Gtaranaki 2010

Tony Levin was born in Boston on June 6, 1946. He grew up in the suburb of Brookline and began playing upright bass at 10 yrs old. In high school, he picked up tuba, soloing with the concert band. He also started a barbershop quartet. But he primarily played classical music on the upright, most notably performing at the White House with Marvin Rabin's Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra for John and Jackie Kennedy.

He then attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY and played in the Rochester Philharmonic. Also at the school was Steve Gadd, now a renowned drummer, who introduced Tony to playing a higher level of jazz and rock. He traded in his Ampeg baby bass for an old (at that time) Fender Precision bass, which was his only instrument for many years.  Moving to New York City, he began working as a session musician and through the 1970s he played bass on many albums.

In the late '70s wanting to do more live playing, Tony joined Peter Gabriel's band. He had met Peter through producer Bob Ezrin (with whom Tony had recorded Alice Cooper's Welcome to My Nightmare, and Lou Reed's Berlin.) Tony has played with Gabriel, both on the road and in the studio, since then. On that first Peter Gabriel album, Tony played some tuba as well as bass, and directed a short barbershop quartet intro to the song “Excuse Me.”

It was in these early years with Gabriel that Tony switched to playing Music Man basses, and also developed his playing of the Chapman Stick - an instrument resembling a wide guitar neck, with between 8 and 12 strings and played by tapping and fretting using both hands, as opposed to picking or strumming.

The song “Big Time” from Gabriel's So album, inspired Tony to develop Funk Fingers, which are chopped off drumsticks used to hammer on the bass strings. Levin credits Gabriel with the idea, and Andy Moore, his tech at the time, with actually making them workable.

In 1978, Tony moved to Woodstock NY, to join the band L'Image, which included his old friend Steve Gadd, as well as Mike Mainieri and Warren Bernhardt. The band, which did some very special music, broke up after a year, and Tony stayed in Woodstock, where he still lives.

On Peter Gabriel's first album, Tony met Robert Fripp and in 1980 after having played on Fripp's solo album Exposure, he became a member of the '80s incarnation of King Crimson. The band has changed form a few times in the years since then, but Levin continues to be a member - having last toured with the band in 2008.

Through the years, Tony has recorded or toured with a stellar list of artists including Paul Simon (with whom Tony appeared in Simon's 1980 film One Trick Pony), John Lennon, James Taylor, Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper, Lou Reed, Liquid Tension Experiment, Judy Collins, Carly Simon, Buddy Rich, David Bowie, Chuck Mangione, Peter Frampton, Paula Cole, Sarah McLachlan, Anderson/Bruford/Wakeman/Howe, Stevie Nicks and Tim Finn.

Tony has also published several photo books, beginning in 1984 with Road Photos, a collection of black & white photos taken during his travels with Crimson, Gabriel, Simon and others. Soon following was the book Beyond the Bass Clef, featuring stories and essays about bass playing. Another photo book, Crimson Chronicles, volume 1, the 80s contains an extensive collection of his black and white photos of life on the road with the band.

He has released several solo albums, including World Diary, Waters of Eden, Resonator, Pieces of the Sun, and Stick Man.

In addition to being one of the most innovative musicians around, Tony operates one of the longest-running blogs on the internet, having begun an online road diary in 1996, before the term “blog” was even coined.  Check it out at his home page, http://www.papabear.com/