Nick Levinovsky
-
Jazz
-
Location:
ASIA: Russian Fed. :Volga Region -
Record Label:
ACM Records -
AirPlay Direct Link:
AirPlayDirect.com/NickLevinovsky
- Second Wind
- Listen Up!
- Kind of Red
- It Was Then
- Quiz
- Last Flight
-
Second Wind
Genre: Jazz
MP3 (07:58) [18.25 MB] -
Listen Up!
Genre: Jazz
MP3 (07:46) [17.78 MB] -
Kind of Red
Genre: Jazz
MP3 (08:33) [19.57 MB] -
It Was Then
Genre: Jazz
MP3 (08:32) [19.52 MB] -
Quiz
Genre: (Choose a Genre)
MP3 (06:31) [14.92 MB] -
Last Flight
Genre: (Choose a Genre)
MP3 (06:30) [14.87 MB]
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Biography
- Peter Watrous, New York Times
"Nick Levinovsky is an undoubted talent... highly recommended."
- Gary Burton
"...world class ability."
- Ira Gitler
On Quiz the song That's All was selected to be in the film Revolution '67 that has been selected to recieve the fifteenth John O'Connor Film Award of the American Historical Association .
As a young boy growing up in Saratov in the former Soviet Union , Nick Levinovsky was expected to become a classical pianist or orchestral conductor. His parents, both opera singers, started their son on the piano at age 6. Gifted though he was, Levinovsky nevertheless drifted through his musical training until one day when his father tuned their short-wave radio to the Voice of America and jazz entered Levinovsky's life for the first time. "I was knocked out," Levinovsky recalls about that day when he was just 13. He had never heard music so alive, music that spoke directly to him. "Jazz turned my life upside down," and from then on Levinovsky knew what he wanted to do, what he had to do - be a jazzman.
Levinovsky went to the Saratov State Conservatory of Music to study composition, piano and theory. He entered the Soviet Army and was soon leading the jazz ensemble for the army orchestra, which won the grand prize at the local jazz festival. After his military service, Levinovsky formed a quartet and began to combine modern jazz techniques with Russian folk music.
Gaining recognition from his performances at jazz festivals and on Soviet radio, Levinovsky soon came to Moscow and became music director and arranger for the top jazz bands in the city. He met and jammed with all the jazz greats passing through Moscow - including Duke Ellington , Dave Brubeck , Chick Corea , Milt Hilton , Thad Jones and Dick Hyman - and he played piano on a recording by Ray Coniff , the first American artist to record in the USSR.
In 1978 Levinovsky formed his own group, Allegro , and quickly became nationally famous. They recorded 8 LPs and Allegro was named best jazz band in the USSR . Levinovsky won musician of the year honors four times, one of the very few artists accorded that honor repeatedly.
As a member of the Union of Soviet Composers and the Jazz Federation , Levinovsky immigrated to New York. Since arriving in New York in 1990 Levinovsky has performed with Rafael Cruz and his Latin band, Wade Barnes and his septet, Major Holly , Tom Hurrell and many others. Levinovsky's charts are played by the Vangaard Orchestra and New York University's Jazz Orchestra , and his revived group, Allegro , has performed everywhere from Boston's Hancock Hall to the JVC Jazz Festival at Lincoln Center .
In 1996 Levinovsky and Jenkins formed the 17-piece Nick Levinovsky Big Band, whose debut CD, Listen Up! was celebrated at New York's Birdland . Jack Bowers noted in Cadence magazine that Levinovsky is an excellent jazz pianist and an even better composer/arranger whose memorable charts are the wings on which his band soars above the commonplace.
Contact: Eve Adams
201.796.0848
eve@acmrecords.com
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