Traverse City’s The Alluvion will host Levy and his band for a Friday concert. The Local Spins interview with the trailblazing harmonica player.
Howard Levy: He sees “shapes and colors” when he plays. (Courtesy Photo)
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Some people’s names are synonymous with the instrument they invented: Adolphe Saxe and the saxophone, Robert Moog and the Moog synthesizer, Emmette Chapman and the Chapman electric stick.
Howard Levy didn’t invent the harmonica, but he has certainly reinvented it.
His ability to play notes that simply weren’t there before, and to do so in jazz, classical, blues, rock and folk settings is unique.
Put all that together with his amazing technique, and the sky’s the limit. He can and does play blues and folk music, though that folk music is as likely to be from Bulgaria or Brazil as America. He also plays classical, having released “Concerto for Diatonic Harmonica & Orchestra” and performed with numerous orchestras.
The Howard Levy 4: A quartet of leading jazz players. (Courtesy Photo)
Levy’s current band, the Howard Levy 4, includes three of Chicago’s leading jazz players: Chris Siebold on electric and acoustic guitars, Joshua Ramos on bass and Luiz Ewer ling on drums.
“Everyone can really play. There’s a lot of risk-taking and a lot of support. It’s thrilling for me to play with these guys,” Levy says.
They’ll all do so at 7:30 p.m. Friday (June 14) at The Alluvion in Traverse City. Advance tickets are $25 and available online at thealluvion.org. Admission is $30 at the door the day of the show.
“Chris has amazing technique and is really soulful. He plays acoustic and electric, any style. Joshua plays upright and electric and is experienced in many styles. He has great feel for Afro-Cuban (music), which I’m super into. I’ve known our drummer Luiz for many years. He has tremendous feel and is also a composer.”
FROM THE FLECKTONES TO A MYRIAD OF OTHER BANDS AND PROJECTS
Despite releasing some 17 albums as a leader or co-leader and performing on literally hundreds of other recordings (with everyone from Dolly Parton to Styx to Kenny Loggins), he’s still perhaps best-known as a member of Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, the hybrid jazz/bluegrass/world music band led by master banjoist Bela Fleck.
Levy first met Fleck backstage at the Winnipeg Folk Festival in 1987. The two began jamming and hit it off. A year later, when Fleck needed a band for a TV special, he called Levy along with Victor Wooten (bass) and his brother Roy (inventor of the electronic percussion instrument the drumitar). They became the Flecktones, and Levy was a member until 1992, then joined again in 2010.
Levy also works as part of Trio Globo, with Eugene Friesen on cello and Glen Velez on frame drums and percussion, and a duo with Siebold. He’s also a member of The Return of the Flock, a new version of the early ’70s jazz-rock band that featured a pre-Mahavishnu Jerry Goodman on violin.
Still Exciting: The band plays The Alluvion on Friday. (Courtesy Photo)
Why so many? Levy says he loves to continue exploring new colors and forms, on both harmonica and keyboards, and immersing himself in different kinds of music.
Levy’s virtuosity on harmonica perhaps overshadows his prowess on piano. But it’s the latter that helped formulate his ability on the former. He started on the keyboard at age 8, learning theory and classical music as well as almost immediately beginning to improvise, which he says felt completely natural to him.
It wasn’t until a decade later that he picked up a harmonica. He became enthralled with the instrument, but was dissatisfied with the need to switch harmonicas for various keys and the inability to play all the notes he could on piano. So he set about learning how to play notes that weren’t intended to be played on the harmonica. Now, the revolutionary technique he developed on by bending and overblowing transforms it into a fully chromatic instrument for the first time, giving him license to play material that others simply couldn’t.
Levy often plays harmonica with his eyes closed. “I see shapes and colors. Most of the time I visualize it as a piano,” he says. “Most of the time I play standing up so I can switch (instruments.”
The show at The Alluvion will feature jazz, Latin, Brazilian, blues, even odd-time signatures influenced by Indian music. “We’re doing mostly originals in different styles and they all feel good. It’s very exciting to me.”
VIDEO: The Howard Levy 4, “Midway to Midway”
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