Stan Levey

Stan Levey (born April 5, 1926 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , † April 19, 2005 in Van Nuys , California ) was an American jazz drummer . Levey dedicated himself to bebop in its time of creation and is considered one of the few accepted Euro-American musicians. He is also one of the most influential drummers in bebop, alongside Kenny Clarke and Max Roach .

Career

In his youth, Levey boxed, presumably because his father was a car salesman and boxing promoter, and thought about a career in it, but then decided on music. That episode ran from 1943 to 1949. He even made a fight in Madison Square Garden during that time and was even on a poster with Joe Louis .

At the same time, Levey was teaching himself to play the drums, introducing his own left-handed technique. In 1942 he played in Philadelphia with Dizzy Gillespie . He went to a club where Dizzy was the main act and persuaded the trumpeter to let him play the drums. Dizzy was so impressed with Levey's playing that he persuaded him to play in his band full-time. So Stan finished high school and played at night and cleaned cars with his father during the day. He later moved to New York City with Dizzy and worked there, still with Dizzy, with Charlie Parker and Oscar Pettiford . He later played in the big band of Stan Kenton , on whose album New Concepts of Artistry in Rhythm he participated. With this band he went to the west coast in 1954, where he met Howard Rumsey and the Lighthouse All-Stars . Here he exerted a strong influence on West Coast jazz , but also worked in the studios.

He has played in over 2,000 recordings with Coleman Hawkins , Art Tatum , Ben Webster , Dexter Gordon , Erroll Garner , Miles Davis , George Shearing , Lester Young , Roy Eldridge , Zoot Sims , Al Cohn , Stan Getz , John Lewis , Ray Brown, among others , Sonny Stitt , Barney Bigard , Gerry Mulligan , Lee Konitz , Bud Shank , Charlie Ventura , Scott LaFaro , Victor Feldman , Art Pepper , Oscar Peterson , Ella Fitzgerald , Peggy Lee , Frank Sinatra , Barbra Streisand , Vic Damone , Nancy Wilson , Nat King Cole , Sarah Vaughan , Billie Holiday , June Christy , Mel Tormé and The Supremes .

He also contributed to the big bands of Benny Goodman , Woody Herman , Quincy Jones , Charlie Ventura , Nelson Riddle , Billy May and Skitch Henderson and also played with "The Tonight Show Band".

His drums can also be heard in over 300 film productions. Among other things, he wrote the music for five Disney documentaries. He was also involved in over 3,000 television productions such as E.g. Batman , Mission: Impossible , The Munsters , The Addams Family .

He also released several albums with his own quintet and recorded the album Drummin 'the Blues with his friend Max Roach .

In 1973 he retired from the music business and began a second career as a commercial photographer. Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts described this retreat as "a great loss to jazz" . Stan never appeared in public again, but did take photos for albums, preferably by artists he had previously played with. In 2004 Arthur Shelby Pritz released the biographical documentary Stan Levey: The Original Original . Levey died of complications from cancer on April 19 (or 20), 2005, and was buried on April 23, 2005. He had three sons.

literature

• Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon. Volume 1: A – L (= rororo-Sachbuch. Vol. 16512). 2nd Edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-499-16512-0 .
• Frank R. Hayde: Stan Levey: Jazz Heavyweight. Santa Monica Press, 2016.

Discographic notes

• Stanley the Steamer (1954)
• Plays Bob Cooper , Bill Holman , Jimmy Giuffre (1954)
• West Coasting (1955)
• Stan Levey (1955)
• This Time the Drum's on Me (1955)
• Grand Stan (1956)
• Stan Levey 5 (1957)
• Drummin 'the Blues (1957)
• Stan Levey Quartet (1957)

Web links

• Reminder page
• Obituary in The New York Times
• Obituary by Todd Jenkins