Tony Levin was born in
Boston, Massachusetts and grew up in the suburb of
Brookline. He began playing upright bass at 10 years old. In high school, he picked up
tuba, soloing with the concert band. He also started a
barbershop quartet. He primarily played classical music on the upright, most notably performing at the
White House with a youth orchestra for
John and
Jackie Kennedy.
He then attended the
Eastman School of Music in
Rochester, NY and played in the
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Also at the school was
Steve Gadd, now a renowned
drummer, who introduced Tony to playing a higher level of
jazz and
rock. He traded in his
Ampeg electric upright Baby Bass for an old (at that time)
Fender Precision Bass, which was his only instrument for many years.
In 1970, Tony moved to
New York City, joined a band called
Aha, the Attack of the Green Slime Beast, with
Don Preston of
The Mothers of Invention. Soon after, he began working as a session musician, and through the 1970's he played bass on many albums.
In the late '70s, wanting to do more live playing, Tony joined
Peter Gabriel's band. He had met Peter through producer
Bob Ezrin (with whom Tony had recorded
Alice Cooper's Welcome to My Nightmare, and
Lou Reed's Berlin). Tony has played with Gabriel, both on the road and in the studio, since then. On that first Peter Gabriel album, Tony played some tuba as well as bass, and directed a short barbershop quartet version of a song.
It was in these early years with Gabriel that Tony developed his playing of the
Chapman Stick. More recently, the song "
Big Time", from Gabriel's
So album, inspired the development of
funk fingers, which are chopped off
drumsticks used to hammer on the bass strings. Levin credits Gabriel with the idea, and
Andy Moore, his tech at the time, with actually making them workable.
In 1978, Tony moved to
Woodstock, New York, to join the band
L'Image, which included his old friend Steve Gadd, as well as
Mike Mainieri and
Warren Bernhardt. The band broke up after a year, and Tony stayed in Woodstock, where he still lives.
On Peter Gabriel's first album, Tony met
Robert Fripp and, in 1980, after having played on Fripp's solo album
Exposure, he became a member of the '80s incarnation of
King Crimson.
Through the years, Tony has toured with quite a few artists including:
Paul Simon (with whom Tony appeared in Simon's 1980 film "One Trick Pony"),
Gary Burton, James Taylor, Herbie Mann, Goro Noguchi, Judy Collins, Joe Yamanaka, Carly Simon, Peter Frampton, Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, Tim Finn, Richie Sambora, and
Claudio Baglioni.
In 1984 Tony released
Road Photos, a collection of black & white photos taken during his travels with Crimson, Gabriel, Simon and others. Tony's brother,
Pete Levin, is a New York
keyboardist and writer who is best known for his work with
Gil Evans. Back in the 70's, Tony and Pete collaborated with Steve Gadd in the comedy band
The Clams. Some of the Clams's material may eventually be released, as previously stated by Levin.
Tony was part of
King Crimson up until the breakup of the "Double Trio" line-up of the band which consisted of Tony Levin,
Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Trey Gunn, Pat Mastelotto and
Bill Bruford. Robert Fripp then reformed
King Crimson as a quartet, without Levin and Bruford. Levin also took part in two of the post-breakup experimental sub-groups
ProjeKct One (1997) and
ProjeKct Four (1998).
In 1989 Bruford asked Levin to play in Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, a splinter group of the band Yes. Because of the obvious emphasis on this being a band of former Yes members, Levin was never invited to become an official member, but played on ABWH's eponymous album, and also on Yes' 1991 album Union.
In 1998, Levin and Bruford formed
Bruford Levin Upper Extremities with
trumpeter Chris Botti and
guitarist David Torn; the group released albums in 1998 and 2000. Levin also continued producing albums with his own band, the
Tony Levin Band (see discography).
In
1998, Levin teamed up with
Mike Portnoy and
John Petrucci, members of
Dream Theater, as well as future
Dream Theater keyboardist,
Jordan Rudess for a project called
Liquid Tension Experiment. The combo recorded two albums,
Liquid Tension Experiment and
Liquid Tension Experiment 2 in 1998 and 1999 respectively. They also played some live shows in New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, and will regroup in 2008 to play
NEARfest, a popular progressive rock festival in Bethlehem, PA.
In
2004, Trey Gunn left King Crimson, and Robert Fripp reinstated Levin as the bassist. Although the future of King Crimson, especially as a touring band, is unclear, Tony Levin remains a member of the band.
In 2006, Levin released
Resonator an album which features long time band mates Jerry Marotta, Jesse Gress, Larry Fast, with the addition of his brother Pete Levin. The album is the first to feature Levin's singing.
rss feed