's taking the
photo. Never mind ...)
July 19-21 Spent a long weekend in Buffalo,
NY area, hanging out, listening to music and
playing 3 gigs. I haven't been in
Buffalo for many years, and never got to
hang out there. Its a great music town
- music everywhere and great players.
I got to meet and play with several of them
this past weekend.
The 3rd venue is very unusual. The historic
"Colored Musicians Club" goes back over 100 years to an
era when the Buffalo musicians' union was still
segregated. Local and famous touring black
musicians had no place to hang out after their regular
gigs. So the CMC was born, becoming home to years of
legendary late-night jam sessions. Today, the name
seems socially and politically incorrect, but its been a
fixture in Buffalo and nobody seems to object to it.
PAUSA ART HOUSE
BUFFALO, NY
with Joe Goehle (bass) and Joe Goretti
(drums)
LACKAWANNA BLUES FESTIVAL
the Willie May Band
COLORED MUSICIANS CLUB
BUFFALO, NY
with Joe Goretti (drums), Mark Harris (bass)
& Stu Weissman (guitar)
7/14/19 The Paparozzi/Levin/Tropea/Marotta
quartet returns to The Falcon in Marlboro,
NY for a fun-filled jazz/blues brunch.
This mini -all-star quartet basically gets
together once or twice a year and does a
relaxed, unstructured gig that's a ball.
Audience sings along ... the whole bit.
With Rob Paparozzi and John Tropea both currently touring
with the Blues Brothers Band, sometimes
we'll wing something from that repertoire.
The photos are all by our friend
Ed Conway.
5/31/19 A virtually unannounced casual
Levin Brothers gig in our back yard at the
amazing Annarella Ristoranti. A final
hit before Tony takes off on tour with King
Crimson. Tony, Jeff and I doing some quiet
jazz in the lounge, then tying into some of
the best Italian cuisine in the Hudson
Valley. Advertising wasn't necessary -
it was a packed house.
5/27/19 NYC arranger Lisa Maxwell has
been working on her dream big-band recording
project for over a year. The album,
"Shiny," is dedicated to our old friend Lew
Soloff. The sessions and the live show
at the Cutting Room featured dozens of first
string NYC players. Great hang - and a blast to come into town and
play with the old gang. The place was packed,
actually the biggest crowd I've ever seen at the Cutting
Room. The band was smokin! Great job, Lisa!
On stage - I'll never get them all: Lisa, Blue Lou
Marini, Ada Rovatti, Randy Brecker, Tony Kadleck, Roger
Rosenberg, Lawrence Feldman, Dave Mann, Tom Malone, Dan
Levine, Dave Taylor, Andy Ezrin, Carmen Staaf, Leni
Stern, Oz Noy, Ben Perowsky, Danny Gottlieb, Steve Wolf,
Beth Gottieb, Will Lee, Claire Daly ... and more that I
can't think of now.
Yes, this is a club!
Big video screen for folks in the nosebleed
seats.
Lisa conducting and part of
the horn section.
There were rotating rhythm
section players. Here - Steve Wolf,
Will Lee, Oz Noy and Andy Ezrin.
Another rhytm section - Danny
Gottlieb, Will Lee, Leni Stern, and Beth
Gottlieb's shoulder on the right
No way I could get everyone
in the photo.
One goofy selfie shot:
DJ/music journalist Ken Dashow, Beth
Gottlieb, Pete, Danny Gottlieb
3/29/19 After shows in Northampton
Mass and Brookline, New Hampshire, we
wrapped up this March tour in
Schenectady, NY at The Van Dyck Music
Hall. We've played this venue many
times over the years - good to be back.
And we're loving this new quartet with
guitarist David Spinozza!
Pete, Jeff Siegel, David Spinozza, Tony
3/16/19 The Levin Brothers tour
continued in our own back yard,
something that happens rarely.
Part of the "Jazzstock" concert series,
promoted by Teri Roiger and John Menegon,
the show was at the old Senate Garage in
the historic Kingston Stockade district.
- a beautiful and unique performance
space. We were fortunate to have
two of our friends in the audience who
are terrific photographers, Rudy Lu and
Neil Segal. Here are some of their
shots, along with some amazing ones by
Tony.
3/9/19
The Levin Brothers Band, kicking off a
handful of shows in the Northeast, this was
the first - 2 nights at The Jazz Forum in
Tarrytown, NY. For these 6 gigs, we're
joined by master guitarist David Spinozza,
making it a new, exploratory experience for
Tony Jeff and I. Lots of fun! We
played 2 shows each on Friday and Saturday
nights to great audiences, 2 of the shows
sold out. We usually don't use an
acoustic piano, even if there's one at the
venue. But they just got a brand new
Steinway in, and its a killer! Had to
go for it. The Forum is a beautiful
jazz venue, being well-run. Not many
of those left.
Pete, David Spinozza, Jeff
Siegel, Tony
Friday soundcheck.
Couldn't resist a selfie with the Steinway.
Between songs - view from the
bridge
3/1/19
Kingston, NY @ BSP - CD release show with
vocalist Roseann Sureda, "Its Called Love."
Roseann and a 6-piece band played to a
packed house at this performance venue in
Kingston. Pete, John Cariddi - guitar,
Eric Person - sax, Scott Petito - bass, Jeff
"Siege" Siegel - drums, and Nanny Assis -
percussion.
Backstage L to R: John
Cariddi, Nanny Assis, Pete, Roseann, Scott
Petito, Eric Person, Jeff Siegel
2/9/19
Stone Ridge, NY @ Lydia's Cafe. Nice
set with the Teri Roiger Trio with special
guest, saxophonist George Deleon.
2/6/19
Back home after the tour and back to the
regular routines. Un-jetlagged just in
time to do a trio gig in Woodstock with
bassist Rich Syracuse and drummer Jeff
"Siege" Siegel.
2/2
Scottsdale, Arizona at The Scottsdale Center
For the Arts. A final double bill with
Soft Machine at this beautiful theater, and
the last show on our West Coast tour.
Flying back to Newark tomorrow, hopefully in
time to catch the 2nd half of the Super
Bowl.
2/1 In
Mexicali, Mexico @ Bol Bol. An unusual
venue to say the least. We had some
trouble navigating our way to the stage - a
sort of "Spinal Tap" moment. On a
whim, I pulled out my cell phone and
captured it on video.
1/29 & 30
The Baked Potato - Los Angeles, California.
Wonderful intimate club, the Potato is the only
true jazz venue on this whole tour. Its a
pretty special place. All over the U.S.,
clubs like this one are disappearing, which is a
sad and bitter loss for the jazz world and the
art form. We played 4 sold-out shows over
the two nights, and had a ball.
1/25/19
Flynn's - Santa Cruz, California. A double
billing with the British Band "Soft Machine"
Front window display. We're on there,
along with the "Girl's Night Out" dancers, a
Jerry Garcia tribute band, Red Dog Ash, Wild
Child" ... I don't think it's a jazz club.
Cleanhead photo-op: Tony, music
journalist Anil Prasad, Pete, Soft Machine
bassist Roy Babbington
1/24/19
Freight & Salvage - Berkeley, California.
A double billing with the British Band "Soft
Machine"
1/23/19
Tsakapolous Arts Center - Sacramento, Calfornia
1/20-21/19
The Levin Brothers West Coast tour started with
two sold-out shows at the charming Arcata
Playhouse in Arcata, California. Wonderful
venue, great sound, terrific audiences - and we
found a killer breakfast place in Arcata.
Great way to start a tour!
12/7/18
The 7th annual Christmas for Veterans
concert, organized and MC'd by Bill Edwards
in Peekskill, NY at the Paramount Theater.
Once more it was the 13-piece Westchester
All-Stars house band, with vocalists Bill
Edwards, Vaneese Thomas, Duchess Di, Maryann
Renza, Kathy Policastro and Tom Dudley -
plus special guests John Sebastian and Gene
Cornish. The packed theater audience
included many uniformed servicemen and many
veterans, some from WW2 - one of them a
Pearl Harbor survivor. A high spot for
me was accompanying Vaneese Thomas singing
the National Anthem while flanked by a
Marine color guard. It was a terrific
evening.
Pianist Scott Staton & me
on organ, horn players Stefan Waldman, Sal
Lagonia, Mark Swigart, John Lissauer, Marc
Belladino, Roy Victor, Tony Gorruso,
vocalists Kathy Policastro, Maryann
Renza,Duchess Di, Bill Edwards, Andy Foster,
Tom Dudley, Paul Opelach, Wayne Warnecke,
Kristen Capolino and Rick Agosta
11/18/18
Jazz vocalist Maiko Hata celebrating her
debut CD release in Kingston, NY at
Backstage Productions Theater with my
favorite Hudson Valley rhythm section and
featuring saxophonist Eric Person.
Photos by our friend
Neil Segal
L to R: Charlie
Schikowitz, Maiko Hata, Eric Person, Jeff
Siegel, John Menegon, Pete
11/14/18
Late night jam at Catskill Mountain Pizza in
Woodstock, NY. Woodstock proving again
that its really "Music City." The
regular Wednesday night jazz gig is anchored
by drummer Jeff Siegel and bassist Rich
Syracuse. This week was different.
Jim Curtin was on bass with Woodstock
guitarist Peter Einhorn. Sitting in - me,
George DeLeon on sax, and special guest
Brazilian percussionist Emilio Martins, who
was in town for a few days. It was
groovilatin!
Pete, George DeLeon, Peter
Einhorn, Jim Curtin, Emilio Martins, Jeff
Siegel
11/11/18
Rob Paparozzi & Friends, back at The Falcon
in Marlboro, NY for a Jazz/Blues/Whatever
brunch. Rob on harmonica and vocals,
John Carridi on guitar, Lee Finkelstein on
drums, and me on the house's Hammond B-3.
Pete, Lee Finkelstein, Rob
Paparozzi, John Cariddi
11/3/18
Chester, NY at The Rustic Wheelhouse.
Drummer Jeff Siegel and I played a nice,
straight-ahead organ trio with Mike Jackson,
a wonderful jazz guitarist, plus featured
guest vocalist Nicole Pasternak. The
Wheelhouse used to be the famous Bodle's
Opera House, a venue I'd played several
times over the years. It's been
completely redone and is now a great Italian
restaurant. They've only recently
started having live music. Wishing
them the best of luck.
Mike Jackson, Pete, Nicole
Pasternak, Jeff Siegel
10/12/18
Reelin' In The Years returns to The Falcon
in Marlboro, NY, celebrating the music of
Steely Dan. The 11-piece band played a
2-hour set to a packed house. People
were literally dancing in the aisles!
Love this music! Excellent photos by
our friend Neil Segal.
L to R: John Cariddi,
Pete , Dave Andrews, Joey Eppard, Jerry
Marotta, Janice Hardgrove, Chris Eminizer,
Don Mikkelson, Chris Pasin, Jay Collins,
Matt Finck.
2017-2018
The Teri Roiger Trio, Teri, bassist John
Menegon and I; Realized that we've
been doing this Wednesday night gig for a
year and a half! Why? It's easy, Teri
and John are the greatest people, the music
is beautiful, we get to play quietly in the
intimate lounge at Annarella, and we eat
dinner before we play. The food is
probably the best Italian cuisine in the NY
Hudson Valley. If you're anywhere
nearby, join us on one of these Wednesdays.
We have folks coming down from Albany (1
hour drive) for this. Occasionally we
have someone interesting sit in. Last
week, recording artist Roseann Sureda.
The week before, Dr. Bruce Milner sang his
top-40 mega hit from the '60s (We did
a Bossa Nova groove.) It's like that.
Here's some odds and ends photos:
Pete, Teri & John
Pete & John with jazz
trumpet player Chris Pasin
The trio, with the very
remarkable Doctor George DeLeon
MOBIUS BAND - RECORDING AND LIVE
Saturday,
August 11th: The Mobius band in Warwick, NY
for the Hudson Valley Jazz Festival.
Scheduled as an outdoor concert on the
Warwick Village Green, the weather was
uncooperative. So we moved indoors to
the spacious and beautiful Warwick Reformed
Church.
Friday,
August 10th: The Mobius band in
Montclair, New Jersey @ Trumpets Jazz Club
Tuesday,
August 7th: Recording with master
percussionist Nanny Assis for his new album.
At Scott Petito's NRS Studio with Nanny and
Tony Levin on bass.
Saturday,
July 28: Jazz vocalist Kitt Potter put
together a program based on the history of
black and gay American performers who moved
to Paris to find work and get a decent life.
The show, at the historic Maverick Concert
Hall in Woodstock, NY, featured Kitt backed
by a nice quartet - bassist Ira Coleman, sax
player Joe Giardullo, percussionist Arti
Disxon, and myself on piano. (The
Maverick's 7-foot Yamaha grand - love
that!!) Also featured was Poet Gold,
who joined us for some improvised pieces.
It was a beautiful evening.
Sunday, July
22nd: Reelin' In The Years in Pawling, NY at
Daryl's House.
After playing an amphitheater yesterday,
fitting 12 players on the stage at Daryl's
was a challenge. Love this club!
For our two
weekend gigs, we were joined by drummer Rick
Marotta, Jerry's brother. That's a
pretty serious groove! Making it more
special, Rick is the
drummer on many
of Steely Dan's recordings.
Joey Eppard
Lindsey Skeye
Pete
Jerry Marotta
Matt Finck
Jesse Gress
Rick Marotta
Jennifer Maidman
Chris Eminizer, Chris
Pasin, Don Mikkelson, Ken Gioffre
Pete with Jerry & Rick
Marotta
Saturday,
July 21st: Reelin' In The Years in
Schenectady, NY at the Rivers Casino
Amphitheater. For our two weekend
gigs, we were joined by drummer Rick
Marotta, Jerry's brother. That's a
pretty serious groove! Making it more
special, Rick is the
drummer on many
of Steely Dan's recordings.
Friday, June
29th. "Reelin' In The Years" an
all-star Woodstock band doing all Steely Dan
material in Marlboro, New York at The
Falcon. We did a 140-minute show to a
capacity crowd. Folks who couldn't
find seating were literally dancing in the
isles. It's a great band doing really
great music. Two shows coming up later this
month, in Schenectady and in Pawling, New
York.
L to R: Pete, Jesse Gress,
Dave Anderson, Lindsey Skye, Jerry Marotta,
Chris Eminizer, Don Mikkelson, Joey Eppard,
Chris Pasin, Jay Collins, Matt Finck.
Tuesday,
June 19th - The Mobius Band in New York City
at Iridium. Always a thrill to play
this beautiful, classic NYC venue. The
band - the usual suspects - was smokin!
These photos taken by our friend Leonardo
Pavkovic.
L to R: Pete, Alex Foster,
Jeff Ciampa, Chris Pasin,
Nanny Assis, Ira Coleman, Lenny White
Wednesday,
June 13th - The Mobius Band in Pawling, New
York at Daryl's House Club. This was
the first of four shows the band is doing
this summer in the NYC Metro area. We
don't play that often and never rehearse, so
there's a great factor of spontaneity - same
music, but each show is different.
Next up, New York City @ Iridium. Love
this band!!
L to R: Pete, Chris Pasin,
Alex Foster, Jeff Ciampa,
Nanny Assis, Ira Coleman, Lenny White.
Friday, June
8, in South Salem, NY @ Brother Vic's, my
first gig in the keyboard chair with "Reelin'
In The Years," an all-star band out of
Woodstock that does all Steely Dan music.
Led by drummer Jerry Marotta, the band
features lead vocalist Joey Eppard and
master guitarists Jesse Gress and Matt
Finck. That plus a killer horn
section. Looking forward to many more
dates with this band. We have 2 coming
up in July that will include Jerry's brother
Rick Marotta, who is the drummer on many of
Steely Dan's hit recordings. (Yup, 2
drummers!)
L to R: Pete, Jesse Gress,
Zoe Zeeman, Joey Eppard, Jerry Marotta,
Matt
Finck, Lindsey Skye, Chris Eminizer, Chris
Pasin, Bill Harris
Sunday, June
3rd in Schenectady, NY @ Van Slykes at the Rivers Casino
with Cliff Brucker's Full Circle Sextette, featuring
Dylan Canterbury and Leo Rossi
4/23
& 24 Composer/arranger Lisa Maxwell
recording her new album "Shiny" at Sear
Sound in New York City. Lisa used a
big lineup of A-string NYC studio players
going back many years, so the sessions had
the atmosphere of a happy reunion.
Just a few - Randy Brecker, Tony Kadleck,
Blue Lou Marini, Alex Foster, Lawrence
Feldman, Roger Rosenberg, Dave Taylor, Paul
Shaffer, Oz Noy, Leni Stern, Will Lee, Mark
Egan, Ben Perowsky, Steve Wolf, Danny
Gottlieb, etc ... Walter Sear was one
of the pioneers of the electronic music
scene, having one of 3 modular Moog
synthesizers in New York. Walter build
Sear Sound for his own use, and ultimately
as a commercial recording facility.
These days, it's one of the last major
studios in Manhattan that could handle a
session this size. The album will be
dedicated to trumpeter Lew Soloff, a
longtime friend of Lisa's.
3/31/18
The
Möbius
Band's first gig this year at the
Jazz Forum in Tarrytown, NY. A
2-nighter, in fact: Friday March 30th and
Saturday March 31st. The band was smokin!
These photos from the 2nd night (31st)
First night photos below:
Alex Foster (sax), Chris Pasin (trumpet),
Jeff Ciampa (guitar), Nanny Assis
(percussion), Ira Coleman (bass, and Jeff "Siege"
Siegel (drums)
Jazz Forum owner & great
trumpet player sitting in with us; Mark
Morganelli
3/30/18
The
Möbius
Band did it's first gig this year at the
Jazz Forum in Tarrytown, NY. A
2-nighter, in fact. We're playing
there again tonight (Saturday the 31st).
It's been a few months since we did this.
A few minor train wrecks, but the band was
smokin!
Alex Foster (sax), Chris Pasin (trumpet),
Jeff Ciampa (guitar), Nanny Assis
(percussion), Ira Coleman (bass, and Lenny
White (drums)
3/11/18 Drummer/arranger Cliff
Brucker just released his latest CD, "Full
Circle, vol 2" which I got to play on a few
months ago. Celebrating the release,
Cliff did a CD release show at Van Slykes in
the Rivers Casino in Schenectady, featuring
the full band from the recording: Dylan
Canterbury (trumpet), Leo Russo (sax), Mike
Novakowski (guitar), Otto Gardner (bass),
Cliff and me. Photos by our good
friend
Rudy Lu.
WCDB's jazz maven, Bill
McCann was in the house.
Speaking of the house,
this isn't exactly the typical view from the bandstand
January 2018 Spent a week in China,
rehearsing and doing a 5-city tour with
bassist/vocalist Zhang Ling. Ling had
recorded his last album here in New York
with American musicians. It was tricky
working out getting there to play live with
him, but we pulled it off. It was my
first time in China. It's a pretty
amazing place!
Zhang "Big John" Ling
Robin Liu
Jason Coffey
Tour kickoff at the Blue Note in Beijing
Ling, Leonardo Pavkovic, Pete
Post-show: Band with audience photo
January 2018. The Levin Brothers
Band in Japan: Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya and
Osaka.
The band with our Japanese promoter, Masa
Goto
Nagoya @ Star Eyes: Pete, Erik Lawrence,
Jeff Siegel, Tony
Osaka @ Banana Hall: Soundcheck
Pete and Masa Goto
Tokyo @ Blues Alley
Pete and Leonardo Pavkovic, waiting for the
Bullet Train to Osaka
Yokohama @ Motion Blue: Soundcheck
Tokyo
January 2018. The Levin Brothers
Band hits the road for 6 gigs in the U.S.,
then on to Japan. Photos below, taken
by
Avraham Bank, are from our show at the Ramshead in Annapolis, MD.
1/13/18 Blues Brothers Band
frontman Rob Paparozzi fronting a jazz
quintet at Mohonk Mountain House for the
19th annual WBGO Jazz Festival. Rob on
vocals and harmonica, Dave Stryker - guitar,
Sue Williams - bass, Warren Odze - drums,
and me on piano and organ. We had 'em
dancin' in the isles!
12/30/17 Last gig of 2017:
Organ trio with guitarist Mike DeMicco and
drummer Jeff Siegel at Maureen's, an
intimate jazz club in Nyack, NY.
12/29/17 Gospel vocalist
Rene Bailey's CD release show at the Falcon
in Marlboro, NY. A 15-piece ensemble
laid down backup for Rene's album "Good Old
Songs." I was on Hammond organ
for the date, along side Reverend Lee Stowe
playing piano. Lee is the real deal -
a treat for me to play with him.
Except for a couple of lame shots taken with
my phone, photos were taken by Neil Segal.
Pete, Lee Stowe, Rene, Dave
Winograd
Taken at soundcheck
12/1/17 Bill Edwards & the
Westchester All-Stars, with special guests,
The Vanilla Fudge - the annual Christmas For
Wounded Veterans concert. Bill's been
doing this for 6 years; this is my 3rd,
playing organ in the "house" band, backing a
terrific lineup of vocalists. The
Fudge is celebrating it's 50th year -
amazing! And they're killin' it!
For the show finale, we all joined them on
stage to do their arrangement of "Silent
Night" - rockin' out, 'cause that's what
they do! Photos by Steve Giacobello
Mark Stein, Pete, Kathy
Polocastro, Dianne Cricchio, Maryanne Renza,
Vince Martell, Corrin Huddleston, Carmine
Appice, Tom Dudley, Bill Edwards, Pete Bremy,
Kristen Capolino, Santa Claus, Andrew
Foster. (I probably missed a couple)
Bill Edwards
Vanneese Thomas sings the
National Anthem
Tom "Blues Buddah" Dudley
Scott Staten
Carmine Appice
Corrin Huddleston
Vanilla Fudge
Mark Stein
Vince Martell
Pete Bremy
Dianne Cricchio
Kathy, Santa, Maryanne
11/12/17
Tony and I
are working with
Scott
Petito,
mixing the
upcoming
Levin
Brothers
Band Live CD
- to be
released in
December
2017 in time
for our East Coast
tour in
January.
Then we're
off to
Japan.
Stay tuned
...
11/8/17 CD release performance of
the
Möbius
album
in New York City at The Cutting Room. Pete, with
Lenny White, Alex Foster, Jeff Ciampa, Chris Pasin, Ira
Coleman & Nanny Assis. We did a 2-hour
set for a very receptive audience. A
lot of complex music, and somewhat
under-rehearsed, the band was groovin' hard!
Sitting in with us, Joel Levine, an
incredible jazz recorder player.
Photos: Samantha Levin
L to R: Pete, Jeff Ciampa, Chris Pasin, Ira
Coleman,
Alex Foster, Nanny Assis, Lenny White
10/12/17 Myself and 2 other "special guests"
- Bill Edwards and The Rascals' Gene Cornish - joined
Kristen Capolino and her band to rock the
house in Marlboro, NY at The Falcon.
Kristen's a dynamo! Good vocalist and
slammin' guitarist. Standing room only
at the Falcon; not bad for a school night!
Bill, Gene, Kristen and I will all be taking
part in the annual concert for wounded
veterans in December at the Paramount
Theater in Peekskill, NY. More info
coming on that.
Pete, Devin Daversa, Chuck
Torres, Kristen, Gene Cornish, Andrew Foster
Kristen & the band with
Bill Edwards
10/8/17 To celebrate Thelonius Monk's
100th birthday year, vocalist Teri Roiger
and Jazzstock put together a concert at the
historic Senate Garage in Kingston, NY.
Teri and Judi Silvano were the featured
vocalists. It was an enthusiastic
response from a standing room only audience.
The band - Jay Collins on sax, John Menegon
on bass, and Jeff Siegel on drums.
Happy birthday, Monk! Photos by Neil
Segal
Pete, John Menegon, Teri
Roiger, Judi Silvano, Jeff Siegel, Jay
Collins
8/25/17 Nice trio gig in Great
Barrington, Mass. @ the Castle Street Cafe.
This jazz club has been around for decades.
I last played there sometime in the '90s.
New owner and new chef; otherwise, it hasn't
changed a bit. My bud Jerry Marotta
was playing drums. My first time
meeting bassist Fran Tokarz. Definite
family resemblance there. Made for a
nice Cleanhead photo-op.
8/19/17 Guitarist Jeff Ciampa hooked us up
with the Hudson Valley Jazz Festival in
Warwick, New York. It was a little
premature to debut the band from the new
album, and not enough dough to field the
7-man group, but it was a nice chance to
flex our muscles a bit. We did it as a
quintet - Jeff, Me, Alex Foster, Lenny
White, and the superb bassist Ira Colman
filling in for Tony Levin. It felt
pretty good. Lots of plans in the
works for this group. Stay tuned ...
Pete, Alex Foster, Jeff
Ciampa, Ira Coleman, Lenny White
8/16/17 The Teri Roiger Trio at
Annarella Ristorante - Teri, John
Menegon on bass, and me on piano. This
steady Wednesday night gig started a year
ago, and we're still at it. Sometimes
the lounge is crowded, sometimes not so
much. Sometimes some amazing people
sit in with us. One thing that never
changes - the Italian cuisine is fantastic.
We go early to eat a leisurely dinner before
we play. I can't even pick a menu
favorite. (But the Lasagna is killin!) If it
goes for another year, I won't complain.
The photo below, I was trying out a new
selfie stick. It works!
John Menegon,
Teri Roiger, Pete
7/9/17
Just back from a few days, deep in the Catskills for the annual
TAOPP music camp. ("Three Of A Perfect
Pair") - the 3 being Tony Levin, Adrian
Belew and Pat Mastelotto, core members of
King Crimson 10 years ago. The guys have been hosting this event for
6 years. Amateur and pro musicians come
from all over the country to hang out and sit in with the guys for
5 days of great music and great food - a few even came
from Europe.
Tony and I hosted a jazz
jam, 4 hours of jazz standards with many "campers"
sitting in with the Levin Brothers. 99
campers! I took a few shots with my
phone, but the good photos are by
Avraham Bank.
In the Barn: Former King
Crimson members Adrian, Tony & Pat, plus
Julie Slick & Markus Reuter, rehearsing some
of the old repertoire.
Markus and Tony
That's a lot of friggin'
pedals!
This is why I drive an SUV
Full house in the bar:
jazz jam with the Levin Brothers
Getting ready for the
annual photo
Had to do a couple of
selfies!
TOAPP 2017. Can you
find me in the photo?
(Hint: in the selfies
above, I'm right next to Julie Slick.
You can't miss Julie's hair!)
7/17/17
Recording the Gil Evans Orchestra 2017.
The project continues at Avatar Studios in NYC. Players from
the band in the '70s and '80s led by Miles
Evans and recorded by Noah Evans.
We've been doing occasional sessions for the
past year or so. This is going to be
an amazing tribute album.
Studio A at Avatar
Control room.
Visible ... John Clark, Mark Egan, Kenwood
Dennard, Miles Evans, Birch Johnson, Noah
Evans, Shunzo Ohno, Alex Foster, Charles
Blenzig
The keyboard department -
Pete & Charles Blenzig
Alex Sipiagin, Kenwood,
Shunzo
Dave Taylor, Mark Egan,
Charles
7/3/17 Just spent 3 days in the studio with
Ryan Endris, music faculty and
choral director at Colgate
University. Working from very
old scores, Ryan resurrected a bunch
of choral music by 19th century
composer Antonio Juanas, scored it
for 8 voices and 4 musicians, and
brought the project to
Sonart Recording Studio in Mt.
Tremper, NY - and hired me to record
and mix the project. Beautiful
music performed by a terrific group
of musicians. I was lovin' it!
Album will be released later this
year. Stay tuned ...
Ryan & lead
soprano Jessica
Ryan, Sonart
Studio owner Ken Lovelett, Pete
Jessica selfies
the whole gang on the front steps at
Sonart.
Ryan's in the middle, Ken Lovelett
and I in back.
7/2/17
Folk/Rock singer songwriter and Woodstock
favorite Marc Black returns to the Bearsville Theater,
along with his band of regular suspects -
Pete, Don Davis,
Erik Parker and Mike Esposito.
6/21/17
Regular Wednesday night gig at Annarella
with Teri Roiger and John Menegon. We
were joined by veteran tenor sax player
George De Leon and vocalist Bruce Milner.
A popular dentist in Woodstock, NY in
another life, Bruce was singing on hit pop
records. He's out of the music biz now
- a wise man!
Bruce Milner, Teri Roiger,
Pete, John Menegon, George De Leon
5/23/17
The Levin Brothers at NRS Studio.
Working with engineer Scott Petito, recording
a track for the 2017 Christmas for Wounded
Veterans CD - engroovilating God Rest Ye
Merry Gentlemen.
Scott Petito, Jeff Siegel, Pete, Tony Levin,
Erik Lawrence
5/21/17
Rob Paparozzi and the Blues Farm all-stars,
back at The Falcon for a jazz/blues brunch.
OK, so we're not the best-dressed band in town, but we
do groove!
Pete, Jerry Marotta, Rob
Paparozzi, John Cariddi
5/20/17
The Levin Brothers band winds up its 2017
tour with a Hudson Valley hometown show at
one of our favorite venues - The Falcon, in
Marlboro, NY. Great
audience - full house, in fact. We loosened up and had a
ball.
5/20/17 Encore show in our own
back yard. Tony is home
for a few weeks, and we managed
to book a Saturday night at The
Falcon, one of our favorite
Hudson Valley venues.
Great turnout, great audience.
A nice way to end the tour.
Photos
below, taken by our friend
Al Cagan. Sorry to say
that we won't be able to
schedule anything until 2018,
but we're working on that.
To be continued ...
4/5/17 We're home - having
just played in NYC at Iridium
last night, winding up a 7-city
swing through the Northeast.
We recorded 3 of the shows and
are looking toward a live album
release later this year.
Meanwhile, we just added an
encore date - Saturday, May 20th
at
The Falcon in Marlboro, NY.
It was unexpected, but great to
be able to do it one more time
before Tony heads out on tour
with King Crimson. And we
love The Falcon!
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 shows.
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, set aside for
sightseeing. 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 Day off in Buenos
Aries. We did our last
show in Argentina last night.
Tomorrow, we say goodbye to the
band bus and fly to Le Paz,
Bolivia for our next show.
I looked it up: 12,000
feet above sea level.
That's way higher than Denver,
Colorado! We've been
jokingly asking for oxygen as
part of the back line.
Maybe not so much of a joke.
Stay tuned ...
3/14/17 It's a van tour now,
with our agent Leonardo and the
irrepressible road manager,
Max. All over Argentina. The
weather is beautiful, in
contrast to the news we're
getting from home - 2 feet of
snow in Woodstock so far!
3/10/17 Santiago, Chile.
Doing an open rehearsal &
informal concert at the Pro Jazz
music school today. Great
school. Kind of like
Santiago's version of the
Berklee School in Boston.
Photos
below.
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
Uruguay and the tour starts for
real. Photos here and on
the Levin Brothers site when
we've got 'em.
3/5/17 In
just a few days, we hit the
road! The Levin Brothers Band
- Tony, Pete, Erik Lawrence & Jeff
"Siege" Siegel - will be touring
starting this month in South
America, then back to New York
in April and the Northeast U.S. We
began last night in
our own Woodstock back yard.
Good chance to work out the
kinks, revisit a lot of the
material from our album, try
some new music, and say thanks
to our local Woodstock peeps. With four busy musicians, it's
been difficult aligning our
schedules to do this. But
it's a labor of love for us, and
we're all confirmed road-rats!
Along the way, we're going to
record live in Natick, MA and in
Rochester, NY, looking to come
out of it with a live album.
The final
itinerary is just below.
(Hopefully Trump won't institute
a ban on jazz musicians entering
the country before we get back!) You can click on the blue text
to visit the U.S. venues' websites. Hopefully,
one of the shows will in your 'hood. We'll be lookin' for
ya.
Band & tour info at
thelevinbrothers.com
4/30/17
Catskill, NY at the New York Restaurant.
Nice brunch organ trio jam, with guitarist
Jeff Ciampa, Drummer Peter O'brien and Chris
Pasin on trumpet.
LEVIN BROTHERS 2017
TOUR
Photo: Guillermo De La Fuente
4/2/17
New Hope, PA @ Havana
Photos: Avraham Bank
4/1/17 Rochester, NY
@ The Lovin' Cup
3/30/17 Natick, MA @
Center For The Arts
3/29/17 Pawling, NY @
Daryl's House
3/24/17 San Salvador, El
Salvador
Live on Radio
Fuego: Tony, Juan Martinez, Pete,
Leonardo Pavkovik
The Teatro Colon
in Mar Del Plata - beautiful, old
theater.
Photo: Guillermo De La Fuente
3/12/17 Montevideo,
Uruguay
3/10/17 Santiago, Chile.
Doing an open rehearsal &
informal concert at the Pro Jazz
music school today. Great
school. Kind of like
Santiago's version of the
Berklee School in Boston.
3/4/17 The 2017 Levin Brothers
Band tour kicks off with a local Woodstock, NY gig at
the intimate Rosendale Cafe. Tony and I , along
with Erik Lawrence and Jeff "Siege" Siegel. We've
done this every tour, started with a local gig to warm
up, get the kinks out or our set lists, and be back home
in 20 minutes. (No hotels, no travel expenses!) Revived
a lot of the repertoire from our album, and tried out
some new, adventurous material too. Packed house,
standing room only for both sets. Great way to
start a tour. Thanks to the photographers whose
shots I borrowed below - Samantha Levin, Rudy Lu and
Steve Czubara
12/26/16 Got a great group
of players up into the boonies for the first tracking
sessions for my new solo album. I've been writing
a lot - some conventional jazz and some experimental.
It's a treat to lay your charts in front of great
players and see what happens. I haven't done a
solo album like this in a long time - band, live in the
studio, no overdubbing. Here's the first batch of
photos, taken by my daughter Samantha.
Pete & Scott Petito
Lenny White
Jeff Ciampa
Tony Levin
Nanny Assis
Alex Foster
Chris Pasin
12/3/16 Singer/Songwriter
Marc Black's connection with Woodstock goes back for
decades. Around this time of year, he comes home
to the Bearsville Theater for one or two shows, that
more often than not turn into dance parties. Marc
tore the place up on Saturday. We're going to it
again on January 1st. The band was missing
keyboardist Warren Bernhardt. Warren is newly
cancer-free, but still hurting from the chemo. We
wish him the best and look forward to jamming with him
on New Year's Day.
12/2/16 Once again, I was
part of Bill Edwards' Westchester All-Stars annual
benefit concert for Wounded Veterans at the Paramount
Theater in Peeksill, NY. A big turnout to see this
terrific lineup. And once again, it was a big financial
success.
Bill Edwards
The amazing
Vaneese Thomas
Vaneese Thomas
Gene Cornish
Pete & Bill
Edwards
11/16/16 The Woodstock
area music series "Jazzstock" kicked off a new season
this past Friday night at an amazing new venue - the
"Senate Garage" in Kingston. Vocalist Teri Roiger
expanded her usual trio format to a sextet, being
featured as well as backing her vocals. Bassist
John Menegon and drummer Tony Jefferson rounded out the
rhythm section. Up front, Chris Pasin on trumpet
and Eric Person on sax.
11/5/16 Sometimes, rockin'
out in a packed neighborhood bar is the most fun.
Saturday night, we did just that - drummer Rob Wallis'
"Rhythm Method Band." Fronted by R&B vocalist
Curtis Winchester, the band features guitarist Gil
Parris and sax player Don Cipriano. And a special
guest, NY Yankees legend Bernie Williams - who also
happens to be a killin' guitarist!
L to R: Gil
Parris, Rob Wallis, Curtis
Winchester, Paul Brisbano, Pete,
Dan Cipriano, Bernie Williams
10/25/16 Promo video shoot
for Bill Edwards' Wounded Veterans Project. Bill
and the Westchester "All-Stars" rock the house at a huge
fund-raiser concert every December in Peekskill, NY.
This video shoot features Bill and guitarist Gene
Cornish, along with the band and a roomful of folks clad
in red. (Not my color, but I needed to blend.)
I even used my Nord C-1 organ for the shoot - the
"reddest" instrument I've got.
Pete, John
Cariddi, Gene Cornish
10/15/16 Joined blues
singer/guitarist
Albert Cummings's
trio for a terrific concert performance at the beautiful
'62 Theater For the Arts in Williamstown, Mass.
Albert lives in this sleepy college town. He tours
internationally, but has never performed here in his
hometown. Predictably, it was an enthusiastic
sell-out audience.
10/7/16 Reunion of sorts
with guitarist Lou Volpe at Showmans Jazz Club in New
York City. Lou and I go way back in the New York
studio scene; we're on each other albums and have played
together on other artists' projects. Showmans is a
small, vintage jazz club in Harlem that's been running
continuously since 1942, and it's still got that
old-school jazz vibe. Making it even nicer for me,
there's a good Hammond B-3 there, so ... no schlepping!
Also joining Lou were Woodstock bassist Rich Syracuse
and New York drummer John Cooksey.
9/11/16 Rob Paparozzi and
friends, back in Marlboro, NY at The Falcon for a Sunday
brunch show. Lee Finkelstein on drums and George
Naha on guitar. For the 2nd set, we were joined by
Rob's Blues Brothers bandmate Bobby Harden. The
two of them tore the place up! We were also joined by my
Woodstock neighbor, vocalist Janice Hardgrove.
Janice and I go back to the New York City studio scene
of the '70s and '80s.
Pete, Rob
Paparozzi, Bobby Harden, Lee
Finkelstein, George Naha
6/17/16
Spent 3 days in New York City this week, recording with
a band
of all-star alumni of the Gil Evans Orchestra.
Separate from my own "Monday Night Band" project, this
is being produced by Gil's sons, Noah and Miles.
We recorded several pieces that Gil arranged, but were
rarely or never recorded, as well as one of my own
compositions, "Subway", a piece I wrote for the band in
1986. Great New York brass section behind me there
- Shunzo Ohno, Jon Faddis, Dave Bargeron, Dave Taylor
and John Clark. Off camera to the right - Chris
Hunter, Alex Foster, Gary Smulyan. Made me smile!
7/27/16
Two updates on the weekly Wednesday night jazz at
Annarella Ristorante in Saugerties, NY I've been doing:
We've added acclaimed jazz vocalist Teri Roiger, an it's
now a regular Wednesday night gig. Veteran bassist
John Menegon (Dewey Redman, David “Fathead” Newman, Jack
DeJohnette, Sheila Jordan) is on the case.
Annarella is easily among the best Italian restaurants
in the Hudson Valley - relaxed atmosphere, excellent
food, and it's practically in my back yard. I'm
lovin' it! No cover charge. (The Fettucini
in Lobster Sauce is to die!)
7/16/16
Back at Brian's Backyard BBQ with one of my favorite jam
bands - Rob Paparozzi and the Blues Farm All-Stars.
Rob, John Tropea and I were joined by a couple of
special guests; drummer Vito Luizzi, a veteran of Johnny
Winter's band, and the amazing
Vaneese Thomas, who brought the house
down.
Pete, Rob Paparozzi, Vito
Luizzi, Vaneese Thomas, John Tropea
7/2/16
The Don Byron tour continued in Marlboro, NY
at The Falcon, easily our favorite Hudson
Valley venue.
6/25/16
Kicked off a 4-city tour with Don Byron and
an all-star group - an eclectic funk & soul
experience. (Only way I can describe
it.) Basically, we do a lot of Junior
Walker material, but anything else is game.
Don on sax, clarinet and vocals, the amazing
Dean Bowman on vocals, Zach Alford on drums,
Scott Petito on bass, and Matt Finck on
guitar. A nice crowd came out to
Helsinki in Hudson, NY, sang along, clapped
and grooved with us.
Photo: Gary McKeever
6/8-9/16
Spent a couple of days at Scott Petito's NRS Studio
doing tracks for vocalist Roseann Sureda's upcoming CD
release. Roseann is hustling to get these last 5
tunes done in time for her CD Release Show at the
Metropolitan Room in New York City next month.
Scott Petito, Roseann, Jerry
Marotta, Pete
Scott Petito
Jerry Marotta
Nanny Assis
Pete
Chris Pasin, Pete, Erik
Lawrence
6/5/16
Rob Paparozzi and The Blues Farm, back for another
Sunday brunch in Marlboro, NY @ The Falcon. A
gloomy rainy day produced a near capacity crowd that
inspired us to kick it up several notches. Some
renditions of Blues Brothers standards had folks dancing
in the aisles. Nice way to spend Sunday. Rob
on vocals and harmonica, the amazing John Tropea on
guitar, and Jerry Marotta on drums.
Photo: Ed Conway
Photo: Ed Conway
Photo: Ellen Armm
Photo: Ellen Armm
5/29/16
Joe Beesmer, who leads the Woodstock-based band "Uncle
Funk" has been having some medical issues and was short
on funds. So of course, a musical extravaganza was
in order. A great crowd came out for the 10-band
lineup at Keegan Ales, our favorite are watering hole.
Bassist Scott Petito assembled a terrific group to
headline the evening, then named it "The Inmates" and
Photoshopped the band PR photo below. (The band is
better than the photo!) Vocalists Leslie Ritter
and Amy Fradon, guitarist Mike DeMicco, drummer Eric
Parker, Scott on bass and me on keyboard. And of
course, Joe "Uncle Funk" Beesmer sittin' in.
L to R: Pete, Leslie
Ritter, Scott Petito, Amy Fradon,
Mike
DeMicco, Eric Parker, our agent
5/20/16
Kingston, NY @ Alley Cat. Celebrating her upcoming
CD release, this was Roseann Sureda's first live outing
with the backing trio from the album - bassist Scott
Petito and drummer Peter O'Brien. This is a brand
new, recently opened venue - nice, comfortable bar.
Wishing them well. Photo by Jimbo Marzano
5/18/16
Jazz on the Hudson - and BBQ! Good pickup jazz
group fronted by the iconic Lillie Howard. Me and
a few of my favorite Hudson Valley cats - guitarist Mike
Jackson, saxophonist Rich Maraday, and drummer Ernie
Colon. A couple of interesting points: Back
in the '60s, Lillie was part of the hit pop duo, "Billy
and Lillie." None of that on this gig though.
Ernie Colon - first time I've done a gig with him on
drums. Ernie is a killin' conga player, playing on
my "Certified Organic" CD and in the live quartet.
4/24/16
Vocalist Roseann Sureda and a nice trio doing the jazz
brunch at the New York Restaurant in Catskill, NY.
Rich Syracuse is on bass, Chris Pasin on trumpet.
Great restaurant with a really nice vibe to the room and
this teriffic Sunday jazz series that they're doing.
Check it out.
4/17/16
Rob Paparozzi & The Blues Farm All-Stars - back for a
jazz 'n blues brunch at our favorite venue, The Falcon
in Marlboro, NY. Rob, John Tropea, Lee Finkelstein
and me on the house's Hammond B3.
3/27/16
Jazz brunch at New York Restaurant, a wonderful new
Hudson Valley venue. Great food, and they have a
great jazz lineup every Sunday. Today was a trio
with virtuoso trumpet player and bassist John Menegon.
(Notice the absence of hair on the bandstand. This
should have been billed as the "Cleanhead Trio!")
Many people sat in with us. Sometimes that can be
a drag, but today it was great. Great food, nice
folks. Doing this again twice next month.
Looking forward!
3/20/16
Played 3 concerts in Syracuse, NY produced by CNY Jazz,
with Nigerian/British soul/jazz vocalist
Ona Onabule. Ola is an incredible
composer and vocalist, and a dynamic performer.
Backed by an all-star NYC quartet doing mostly pieces
from his latest album, it was a total pleasure. I
highly recommend that you check him out and hear this
album. Along with me, bassist Ivan Bodley, drummer
Joe Goretti and guitarist Ron Jackson.
2/14/16
Rob Paparozzi & The Blues Farm All-Stars - back and
groovin' at the Falcon in Marlboro, NY for a Valentine's
Day brunch jam. John Cariddi on guitar, Lee
Finkelstein on drums, and me on Hammond organ.
Woodstock bassist Charlie Kniceley sat in on bass.
A nice crowd turned out, braving single digit
temperatures to show some love. Speaking of love
... I love it that I get to just walk in and play the
house organ. Love The Falcon!
2/9/16
I've been at Mark Dann's Woodstock studio for the last
several days, recording piano and organ tracks for Kurt
Henry's new album, along with drummer/producer Eric
Parker and bassist/engineer Mark Dann. Kurt's a
wonderful singer/songwriter, and a fine guitarist.
It's going to be a really nice album.
Kurt Henry, Pete, Eric Parker
Pete, in the closet with the
Hammond B-3
Mark Dann
2/1/16
I've been working at Sonart Studio, mixing Native
American vocalist Joan Henry's album, "Uprising."
Meanwhile, I've been tracking keyboards at Mark Dann's
Woodstock studio for Kurt Henry's (no relation to Joan)
new album, being produced by Eric Parker. Kurt's a
terrific singer/songwriter. Looking forward to
hearing the end result.
Here are some
pics from the Sonart sessions.
Watching Joan sing is almost as much fun as
listening to her sing!
Pete, Sonart Studio's Ken
Lovelett, Joan, producer Gus Mancini
1/1/16
Starting the new year off with a bang: I joined
folk/rock singer Marc Black and his band for a free
dance party/concert at Woodstock's Bearsville Theater.
Great turnout and a great night of music. Toward
the end, Marc was inviting dancers to come up on stage -
a dangerous move, but fortunately it wasn't a heavy
drinking crowd and all was well. Woodstock knows
how to party! In the top photo, Don Davis, Pete,
Marc, Amy Fradon, Eric Parker and Mike Esposito.
Warren Bernhardt, on the far right, unfortunately
got cut out of this shot, the only full band shot I
could find from the evening.
12/27/15
Sunday brunch at The Falcon in Marlboro, NY with Rob
Paparozzi & The Blues Farm. Really eclectic,
rather than blues - jazz, blues, R&B, whatever.
And with 3 of the quartet currently touring with the
Blues Brother Band, you never know when we're going to
launch into one of their signature tunes. Rob on
harmonica and vocals, John Tropea on guitar, Lee
Finkelstein on drums, and me on Hammond Organ. By
the end of the gig, we had Evan Conway sitting in on
bass, Steve Finkelstein on congas, and Mike Torsone and
I sharing the Hammond. Lots of fun!
Mike Torsone, Pete, Rob,
John, Lee, Evan Conway, Steve Finkelstein
12/11/15
Over 20 performers gathered at the Unitarian Church in
Schenectady, NY for a tribute/memorial to jazz pianist
Lee Shaw. A near capacity crowd turned out to hear
4 hours of great music, film, images and stories.
A great evening. I performed in the final group of
the evening, a sextet built on Lee's rhythm section for
over 20 years, bassist Righ Syracuse and drummer Jeff
Siegel. Completing the group, Chris Pasin on
trumpet, Brian Patinaude on sax, and Matt Finck on
guitar.
The Sextet: Pete, Brian,
Chris, Rich, Jeff & Matt
Group
shot with all the performers: In no special
order ...
Peg Delaney, Bill Delaney, Gene Garone,
Patti Melita, Joe Barna, Nick Hetko, Lou
Pappas, Adam Siegel, John Esposito, Peter
O'Brien, Otto Gardner, Mike Demicco, Rich
Syracuse, Sarah Pedinotti, Jeff Siegel, John
Medeski, Jason Rogers, Chris Pasin, Brian
Patneaude, Matt Finck, Susan Robbins
12/4/15
Bill Edwards & The Westchester All-Stars at the
Paramount Theater in Peekskill, NY for the 4th annual
concert to benefit Wounded Veterans organizations.
Bill puts in a tremendous effort to mount this show
every year. An amazing lineup of singers and
musicians did a 3 hour show to a packed house.
Performers included Vaneese Thomas, Joni Blondell,
MaryAnn Renza, Kathy Policastro, Chuck St. Troy, Angel
Rissoff, Tom Dudley, Dianne Cricchio, Corrin Huddleston,
Gene Cornish, Carmine Appice, Rob Wallis, Wayne Warnecke,
Kristen Capolino, Scott Staten, Paul Opalach, an 8-piece
horn section, and several more folks sittin in. An
amazing evening that kicked off with me on piano and a
Color Guard accompanying the amazing Vaneese Thomas
singing the National Anthem. Wow!
Pete, Bill Edwards,
Vaneese Thomas
11/28/15
Don Byron all-stars played to a packed house at Club
Helsinki in Hudson, NY. Totally eclectic band
where things just happen unexpectedly. We had a
great time. Dean Bowman (Screaming Headless
Torsos) on vocals, Zach Alford (Davie Bowie) on drums,
Scott Petito (The Fugs) on bass, Matt Finck on guitar
and me on organ and piano. Wish this band could
play more often, but with Don teaching college in
Colorado and Dean Bowman living in Denmark, it's hard to
get us together. Photos by
Samantha Levin
11/21/15
With Don Byron back in town for a couple of weeks, we
put together a couple of impromptu gigs. Loosely
based on Don's Jr. Walker tribute album, we stretched
out and did a lot of obscure R&B from Walker, Ray
Charles, Marvin Gaye, etc. Seems like I've been
playing with a streak of "all-star" bands lately; this
one included the amazing Dean Bowman, Zach Alford &
Scott Petito. Nice!
Pete, Dean Bowman, Don
Byron, Zach Alford, Scott Petito, Matt Finck
11/20/15
Played here in the Hudson Valley with The
City Boys All-Stars, a band I played with
over 20 years ago. It's still going
strong - and seems to have gotten bigger.
Original R&B/Rock. Great players.
Nobody got a photo with everybody visible.
11/4/15
Spending several days in New Jersey at Kaleidoscope
Sound recording an album for Zhang Ling, a very talented
vocalist and bassist from Beijing, best known for his
association with Chinese rock star Cuijian. Ling
came to New York to do his solo album with American
musicians, including John Tropea, Lenny White, Tony
Jefferson and John Cariddi. It's mostly Blues, and
he's great at it. (Although with Chinese lyrics,
we're not sure what he's singing about, but it's
probably Blues.) Some of my photos from the
sessions ...
The rhythm section, doing
tracks on day 2:
Ling, Lenny White, Pete, John Tropea
Leonardo Pavkovik, John
Tropea, Lenny White, Ling, Pete, Randy
Crafton
11/01/15
A large local crowd came out to Keegan Ales in Kingston
to hear dozens of musicians jamming in tribute to our
saxophonist friend Peter Buettner, who is overwhelmed by
medical bills. I did a set with Erik Lawrence,
Scott Petito and Jeff "Siege" Siegel, pictured below.
Somebody quipped that "Petito, Levin, Siegel & Lawrence"
sounds like a law firm, which has opened the gates to
numerous jokes - Passing the bar, etc. (Feel free
to go on Facebook and add your own.) Later in the
evening I sat in with Joe Beesmer, Vito Petrocitto and
Eric Parker. Rocked the joint!
Erik Lawrence, Scott Petito,
Jeff Siegel, Pete Photo: Rita Ryan
10/25/15
Erik Lawrence Quartet in Marlboro, NY at The
Falcon. Erik and I do this venue often
with a jazz quartet. Joining us this
time on guitar, Jeff Ciampa and Lee Falco on
drums.
10/15/15
Bassist Jim Curtin and I backed vocalist Pamela Pentony
as part of the jazz concert series at the Arts Upstairs
gallery in Phoenicia, NY. Karin Wolf created this
wonderful series of intimate shows earlier this year.
It's a good vibe place to perform in, surrounded by
modern art. Karin also took these photos.
Jim Curtin, Pamela Pentony,
Pete
10/9/15
Nice, intimate jazz set with the Al Guart Trio at
Kindred Spirits in Palenville, NY. Jim Curtin on
bass. How often to I get to play a white grand
piano? Pretty classy!
10/2/15
Preceding the Woodstock Film Festival's screening of
"Lee's 88 Keys" - a documentary by director Susan
Robbins about the amazing and inspirational jazz pianist
Lee Shaw - her trio was scheduled to perform in a small
restaurant around the corner from the theater.
When it was apparent that Lee would be unable to make
the gig, I was asked to step in, joining her longtime
rhythm section, drummer Jeff "Siege" Siegel and
bassist Rich Syracuse. I learned several of Lee's
original pieces, and we performed them to a packed
house, before bopping around the corner to the Orpheum
Theater to catch the film. What a great evening!
Jeff, Rich, Pete
9/11/15
I used to see guitarist Lou Volpe in New York studios
all the time, but we hadn't played together in several
years. We had this mini reunion at Showmans Jazz
Club, one of Harlem's premier old school jazz clubs and
a cultural landmark since the '40s when it opened next
to the Apollo Theater. It hasn't changed a whole
lot - old dusty wooden walls, long narrow room with a
small stage at one end and a vintage bar running the
whole length of the room. The room has a great
vibe. And, a nice Hammond B-3 on stage, so ... no
shlepping!
8/29/15
The annual Hudson Valley Jazz Festival finally expanded
this year to include Kingston at ASK - the Arts Society
of Kingston. 3 bands covered the evening, with me
headlining. Basically it was a trio with bassist
Rich Syracuse and drummer (and honorary Levin Brother)
Jeff "Siege" Siegel. As a special guest, we were
joined by trumpet player Chris Pasin. Nice
evening. Good crowd. Hope this is a sign
that it will continue. Sure is nice playing
festivals in my own neighborhood!
Pete, Rich Syracuse, Jeff
Siegel, Chris Pasin
8/6/15
Jazz clarinetist Don Byron put together an all-star
group for a one-time show doing music from his CD "Do
The Boomerang" - music of Motown legend Junior Walker.
The set featured the remarkable jazz/blues vocalist Dean
Bowman (of "Screaming Headless Torsos") along with
guitarist Matt Finck, "Fugs" bassist Scott Petito, David
Bowie drummer Zach Alford, and me on organ mostly.
We were somewhat under-rehearsed, but sometimes that
makes for the best spontaneous performances - and this
was that. Wonderful night. With Dean living
in Denmark and Don in Denver, Colorado, it'll be tough
getting this bunch together for an encore, but we're
hoping to give it a try this winter. Stay tuned
...
7/26/15
Sunday Jazz Brunch in Marlboro, NY at The Falcon with
the Erik Lawrence Quartet. Matt Finck is on guitar
and Tony Jefferson on drums. Photos by Rita Ryan
7/18/15
Rapidly becoming my favorite pickup jam band - "The
Blues Farm" fronted by vocalist/harmonica master Rob
Paparozzi (who also currently fronts the Original Blues
Brothers Band). Also on board, guitarist John
Tropea and drummer Jerry Marotta. (No bass - I'm
playing organ.) The hit was at Brian's Backyard
BBQ in Middletown, NY, a real old-fashioned road house
that features both Hudson Valley groups and national
touring bands. In the photos, check out the walls;
hundreds of musicians from all walks have autographed
it. Great venue. (And the smoked prime rib
is to die!)
Pete, Brian Remaley (the
Brian of Brian's Backyard BBQ), John, Rob,
Jerry
7/1/15
Another great Woodstock jazz Wednesday at Catskill
Pizza. Usually I'm a guest with Jeff Siegel's band
here, but this time it was with trumpet player, Chris
Pasin. Lew Scott on bass and Peter O'Brien on
drums. Our friend Lisa Saalfield makes all of
these Wednesday night gigs, and often is the only one to
take photos. This time, we got her to pose for one
with the band.
6/28/15
Sunday jazz brunch at The Falcon, my favorite Hudson
Valley music venue. (Not the least of reasons is that I
just walk in and play their Hammond B-3. No
schlepping!) Erik Lawrence put together this nice
quartet with me, guitarist Matt Finck and drummer Tony
Jefferson. Funny that Erik and I had just played here
with The Levin Brothers Band 2 weeks ago. Scroll
down a bit and you'll see. No suits this time!
6/22/15
I've been playing occasionally with singer/guitarist
Beki Brindle and also playing on the album she's working
on. We just did a shoot for a music video for one
of the songs from the album. Actor Brad Dourif
joined us onstage, portraying a faded rock star.
Lot's of fun - if you don't count playing the same song
60 times over a 5 hour span. (I think I've got it
memorized now.)
6/13/15
The Levin Brothers - Tony & Pete with Erik Lawrence and
Jeff "Siege" Siegel - played to a capacity audience in
Marlboro, NY at The Falcon, one of our favorite Hudson
Valley venues. With Tony's 2015 touring schedule
with King Crimson, this is likely the last Hudson Valley
show we'll be able to do this year. We're working
on our 2016 plans, including another swing through the
Northeast U.S., Europe, Japan, and a new album.
We'll keep you posted. Here's some shots from
Saturday's show.
6/12/15
The Levin Brothers - Tony & Pete with Erik
Lawrence and Jeff "Siege" Siegel - continue
their 2015 touring with a show in Albany, NY
at WAMC's historic performance space "The
Linda." Photos: Lisa Saalfield
6/10/15
Catskill Mountain Pizza for a nice local jazz gig -
piano trio with the Siegel/Syracuse duo. Small
room intimate, no cover charge. Love playing with
these guys, and it's a great chance for me to try out
new ideas. Trumpeter Chris Pasin sat in with us.
6/8/15 Borden
Auditorium @ Manhattan School of Music in New York City.
Dozens of musicians and performers joined together for
this joyful celebration of Lew Soloff's life and career.
A superlative trumpet player and my friend for decades,
Lew passed away unexpectedly a few weeks ago. The
lineup of performers and the standing-room-only turnout
underscored how much Lew was loved. The large band
was fundamentally the Gil Evans Orchestra, with many
extra players rotating through the evening. The
show opened with Wynton Marsallis leading a Dixieland
band through the hall in a real-deal New Orleans funeral
scene. (Two photos below) In the photo just below,
the band is playing "Spinning Wheel" with Will Lee doing
the vocal. The 7 trumpet players on stage played
Lew's iconic solo in unison. Pretty crazy!
Gil Goldstein, Paul Shaffer,
Danny Gottlieb, Lisa Maxwell, Alex Foster,
"Blue Lou" Marini, Chris Potter, Dave
Taylor, Conrad Herwig, Dave Bargeron, Tom
"Bones" Malone, John Clark, Bob Stewart,
Shunzo Ohno, Brandon Soloff, Jon Faddis,
Miles Evans, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Jeff Berlin,
Bernie Williams, Pete
Jeff Berlin, Bernie Williams,
Pete
Wynton
Marsallis leads a New Orleans-style
procession through the audience.
Pete & Lew. New York City 2012
5/31/15
Another jazz brunch in Marlboro, NY at The Falcon - this
time with a groovin' organ trio featuring guitarist Matt
Finck and drummer Tony Jefferson. As always, an
enjoyable gig for us at this Hudson Valley venue -
especially for me, since I get to just walk in and play
the club's Hammond B-3. Nice extra bonus for Matt
and I as well as the audience when Tony came up front
and scatted a bebop tune; he's a great vocalist as well
as a great drummer. We're doing this again on
Sunday, June 28th, adding Erik Lawrence on sax.
5/12/15
French hornist John Clark and his experimental jazz
group, "The Odd Couple Quintet" performing at the
ShapeShifter Lab in Brooklyn, NY in a premier
performance of John's jazz arrangements of 2 of the
Mozart Horn Concertos, and celebrate the CD release of
the two pieces. Not many jazz groups have a
configuration of rhythm section with French Horn and
Bassoon up front. In fact, this is the only one.
Pretty cool!
Pete, John Clark, Michael
Rabinowitz, Mark Egan, Freddie Bryant, Karl
Latham
4/26/15
The Blues Farm, a new all-star quartet fronted by Rob
Paparozzi and including master guitarist John Tropea and
funkmeister Lee Finkelstein, woke up the Marlboro, NY
'hood with a rockin' Sunday Brunch at The Falcon.
We were definitely groovilating!
Pete, Rob, Lee, John.
photo: Kathy Conway
April 3, 2015:
Most of the town of Rosendale (NY) turned out to
memorialize and share some love for Gail Kniceley, wife
of my good friend, bassist Charlie Kniceley.
Dozens of performers in 5 or 6 band configurations.
It was a beautiful evening.
L to R: Pete, Charlie,
Randy Ciarlante, Machan Taylor, Matt Finck,
Danny Louis, Bob Shaut
March 2015:
The first Levin Brothers Band tour, celebrating its 2014
album release. Tony playing bass & cello, Pete
playing piano and organ, Erik Lawrence on saxes and
flute, and Jeff "Siege" Siegel on drums. The tour
started with a capacity crowd at the Rosendale Cafe -
special for two reasons; it was the band's first gig
ever, and it was in our Hudson Valley back yard.
Sunday night we had a standing-room-only crowd at a
classic music club, The Turning Point in Piermont, NY.
Then we we took off on the road for real, with a swing
through upstate New York. Groovilating New York
State, one town at a time!
3/17/15
Medici House ~ East Aurora, NY
3/18/15
Lovin' Cup ~ Rochester, NY
3/20/15
Van Dyck ~ Schenectady, NY
1/22-25/15 Spent the
weekend at the NAMM show in Anaheim, California.
Tony and I did 8 shows at the NS Design booth, playing
music as a duo from our Levin Brothers album. We were
there in support of the Steinberger basses and cellos
that Tony plays. I had a loaner Electro 4 from the
Nord company. We had a lot of fun playing the
tunes live; first time we've done that. Good
practice for our tour in March. Also, a great
hang. Lots of friends stopped by to say hello and
listen. (See photos below) In a strange
epilog, the "Historic Snowstorm" on the east coast
got our flights cancelled. So we had a few extra
days to hang in the California sunshine. Back to
normal now.
The Levin
Brothers at the NS Design booth.
Photo: Gary Banfield &
TourBusLive.com
Pete, Tony and
the Steinberger crew at the end
of the show on Sunday
6/27/13 Full house at the
Bearsville Theater in
Woodstock for the Gabriel
Butterfield Band with
special guests Kal David and
Lauri Bono. We rocked
the joint. A former
Woodstock resident, Kal was
the frontman for The
Fabulous Rhinestones. A
California resident for
decades, he hadn't performed
in Woodstock in almost 10
years. Many of his
fans came out to hear a
mixture of Butterfield and
Rhinestones hits.
Lauri joined us on stage for
a couple of tunes and tore
the place up. We love
Lauri!
Jimmy
Eppard, Rob Paparozzi, Gabe
Butterfield, Kal David, Jim
Curtin, Pete
5/18/13 Rob Paparozzi
Quartet in Marlboro, NY @ The Falcon, my favorite Hudson
Valley music venue. In addition to his singing
chops (he's currently front man for the Blues Brothers
Band) Rob is one of the world's top harmonica players.
When he does his own small groups, it's billed as the
"Hudson River Rats" - and it grooves like crazy!
Last night, I was one of the Rats, along with Dave
Stryker on Guitar and Lee Finkelstein on drums.
5/13/13 Three decades
of Gil Evans Orchestra alumni gathered for a concert to
celebrate Gil's birthday. Great music. Great
reunion for us. Chris Hunter, David Binney, Tim
Heggarty, Dave Mann, Alex Foster, John Clark, Bob
Stewart, Lew Soloff, Shunzo Ohno, Miles Evans, Noah
Evans, Tom Malone, Dave Bargeron, Earl McIntyre, Mark
Egan, Delmar Brown, Kenwood Dennard, Mino Cinelu, Paul
Metzke, Oz Noy, Matt Garrison, Don Pate .... whew!
Photos by John Ward
4/25/13 The Ali
Ryerson quintet in Marlbory,
NY at the Falcon. We
had a double problem come
up: Drummer Karl Latham had
hand surgery and couldn't
play, and bassist Mark Egan
had a last minute emergency.
No rhythm section ... yikes!
Luckily Thierry Arpino and
Tony Levin were available
and jumped in. A short
rehearsal, soundcheck and we
killed it.
February 27 - New York, NY at The Iridium. CD release
party with an all-star septet - Lenny White, Dave
Stryker, Lew Soloff, Alex Foster, Tom Malone and John
Clark. This is a reunion of Gil Evans Orchestra
alumni, celebrating Gil and the live recording we did
here last April. We did a pretty well reviving the
spirit of the dynamic, controlled chaos of the Gil Evans
Orchestra of the late 70's and early 80's. Photos
by Samantha Levin
Tom Malone, Dave Stryker,
Pete, Lew Soloff, Lenny White, John
Clark, Alex Foster
November
29th & 30th. Recording Nick Holmes new CD at
Avatar Studio in NYC - great band doing it the old way,
direct to 2-track.
Jay Messina, Pete, Steve
Gadd, Michael Bacon, Sid McGinnis, Nick Holmes, Mike Mainieri, Dave Mann,
Tony Levin
I've been
cataloging a lot of studio and live music
gear that I don't use any more and putting it up on line Lots of good stuff,
and more going up every day. Take a look at my music
"store" at
Recordings I've played on recently
HANDBASKET
Andy Toomey
NIGHTWATCHMAN'S HOP
David Snider
HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN (single)
Kathy Ingraham
HANGING ON FOR LOVE (single)
Roseann Sureda
LIVE IN PERUGIA
Gil Evans Remembered Band
LIVE IN LUGANO
Gil Evans Remembered
LIVE IN NYC:
GIL EVANS REMEMBERED (CD: Dot Time Records)
Gil Evans Remembered Band
KING OF SPAIN (video)
Andy Toomey
BRINGING IT DOWN TO
THE BASS (album)
Tony Levin
DESAFINADO (single)
Kathy Ingraham
TOMBO (album)
DE VOLTA AO CAMINHO
RAPAZ DE BEM
IF
GOOD NEWS
FINGERS
Emilio Martins
REINDEER GAMES (single)
Janice Dempsey
DAVY CROCKETT KID
Sidestep
REINDEER GAMES
Bob Riccio
MARMALADE
GATO NEGRO
OSCALETA BLUES
MACHAIS RIVER
Sidestep
GIVE THE CELLO SOME
Tony Levin
MELUSINA (Single)
Kathy Ingraham
THE HEART OF AN AMERICAN (Single)
Eric Erickson
ONE ISLAND TO ANOTHER
HUNGRY DOGS OF NEW MEXICO
Michael Veitch
SONIC INVENTOR (album)
Ken Lovelett
CUPPA JOE
Tony Levin
DREAM ON
Kathy Ingraham
LIVE AT SWIMMING HOLE (album)
Sidestep
THROUGH THE WIRE (album)
Jeremy Nesse
THE PUMP
Tony Levin
BLUE IN GREEN (Single)
Dani Assis
ANGEL DOWN (Single)
THIS IS LOVE (Single)
Chris Mitchell
PURPLE HEART
Dwight Moody
RETREAT (Single)
Bob Riccio
MAD HONEY
Ken Lovelett
NARWHALE
Ken Lovelett
FOREVER NOW
Rita Hoang
SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES
Roseann Sureda
SERENGETI
OPPO
Ken Lovelett
ANGEL DOWN
FOREVER YOU
GENTLE VOICE
THIS IS LOVE
Chris Mitchell
COFFEE SHOP
LOOKING 4 AMERICA
LAST TIME
TRACES
Dwight Moody
SHINE
FOOLISH
LAYDOWN
FADE
STRONG WINDS
Dwight Moody
BETTER LIFE
Andy Toomey
BRINGING IT DOWN TO THE BASS
Tony Levin
FROM A LONG LINE
A SON'S LOVE
Teddy Frank
RIVER DANCE
Ken Lovelett
SHADRACH, MESHACH & ABEDNEGO
Rob Carlson
EASY CHAIR
CHILD'S ERRAND
Lisa Markley
THE FALLING DREAM
Kevin Kuhn
HAND-PAN DANCE
Ken Lovelett
LOVE IS MY SHEPHERD
Marc Black
SAM'S SONG
THE POLICY SONG
THE RON SONG
WHAT DO WE DO
Derek Dempsey
MANHATTAN AT MIDNIGHT
MILES AWAY
TIJUANA TUESDAY
A GOOD ONE
Andy Toomey
THE GOOD OL' DAYS ARE NOW
Roseann Sureda
FATHER'S DAY
FALLEN ANGEL
SHAYNA MADELN
Elise Pittelman
MOON RIVER
Rob Paparozzi
FADE TO BLUE - album
The Levin Brothers
OPTIMISTIC MYSTIC
LET GO
Denise DiRenzo
SHINE A BRIGHT LIGHT
Teri Roiger & Sharp 5
LUCKY SON OF A GUN
RETURN OF THE LIGHT
SPINNING MY WHEELS
THE POTTER
Eric Erickson
TAKING THE 5TH
THE FALLING DREAM
Kevin Kuhn
ROB CARLSON
Rob Carlson
ONE LAST TIME
Sidestep
MACHIAS RIVER
Sidestep
SONG FOR UKRAINE
Tad Wise
TAKIN' THE FIFTH
Kevin Kuhn
THE FALLING DREAM
Kevin Kuhn
MYSTERY
George Barrett
THE BEST IS YET TO
COME
STILL IN LOVE WITH
SOMEONE ELSE
David Young
HOW I FEEL
Tom Vali
THE MISERY
Andy Toomey
WACHTRAUM
Michael Veitch
JUST WALK AWAY
George Barrett
EVERYBODY WANTS
MY HAT
Marc Black
KING OF SPAIN
GET MARGARET
Andy Toomey
BLOOD OF EDEN
Jeremy Nesse
LETTERS
HEAVEN IN HER EYES
Tom Vali
TO LOVE AGAIN
Karuna Shinsho
OUR TIME
Joe Lemonik
DOWN TO EARTH
Levin Brothers with
Gail Ann Dorsey
THERE WILL ALWAYS
BE VERMONT
Michael Veitch
SIDEMEN - album
Peter Welker
SPRING SONG
Teri Roiger
I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT
ITS OVER
Joe Lemonik
WHY
Ling Zhang
SHARP 5
Sharp 5 Quintet
ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE
Michael Veitch
CHOICE
Ling Zhang
C YOU SMILE
DA Cole
STONES
Judy Kass
WHOLLY EARTH
Teri Roiger
BITTER WINTER BLUES
Jerry Marotta
AFTERTHOUGHT
Rick Laird/Jane Meryll
LOVE DANCE
Karuna Shinsho
CRY ME A RIVER
Kathy Ingraham
ICARUS
Levin Brothers
SERENGETI
Ken Lovelett
I WRITE MY NAME
Marc Black
YOUR OWN LYIN' EYES
Rob Carlson
PEACE BEGINS WITH US
Jane Meryll
SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL
Kyf Brewer/Larry Baeder
ONLY US
Jeremy Nesse
INFINITE MONKEYS
Rob Carlson
PAPER DOLL
Kathy Ingraham
CATSKILL DOGS
Kurt Henry
WHEN IT GOES
Old Dogs New Tricks
GONNA LET IT HAPPEN
Peter Welker & Bill
Champlin
SHINY - album
Lisa Maxwell
ITS CALLED LOVE - album
Roseann Sureda
HIDDEN TREASURES - album
The Gil Evans Orchestra
CHRISTMAS FOR
WOUNDED VETERANS, VOL 8 - album
Bill Edwards
A CHRISTMAS WITH YOU
Don Miller
CHRISTMAS CAROL
Carol Nethen
PARALLEL UNIVERSE
Thomasina Levy & David Darling
BEGINNING AGAIN
Rod MacDonald
FULL DETROIT
Paul Sachs
SPECIAL DELIVERY - album
Levin Brothers
FULL CIRCLE
Cliff Brucker
LIVE AT 62 CENTER - album
Albert Cummings
BARCELONA NOTE-
BOOK - album
Vinnie Pasternak
BLUES - album
Ling Zhang
GOOD OLD SONGS - album
Rene Bailey
visits to
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October 25, 2024 news:
Pete
Levin's journey as a musician is one of diversity, discovery,
and serendipity. While his core focus is as a soulful jazz
keyboardist and composer, his six-decade career also includes
high-profile experiences across the pop, rock, and soundtrack
realms.
Seems like we just got back off the road and its
time to start packing again. Meanwhile, post
production for the
new CD - "FADE TO BLUE" - is finished and its out
being manufactured. We'll have it with us in
September.
9/10/22 The pendulum swings.
The club had been booked for a
bizarre event of some kind, so
our show was moved to another
building, a function hall -
translate "Wedding Mill."
That in itself would have been
weird, but there was a big
wedding reception in the room
above us, with a DJ's subwoofers
very audible below. Take
out Italian was awful.
Suffice to say that we got
through it.
9/15/22
Great evening at this
family-owned club in Moline.
Full house, a great audience,
great sound, and a nice Mexican
restaurant next door. (Hey, its
the road. We've gotta eat!) 
of all-star alumni of the Gil Evans Orchestra.
Separate from my own "Monday Night Band" project, this
is being produced by Gil's sons, Noah and Miles.
We recorded several pieces that Gil arranged, but were
rarely or never recorded, as well as one of my own
compositions, "Subway", a piece I wrote for the band in
1986. Great New York brass section behind me there
- Shunzo Ohno, Jon Faddis, Dave Bargeron, Dave Taylor
and John Clark. Off camera to the right - Chris
Hunter, Alex Foster, Gary Smulyan. Made me smile!
HANDBASKET