Howard Levy (born July 31, 1951) is an American multi-instrumentalist. A keyboardist and

virtuoso A virtuoso (from Italian ''virtuoso'' or , "virtuous", Late Latin ''virtuosus'', Latin ''virtus'', "virtue", "excellence" or "skill") is an individual who possesses outstanding talent and technical ability in a particular art or field such a ...

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica in ...

player, Levy "has been realistically presented as one of the most important and radical harmonica innovators of the twentieth century." In 1988, Levy was a founding member of

Béla Fleck and the Flecktones Béla may refer to: * Béla (crater), an elongated lunar crater * Béla (given name), a common Hungarian male given name See also * Bela (disambiguation) * Belá (disambiguation) * Bělá (disambiguation) Bělá, derived from ''bílá'' (''wh ...

, with whom he won a 1997 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for the song "The Sinister Minister". He also won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition in 2012 for "Life in Eleven", a song written with Béla Fleck for the Flecktones' album ''Rocket Science'' (2011). He has worked with Arab-fusion musician

Rabih Abou-Khalil Rabih Abou-Khalil ( ar, ربيع أبو خليل, born August 17, 1957) is an oud player and composer born in Lebanon, who combines elements of Arabic music with jazz, classical music, and other styles. He grew up in Beirut and moved to Munich, G ...

, Latin jazz saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera,

Donald Fagen Donald Jay Fagen (born January 10, 1948) is an American musician best known as the co-founder, lead singer, co-songwriter, and keyboardist of the band Steely Dan, formed in the early 1970s with musical partner Walter Becker. In addition to his ...

, and

Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk roc ...

Music career

Levy was born in Brooklyn, New York, and attended the

Manhattan School of Music The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory in New York City. The school offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition, as well as a bachelor's in m ...

, where he studied piano and

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks' ...

. For two years, he went to Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and participated in the jazz band. He is the Harmonica Lessons instructor for ArtistWorks.

Harmonica innovator

Levy plays in many genres: jazz, classical, rock, folk, Latin, blues, country, and world music. He drew attention for his

chromatic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a p ...

playing style on a regular diatonic

. He discovered the

overblow Overblowing is the manipulation of supplied air through a wind instrument that causes the sounded pitch to jump to a higher one without a fingering change or the operation of a slide. Overblowing may involve a change in the air pressure, in the ...

and overdraw techniques for chromatic playing in 1970. These allow a harmonica player to obtain all the missing chromatic notes in the Richter-tuned diatonic harmonica. In 1995, he performed the "Harmonia Mundi Suite for Harmonica and Chamber Ensemble" in Chicago. He composed a concerto for harmonica in 2001 and performed it with orchestras in the U.S. and Europe.

Forming groups

In 1988, Levy co-founded

. He won a Grammy for Pop Instrumental for the song "The Sinister Minister". He left the band in 1992. Levy toured with

Kenny Loggins Kenneth Clark Loggins (born January 7, 1948) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. His early songs were recorded with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1970, which led to seven albums recorded as Loggins and Messina from 1972 to 1977. His ...

and appeared on his album ''Outside from the Redwoods''. Levy returned to the Flecktones in 2011, touring and recording the album '' Rocket Science'' (2011). In the 1990s Levy founded Trio Globo with

Eugene Friesen Eugene Friesen (born 1952) is an American cellist and composer. Early life Friesen was born in 1952 to Russian Mennonite parents. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Music. Career Friesen has been a member of the Paul Winter Consort since ...

and Glen Velez. He leads another band, Acoustic Express and is music director of the Latin jazz group Chévere de Chicago. He is the founder of

Balkan Samba Records Balkan Samba Records is a record label in Evanston, Illinois founded by multi-instrumentalist and composer Howard Levy. The label was founded by Levy in 2004 as a way for him to record and publish previously unpublished works of his own music an ...

. The roster includes Chévere de Chicago, Alberto Mizrahi and Trio Globo, Fox Fehling, and Norman Savitt.

Touring and recording with others

Levy has toured or recorded with

John Prine John Edward Prine (; October 10, 1946 – April 7, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter of country-folk music. He was active as a composer, recording artist, live performer, and occasional actor from the early 1970s until his death. He ...

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Bobby McFerrin Robert Keith McFerrin Jr. (born March 11, 1950) is an American folk and jazz singer. He is known for his vocal techniques, such as singing fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in pitch—for example, sustaining a melody while also rap ...

, Bryan Bowers, Chris Siebold,

Chuck Mangione Charles Frank Mangione ( ; born November 29, 1940) is an American flugelhorn player, voice actor, trumpeter and composer. He came to prominence as a member of Art Blakey's band in the 1960s, and later co-led the Jazz Brothers with his brother ...

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Styx In Greek mythology, Styx (; grc, Στύξ ) is a river that forms the boundary between Earth (Gaia) and the Underworld. The rivers Acheron, Cocytus, Lethe, Phlegethon, and Styx all converge at the centre of the underworld on a great marsh, ...

Dennis DeYoung Dennis DeYoung (born February 18, 1947) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He was a founding member of the rock band Styx, and served as its primary lead vocalist and keyboardist from 1972 until 1999. DeYoung was th ...

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Holly Cole Holly Cole (born November 25, 1963) is a Canadian jazz singer and actress. For many years she performed with her group The Holly Cole Trio. Background Cole was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her father, Leon Cole, was a noted radio broadcaste ...

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Mark Nauseef Mark Nauseef (born June 11, 1953), in Cortland, New York, is a drummer and percussionist who has enjoyed a varied career, ranging from rock music during the 1970s with his time as a member of the Ian Gillan Band and, temporarily with Thin Lizz ...

Miroslav Tadic Miroslav may refer to: * Miroslav (given name), a Slavic masculine given name * ''Young America'' (clipper) or ''Miroslav'', an Austrian clipper ship in the Transatlantic case oil trade * Miroslav (Znojmo District), a town in the Czech Republic S ...

, Paquito D'Rivera,

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notabl ...

Steve Goodman Steven Benjamin Goodman (July 25, 1948 – September 20, 1984) was an American folk and country singer-songwriter from Chicago. He wrote the song "City of New Orleans", which was recorded by Arlo Guthrie and many others including John Denv ...

Terry Callier Terrence Orlando "Terry" Callier (May 24, 1945 – October 27, 2012) was an American soul, folk and jazz guitarist and singer-songwriter. Life and career Callier was born in the North Side of Chicago, Illinois, and was raised in the Cabrini� ...

, and Tom Paxton.

Gear

Levy favors an equal temperament tuning and plays harmonicas customized by

Joe Filisko Joe Filisko is an American blues harmonica player and maker of customized harmonicas based in Chicago, Illinois. In 2001 he was named "Harmonica Player of the Year" by the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica. In addition ...

Awards and honors

* Joseph Jefferson Award, Best Original Music for a Play (1986) * Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental, "The Sinister Minister", Béla Fleck and the Flecktones (1997) * Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition, "Life in Eleven" (2012)

Discography

As leader or co-leader * ''Carnival of Souls'' (Silver Wave, 1995) * ''The Old Country'' (M.A., 1996) * '' The Stranger's Hand'' ( Tone Center, 1999) with

Jerry Goodman Jerry Goodman (born March 16, 1949) is an American violinist who played electric violin with The Flock and the jazz fusion ensemble Mahavishnu Orchestra. Career Jerry Goodman was born on March 16, 1949, in Chicago, Illinois. His parents were ...

Oteil Burbridge Oteil Burbridge is an American multi-instrumentalist, specializing on the bass guitar, trained in playing jazz and classical music from an early age. He has achieved fame primarily on bass guitar during the resurgence of the Allman Brothers Ban ...

, and Steve Smith * ''Cappuccino'' with Fox Fehling ( Balkan Samba, 2004) * ''Secret Dream'' (Balkan Samba, 2005) * ''Howard Levy & Paul Sprawl'' (Balkan Samba, 2005) * ''Time Capsules'' (Balkan Samba, 2009) * ''Tonight and Tomorrow'' (

CD Baby CD Baby, Inc. is an online distributor of independent music. The company was described as an "anti-label" by its parent company's Chief Operating Officer Tracy Maddux. The CD Baby music store was shut down in March 2020 with a statement that " ...

/Chicago Sessions, 2009) * ''Silver & Black'' ( Enja, 2009) * ''Concerto for Diatonic Harmonica & Orchestra'' (Balkan Samba, 2010) * ''Alone and Together'' (Balkan Samba, 2010) * ''Steering by the Stars'' (Stonecutter, 2010) * ''Out of the Box'' (Balkan Samba, 2012) * ''Matzah to Menorah'' (Balkan Samba, 2012) * ''First Takes'' (Balkan Samba, 2014) * ''Tango and Jazz'' (Balkan Samba, 2016) * ''Art + Adrenaline'' with Chris Siebold (Balkan Samba, 2018) With

* ''

'' (1990) * '' Flight of the Cosmic Hippo'' (1991) * ''

UFO Tofu ''UFO Tofu'' is the third album by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, released in 1992. The title is a palindrome, which is also a musical theme in the title track; the idea originated with the musician Baby Gramps. Production The album was produced ...

'' (1992) * ''

Live Art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

'' (1996) * '' Rocket Science'' (2011) With

*''

The Sultan's Picnic ''The Sultan's Picnic'' is an album by the Lebanese oud player and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil, fusing traditional Arab music with jazz, which was recorded in 1994 and released on the Enja label.

'' (Enja, 1994) *''

Odd Times ''Odd Times'' is a live album by the Lebanese oud player and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil which was recorded in Germany in 1997 and released on the Enja label.Samo Salamon *''Peaks of Light'' (Samo Records, 2018)

References

External links

Official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levy, Howard 1951 births American harmonica players Béla Fleck and the Flecktones members Grammy Award winners Jazz harmonica players Jewish American musicians Jewish rock musicians Living people Musicians from Brooklyn 20th-century American keyboardists