Adam Levy is a jazz guitarist who was a member of Norah Jones's band.
Career
Levy was born in
Encino, California. Two of his uncles and one cousin played guitar, and his mother briefly took lessons. His grandfather,
George Wyle
George Wyle (born Bernard Weissman; March 22, 1916 – May 2, 2003) was an American orchestra leader and composer best known for having written the theme song to 1960s television sitcom '' Gilligan's Island''. He is the grandfather of music ...
, worked for ''
The Andy Williams Show
''The Andy Williams Show'' was an American television variety show that ran from 1962 to 1971 (alternating during the summer of 1970 with ''Andy Williams Presents Ray Stevens'')Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, ''The Complete Directory to Prime Time N ...
'' and ''
The Flip Wilson Show'' on television as music director. As a teenager, Levy was a member of a local big band. After he graduated from high school, he studied at the
Dick Grove
Richard Dean Grove (1927 – December 26, 1998) was an American musician, composer, arranger, and educator. He is best known as the founder of the Dick Grove School of Music. Its students include Michael Jackson, Linda Ronstadt, and Barry Manilow ...
School of Music, where his teachers included
Ted Greene
TED may refer to:
Economics and finance
* TED spread between U.S. Treasuries and Eurodollar
Education
* ''Türk Eğitim Derneği'', the Turkish Education Association
** TED Ankara College Foundation Schools, Turkey
** Transvaal Education Depar ...
and
Jimmy Wyble.
He moved to San Francisco in 1990 and worked as a
studio musician
Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...
, appearing on a
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman (born March 30, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter. Chapman is best known for her hit singles " Fast Car" and " Give Me One Reason".
Chapman was signed to Elektra Records by Bob Krasnow in 1987. The following year she release ...
album in the mid 1990s. At the end of the decade, he was a member of the group Killer Joey with drummer
Joey Baron
Bernard Joseph Baron (born June 26, 1955 in Richmond, Virginia) is an American avant-garde jazz drummer who plays frequently with Bill Frisell and John Zorn.
Music career
Baron was born on June 26, 1955, in Richmond Virginia. When he was nine, h ...
, guitarist
Steve Cardenas
Stephen Antonio Cardenas (born May 29, 1974) is an American martial artist, musician, and actor. Cardenas is best known for playing the character Rocky DeSantos, which was the second Red Power Ranger in ''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers'' and eventu ...
, and bassist
Tony Scherr. Levy then moved to New York City, where he met
Norah Jones
Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar; March 30, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. She has won several awards for her music and as of 2012, has sold more than 50 million records worldwide. '' Billboard'' named her the ...
and was a member of her band at the beginning of her career through her bestselling albums and world tours. He has also played with
Rosanne Cash
Rosanne Cash (born May 24, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter and author. She is the eldest daughter of country musician Johnny Cash and Vivian Liberto Cash Distin, Johnny Cash's first wife. Although she is often classified as a country art ...
,
Chris Difford
Christopher Henry Difford (born 4 November 1954) is an English singer, musician, songwriter and record producer. He is a founding member and songwriter of the rock group Squeeze.
Musical career
Born in Greenwich, London, Difford has written l ...
,
Amos Lee
Amos Lee (born Ryan Anthony Massaro, June 20, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter whose musical style encompasses folk, rock, and soul. He was born in Philadelphia and graduated from the University of South Carolina with a degree in Englis ...
, and
Lisa Loeb
Lisa Loeb (; born March 11, 1968) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author and actress. She started her career with the number 1 hit song " Stay (I Missed You)" from the film '' Reality Bites,'' the first number 1 single for an artist ...
. He leads a trio called the Mint Imperials. He plays in a duo with session guitarist Rich Hinman.
Since 2015, Levy has been the Chair of the Guitar Performance department at
Los Angeles College of Music.
Discography
As leader
* ''Live at Avalaon & the Graves'' (Evander Music, 2000)
* ''Buttermilk Channel'' (Lost Wax Music, 2001)
* ''Get Your Glow On'' (Lost Wax, 2003)
* ''Loose Rhymes'' (Lost Wax, 2006)
* ''Washing Day'' (Lost Wax, 2007)
* ''The Heart Collector'' (Lost Wax, 2011)
As sideman
With
Norah Jones
Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar; March 30, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. She has won several awards for her music and as of 2012, has sold more than 50 million records worldwide. '' Billboard'' named her the ...
* ''
Come Away with Me
''Come Away with Me'' is the debut studio album by American recording artist Norah Jones, released on February 26, 2002, by Blue Note Records. Recording sessions took place at Sorcerer Sound Studio in New York City and Allaire Studios in Shoka ...
'' (Blue Note, 2002)
* ''
Feels Like Home'' (Blue Note, 2004)
* ''
Not Too Late'' (Blue Note, 2006)
With others
*
Noel Akchote, ''Gesualdo: Madrigals for Five Guitars'' (Blue Chopsticks, 2014)
*
Nels Andrews, ''Off Track Betting'' (Ignatius, 2007)
*
Rosanne Cash
Rosanne Cash (born May 24, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter and author. She is the eldest daughter of country musician Johnny Cash and Vivian Liberto Cash Distin, Johnny Cash's first wife. Although she is often classified as a country art ...
, ''She Remembers Everything'' (Blue Note, 2018)
*
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman (born March 30, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter. Chapman is best known for her hit singles " Fast Car" and " Give Me One Reason".
Chapman was signed to Elektra Records by Bob Krasnow in 1987. The following year she release ...
, ''New Beginning'' (Elektra 1995)
*
Billie Davies, ''12 Volt '' (Cobra Basement, 2013)
*
Trevor Dunn
Trevor Roy Dunn (born January 30, 1968) is an American composer, bass guitarist, and double bassist. He came to prominence in the 1990s with the experimental band Mr. Bungle. While performing with Mr. Bungle, Dunn would dress similar to the ...
, ''Debutantes & Centipedes'' (Buzz 1998)
*
Ana Egge
Ana G. Egge (born September 20, 1976, in Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada) is a Canadian/American musician and songwriter.
Egge grew up the daughter of a teacher and a wheat farmer in Ambrose, North Dakota, and later moved to Silver City, New ...
, ''Road to My Love'' (Grace/Parkinsong, 2009)
*
Gordian Knot
The Gordian Knot is an Ancient Greek legend of Phrygian Gordium associated with Alexander the Great who is said to have cut the knot in 333 BC. It is often used as a metaphor for an intractable problem (untying an impossibly tangled knot) ...
, ''Gordian Knot'' (Avalon, 1998)
*
Amos Lee
Amos Lee (born Ryan Anthony Massaro, June 20, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter whose musical style encompasses folk, rock, and soul. He was born in Philadelphia and graduated from the University of South Carolina with a degree in Englis ...
, ''Amos Lee'' (Blue Note, 2005)
*
Lisa Loeb
Lisa Loeb (; born March 11, 1968) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author and actress. She started her career with the number 1 hit song " Stay (I Missed You)" from the film '' Reality Bites,'' the first number 1 single for an artist ...
, ''A Simple Trick to Happiness'' (Furious Rose, 2020)
*
Mike Love
Michael Edward Love (born March 15, 1941) is an American singer and songwriter who co-founded the Beach Boys with his cousins Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson and their friend Al Jardine. Characterized by his nasal tenor and occasional bass-ba ...
, ''Reason for the Season'' (BMG, 2018)
*
Sean Malone
Sean Malone (April 12, 1970 – December 7, 2020) was an American musician who played primarily fretless bass guitar and Chapman Stick. He was most famous for his work with progressive metal band Cynic, in which he developed a strong partners ...
, ''Cortlandt'' (Free Electric Sound 2007)
*
Anais Mitchell, ''Young Man in America'' (Wilderland, 2012)
*
Meshell Ndegeocello
Michelle Lynn Johnson, better known as Meshell Ndegeocello (; born August 29, 1968), is a German-born American singer-songwriter, rapper, and bassist. She has gone by the name Meshell Suhaila Bashir-Shakur which is used as a writing credit on so ...
, ''Ventriloquism'' (Naive, 2018)
*
The O'Jays
The O'Jays are an American R&B group from Canton, Ohio, formed in 1958 and originally consisting of Eddie Levert, Walter Lee Williams, William Powell, Bobby Massey, and Bill Isles. The O'Jays made their first chart appearance with the minor h ...
, ''The Last Word'' (S-Curve 2019)
*
Mel Parsons, ''Glass Heart'' (Cape Road 2018)
*
Amber Rubarth
Amber Rubarth is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She has toured extensively throughout Europe, North America, Japan, South Korea and South Africa .
Winner of the NPR Mountain Stage New Song Contest, her eighth album, ‘Wildflowers ...
, ''A Common Case of Disappearing'' (Newsong, 2011)
*
Jenny Scheinman
Jenny Scheinman is a jazz violinist. She has produced several critically acclaimed solo albums, including ''12 Songs'', named one of the Top Ten Albums of 2005 by ''The New York Times''. She has played with Linda Perry, Norah Jones, Nels Cli ...
, ''The Rabbi's Lover'' (Tzadik, 2002)
*
Sex Mob, ''Din of Inequity'' (Columbia/Knitting Factory, 1998)
*
Todd Sickafoose
Todd Sickafoose is an American jazz and rock musician, composer, and producer/engineer from San Francisco, California.
He is best known for playing acoustic bass and keyboards with Ani DiFranco but has also led his own group, Todd Sickafoose's T ...
, ''Tiny Resistors'' (Cryptogramophone, 2008)
*
Svoy
Mikhail Tarasov (russian: link=no, Михаи́л Тара́сов), better known by his stage name Svoy (which can be loosely translated as "self-contained"), is an American producer/writer/artist for Universal Music Group in the genre of pop/el ...
,
''Automatons'' (P-Vine, 2009)
*
Son of the Velvet Rat
Son of the Velvet Rat is a folk noir band from Austria currently based in Joshua Tree, California.
History
Son of the Velvet Rat was founded in 2003 by Austrian songwriter Georg Altziebler and organist and accordionist Heike Binder. Their styl ...
, ''Dorado'' (Fluff and Gravy, 2017)
*
Leni Stern
Leni Stern (born 28 April 1952) is a German jazz guitarist and singer.
Early life
Stern was born Magdalena Thora, in Germany on 28 April 1952. She was interested in music from an early age, beginning piano studies at the age of six and takin ...
, ''Finally the Rain Has Come'' (Metalimbo, 2003)
*
Allen Toussaint
Allen Richard Toussaint (; January 14, 1938 – November 10, 2015) was an American musician, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was an influential figure in New Orleans rhythm and blues from the 1950s to the end of the century, describ ...
, ''American Tunes'' (Nonesuch, 2016)
*
Noe Venable, ''The Summer Storm Journals'' (Petridish, 2007)
*
Vulfpeck
Vulfpeck is an American funk band founded in 2011 by Jack Stratton, Theo Katzman, Woody Goss and Joe Dart. The band has released four extended plays, five studio albums and a live album, having released all of their music independently. The band ...
, ''The Beautiful Game'' (P-Vine, 2016)
*
Rufus Wainwright
Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright (born July 22, 1973) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter, and composer. He has recorded 10 studio albums and numerous tracks on compilations and film soundtracks. He has also written two classical operas and se ...
, ''Unfollow the Rules'' (BMG, 2020)
*
Chely Wright
Chely Wright (born Richell Rene Wright; October 25, 1970) is an American activist, author and country music artist. She initially rose to fame as a commercial country recording artist with several charting singles, including the number one hit, ...
, ''I Am the Rain'' (Painted Red, 2016)
Bibliography
* ''Jazz Guitar Sight-Reading'' (Alfred Music, 1997)
* ''Play the Right Stuff – Creating Great Guitar Parts'', (Alfred Music, 2006), DVD & online course
* ''50 Low Down Rhythms You Must Know'', (Truefire, 2013), DVD & online course
* ''Rhythm Makeover with Adam Levy'', (Truefire, 2014), DVD & online course
* ''Essentials: Slow Burn Soloing – Introduction'' (Truefire, 2015), DVD & online course
* ''Guitar Tips'' YouTube series
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Levy, Adam
Living people
1966 births
Guitarists from California
American jazz guitarists
20th-century American guitarists
Jazz musicians from California
Trevor Dunn's Trio-Convulsant members