John Levy

Jimmy Jones and John Levy (back), 1947.
Photograph by William P. Gottlieb .

John O. Levy (* 11. April 1912 in New Orleans , † 20 January 2012 in Altadena , Los Angeles County ) was an American jazz - bassist . From 1951 he worked as a manager for musicians and was the first African-American owner of an artist agency for jazz and pop musicians.

Live and act

Levy grew up in Chicago and learned the violin when he was eight; At the age of fifteen he switched to the piano. At the age of 17 he decided to play the double bass . He worked with Earl Hines , Tiny Parham and Red Saunders for the next several years before joining the Stuff Smith trio in 1943 . In 1944 he moved to New York , where he played with Smith at the Onyx Club and accompanied jazz greats such as Ben Webster , Erroll Garner , Milt Jackson or Billie Holiday (concert in Carnegie Hall in 1948 ) and with Lennie Tristano and Rex Stewart as well Eddie Condon recorded. In 1948 he became the bass player in the George Shearing Quartet and at the same time its road manager. In 1951 he turned this experience into a business and founded the artist agency Levy Inc., which he ran and which was active in the field of jazz and pop music . In addition to shearing, he also supervised a. Nancy Wilson , Cannonball Adderley , Wes Montgomery , Dakota Staton , Betty Carter , Randy Crawford , Roberta Flack , Sarah Vaughan , Dianne Reeves , Joe Williams , Shirley Horn , Eddie Harris , Les McCann , Stanley Turrentine , Freddie Hubbard , Herbie Hancock , Yusef Lateef and Ramsey Lewis . In particular, he ensured the consistent exploitation of their publication rights. He also organized concerts and was a record producer.

In 1997 he was inducted into the International Jazz Hall of Fame . In 2006 he received the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship .

Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .

personal data
SURNAME	Levy, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Levy, John O.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American jazz bassist and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH	April 11, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH	New Orleans
DATE OF DEATH	January 20, 2012
Place of death	Altadena , Los Angeles County