Famed for his work with
Peter Gabriel and
King Crimson, bass virtuoso
Tony Levin was born in Boston on June 6, 1946. At age ten, he began studying upright bass, also playing tuba in his high-school marching band and even forming his own barbershop quartet; as a member of a local youth orchestra,
Levin additionally performed at the White House for
President John F. Kennedy. After attending the Eastman School of Music, he appeared with
the Rochester Philharmonic, but over time turned away from classical music to play rock and jazz, relocating to New York City in 1970 to join Aha!, ex-
Mothers of Invention keyboardist
Don Preston's band.
A busy session career followed, with fluid, expressive work on classic LPs, including
Lou Reed's
Berlin,
Kate & Anna McGarrigle's self-titled debut, and
Paul Simon's
Still Crazy After All These Years. After collaborating with
Peter Gabriel on his eponymous 1977 debut,
Levin joined the ex-
Genesis frontman's touring unit, during which time he honed his skills on the Chapman Stick, a unique 10-stringed instrument in which the strings are not plucked but tapped, a process allowing the individual to play notes with both hands and create complete multi-part arrangements.
In 1978,
Levin settled in Woodstock, NY, serving in the short-lived L'Image; a year later, he played on
Robert Fripp's solo effort Exposure, soon thereafter agreeing to join the guitarist in new a incarnation of his groundbreaking progressive unit
King Crimson, and remaining a member of the group for over two decades. (His tour experiences subsequently yielded a 1984 book of photographs, Road Photos.) While working on Gabriel's 1986 smash
So,
Levin developed Funk Fingers, essentially chopped-off drumsticks designed to hammer on the bass strings; he later sold Funk Fingers through his own Papa Bear Records label as well. Sessions with everyone from
Robbie Robertson (his 1987 self-titled solo debut) to
Laurie Anderson (1989's Strange Angels) to
Yes (1991's
Union) followed, and in 1996,
Levin finally made his solo debut with World Diary. From the Caves of the Iron Mountain, recorded with bamboo flute master
Steve Gorn and drummer
Jerry Marotta, appeared a year later and in 1998, he formed Bruford Levin Upper Extremities (B.L.U.E.) with longtime
King Crimson drummer
Bill Bruford, guitarist
David Torn, and trumpeter
Chris Botti.
Waters of Eden,
Levin's Narada label debut, followed in the spring of 2000.
Pieces of the Sun was released in 2001 (an expanded edition came out a year later on Pony Canyon), with many of the same tracks also included on his 2002 record, Double Espresso.
Prime Cuts, a compilation of his work on sessions led by other artists on the Magna Carta label during the '90s, was issued in 2005. A bona fide new solo effort,
Resonator, followed the next year, for the first time featuring
Levin as a singer/songwriter as well as a bassist. ~ Jason Ankeny