Boston bassist Tony Levin became a valiant session-man during the 1970s
(Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel), began recording with
Mike Mainieri's tribal free-jazz experiment White Elephant (NYC Records, 1972)
and
was inducted in King Crimson in 1981.
While continuing both as a Fripp foot soldier and as a deluxe legionnaire for
Robbie Robertson, Laurie Anderson and others, Levin launched his solo career.
World Diary (Papa Bear, 1995) is, as the title implies, a survey of
world-music that couples Levin's bass and Chapman stick with all sorts of
ethnic instruments. The album surveys
chamber jazz (I Cry to the Dolphined Sea) and
progressive-rock (Etude in the Key of Guildford, with Bruford on drums),
but its core is represented by the timbric pairing of two or three instruments:
a duo with Indian violinist Shankar (Chasms),
a duo with Brian Yamakoshi on koto (The Sound of Goodbye),
a duo with Ayub Ogada on nyatiti and vocals (The Train),
a trio with Brian Yamakoshi on koto and Jerry Marotta on percussions (We Stand in Sapphire Silence),
a trio with Manu Katche on drums and Levon Minassian on doudouk (La Tristesse Amoureuse de la Nuit),
two orgies with the Nexus percussion ensemble (Espresso & the Bed of Nails and Heat),
etc.
From the Caves of the Iron Mountain (Papa Bear, 1997) is even better,
thanks to the two collaborators: bamboo flutist Steve Gorn and drummer Jerry
Marotta.
Bruford Levin Upper Extremities (Papa Bear, 1998) is a quartet with
drummer Bill Bruford, guitarist David Torn and trumpeter Chris Botti.
Levin formed another supergroup with drummer Terry Bozzio and guitarist Steve
Stevens, but the resulting albums,
Black Light Syndrome (Magna Carta, 1997) and
Situation Dangerous (Magna Carta, 2000), are not up to their fame.
Levin also plays in a Jordan Rudess-led
Dream Theater side project that released
Liquid Tension Experiment (Magna Carta, 1998) and
Liquid Tension Experiment 2 (Magna Carta, 2000).
Waters of Eden (Narada, 2000) and
Pieces of Sun (Narada, 2001), both with
Jerry Marotta on drums and Larry Fast on synthesizer,
blended fusion jazz, progressive-rock and new-age music.
Resonator (Narada, 2006) was the album of an aging singer-songwriter.
The instrumental album Levin Torn White documented a collaboration among Tony Levin, David Torn and Alan White.
