Tune in to the Musician’s Show this Wednesday, October 25th from 6-9 PM ET for a live interview with keyboardist and arranger Pete Levin.
In a diverse music career spanning several decades, Levin has performed and recorded with hundreds of Jazz and Pop artists - including Paul Simon, Annie Lennox, Miles Davis, David Sanborn, Lenny White, Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, Robbie Robertson and John Scofield - receiving critical accolades for his work during a 15 year association with the legendary Gil Evans, and his 8 year stint with jazz icon Jimmy Giuffre.
Since the 70s, Pete has been part of New York's jazz, pop, and electronic music scene. In 1974 he got a call to play French horn with legendary jazz arranger Gil Evans, and Gil made him a regular. As an experiment, Pete brought a Moog synthesizer to an Evans gig. Gil loved it and Pete's role was permanently changed, beginning the transformation of the band into the electronic/acoustic hybrid sound that won 2 Grammy awards. Among the first to explore synthesizers during the 70s, Pete became a sought-after sideman for studio and live gigs. As an arranger and musician he worked on dozens of film scores, hundreds of jazz and pop records, and countless TV and radio commercials. Over the years, interspersed with Gil Evans, Paul Simon, Annie Lennox and Jimmy Giuffre tours, Pete has done arranging and electronic music for feature films including MISSING IN ACTION, THE COLOR OF MONEY and STAR TREK. He composed the orchestral score for the independent film ZELIMO, composed an original music score for a stage production of THE DYBBUK, did the official band/chorus arrangement of the U.S. Infantry song and composed the anthem for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit, performing it in the U.N. General Assembly. But his favorite collaboration was “THE CLAMS” with his brother, bassist Tony Levin and drummer Steve Gadd, a Spike Jones tribute band that produced the top-40 hit single "CLOSE TO YOU" that’s now a cult classic.
In 1989 Pete released his first solo jazz album, "PARTY IN THE BASEMENT", for Gramavision Records. This was followed by "SOLITARY MAN", two unique jazz Christmas CDs with drummer Danny Gottlieb, and through the 90s, a series of electronic music albums for Alternate Mode Reords. In 2006, Pete revisited his first love, the Hammond Organ, releasing 5 organ trio albums, beginning with "DEACON BLUES" for Motema, and culminating with “JUMP!” in 2010. In 2017, Pete recorded “MöBIUS,” a self-released album in coordination with IYouWe Records, bringing together a 7-piece all-star band.
In addition to touring with the Levin Brothers, a jazz quartet co-led by bassist Tony Levin, the MöBIUS band will begin touring in late 2017.
