Gayle Levant

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gayle Levant Richards (also Gail Le Vant , * 1941 or 1942) is an American studio musician ( harp ) who worked for The Wrecking Crew for several years . Nat King Cole nicknamed her Little Bit .

Live and act

Gayle Levant began studying music at the age of three on the piano; at the age of eleven she was introduced to the harp. After studying orchestra at the University of Southern California and UCLA , she played with the Debut Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas . Levant had the opportunity to accompany Liberace at the age of 17 .

From 1965/66 Levant worked as a studio musician - soon often as part of the Wrecking Crew - with well-known artists such as Randy Newman , Van Dyke Parks , Gary Puckett & the Union Gap , José Feliciano , Judy Garland , Ray Charles , Stevie Wonder , Barry Manilow , Celine Dion , Josh Groban , Rod Stewart and Michael Bublé . In 1969 she began a musical collaboration with Barbra Streisand and was part of every recording project of the singer, be it for films or albums. From the 1970s she was also involved in recordings of The Carpenters ( Close to You , 1971), George Harrison and Paul McCartney & The Wings , as well as Frank Sinatra , James Taylor , Joni Mitchell , Michael Jackson , Lady Gaga and Lana Del Rey . According to Tom Lord , Levant also worked with Della Reese , Dom Minasi , Tom Waits , The Manhattan Transfer , Diane Schuur , Harry Connick junior , Natalie Cole , Kyle Eastwood , Jane Monheit and Frank Sinatra junior between 1972 and 2019 .

Levant also recorded pieces of classical music such as Bach's “Prelude in C” from The Well-Tempered Clavier . Her music can also be heard in a number of film scores , such as the theme song for the TV series The Simpsons , and in films such as Grease (1978), One with a Heart (1981), Grand Canyon - In the Heart of the City (1991), The Interpreter (2005), The best comes to the end (2007), Green Lantern (2011) and John Carter: Between Two Worlds (2012). During the six years that the TV series " Lost " aired, it produced a unique but eerie sound that the composer Michael Giacchino built into the music.

In 1977 she was awarded the Most Valuable Player's Award by NARAS for her contribution to the harp for the record industry . She received this award for three more years before receiving an emeritus award.

Levant's first marriage was to arranger, songwriter and pianist Artie Butler (* 1942), and his second marriage to former sound engineer John Richards, with whom she lives in Los Angeles.

Discographic notes

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Sarah Woolley: My harp will go on: meet Gayle Levant, Hollywood's favorite string-plucker. The Guardian, October 10, 2019, accessed July 9, 2020 .
  2. ↑ BEHIND THE GROOVES: a music blog by Jeff Harris
  3. ↑ Tom Lord The Jazz Discography (online, accessed July 8, 2020)
  4. ^ Note in Killing Me Softly: My Life in Music by Charles Fox
personal data
SURNAME Levant, Gayle
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American musician (harp)
DATE OF BIRTH 1941 or 1942