Sean Levitt

[Dutchbopper]

New Blog entry at:

Dutchbopper's Jazz Guitar Blog: Another unsing hero of the jazz guitar: Sean Levitt

Have fun,

DB

[va3ux]

Good Blog post Dick. Never heard of Sean before.

[MarkRhodes]

Great post, DB!

Someone posted a clip of him backing a singer on "When Sunny Gets Blue" and that was the first I had heard of him. Really fine player.

[jbernstein91]

This has been posted on jazzguitar.be before, but it's worth flagging again -- an audio recording of Sean Levitt playing with Kurt Rosenwinkel. Check out Levitt's solo on "I Remember You" at the start of the recording, particularly the section from around 2:30-3:03:

[destinytot]

New Blog entry at:

Dutchbopper's Jazz Guitar Blog: Another unsing hero of the jazz guitar: Sean Levitt

Have fun,

DB

Nice post.

Cut and pasted from another thread on Sean:

As this is my first post to the site, I'll start by saying hello.

Sean lived with me for six or seven months in the late '80s. I challenged him directly about his self-destructive behaviour, doing my naïve best to help him in constructive ways - a decision that I'll never regret. I moved away and didn't see him again until May '92, when I flew out especially to hear him play at a small club. It was very heartening to see him looking so well that night - and to hear him sounding so sublime, too. Moreover, he was keeping good musical company at last.

Mike

[edh]

I just ran across this thread. I had never heard of him. He sounds great, I'll have to check out some of his albums.

Thx DB.

[DaveWoods]

I knew Sean very well. He lived with me for awhile in my apartment at 146 west 10th St. in the village, NYC. I think at that time he'd been living in Spain. He'd come back to the states to see if he could get a start here. He was staying with me, and another great unsung player Eddie Diehl. At that time, he was only 20 years old, but played like a seasoned master far beyond his years. Sean had two brothers George, Billy,and a sister, I don't remember her name. She was a singer too. George had learned drums from Al Levitt. Billy wasn't into music. Sean had the good luck to have been born to talented jazz musicians. Stella his mother was a wonderful jazz singer, and of course Al, a great drummer. Stella was a Mexican Gypsy, and Sean was half Gypsy. Sean's biological father's name was O'Rourke. All Levitt was his step father. Sean was born into a musical context, that for jazz, you couldn't ask for better. Sean told me that every night the kids went to bed with Charlie Parker with Strings.The down side of it was the drug addiction. The kids were taken away, and put into foster care. later, the family reunited. This experience scarred Sean deeply. He had a deep sadness, always there, even when he smiled. some of the stories he told me about foster care curled my hair. Back then he did not do drugs. Alcohol was his thing. I learned a lot from Sean about guitar, jazz, life, and music in general. I helped him, he helped me. He left, and went back to Spain, and called me from there a few times. He was accepted by the Gypsies in Spain and France, because he was half Gypsy. He learned from them as well. Next, he called me and Eddie Diehl from France. Sean told me that in Spain, he'd become addicted to heroin and he was on methadone maintenance, according to Eddie, for years. Next, I heard From Eddie that Sean, in an unsupervised effort to kick the methadone had died in his sleep. He was not only a great player, he was a great teacher, I can attest to that. Dave Woods

[destinytot]

Sean with Barry Harris and Joshua Edelman (third photo down, b/w): Joshua Edelman | LO OTRO

[Phil in London]

Cool blog... thanks!

[destinytot]

"Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone?"
(From Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi.)

Sean was Ulysses. The clarity with which he taught musical values was such that it enabled me to mitigate the effects of the chip on my shoulder. Those values shall prevail.

[55barfly]

Great post, DB!

Someone posted a clip of him backing a singer on "When Sunny Gets Blue" and that was the first I had heard of him. Really fine player.

The singer was Sean's mother, Stella Levitt. In her 70s when this was recorded. The album is From Paris With Love.

She was a fine singer in her day. Another under-recognised member of the Levitt family.

[drivebyshooting]

This has been posted on jazzguitar.be before, but it's worth flagging again -- an audio recording of Sean Levitt playing with Kurt Rosenwinkel. Check out Levitt's solo on "I Remember You" at the start of the recording, particularly the section from around 2:30-3:03:

Rosenwinkel sounds so much better than Levitt when he finally appears on Confirmation, and typically there has been not one comment here about Rosenwinkel's amazing playing on this.

[destinytot]

Rosenwinkel sounds so much better than Levitt when he finally appears on Confirmation, and typically there has been not one comment here about Rosenwinkel's amazing playing on this.

Actually, Mr Rosenwinkel appears first - playing the head and then soloing @18:30.

Those superior 'jazz' stylings heard at @25:00 belong to Mr Levitt.

[55barfly]

Rosenwinkel sounds so much better than Levitt when he finally appears on Confirmation, and typically there has been not one comment here about Rosenwinkel's amazing playing on this.

Yeah, I have to agree with destinytot, without any doubt Sean takes the second solo on Confirmation.

[drivebyshooting]

When did I ever imply Rosenwinkel took the second solo????

I said when he finally appears (he doesn't play for the first two songs - I remember you and Airegin) on Confirmation.
And he sounds magnificent. The originality and concept and everything is leagues
beyond Levitt's bebop retread. No comparison really - if you have an open mind/open ears.
It's puzzling how nobody ever even mentioned just how incredible Rosenwinkel sounds on this - people (as usual) stick with what they know/are comfortable with.

[mr. beaumont]

Ah, drivebyposting.

[Stevebol]

Great post, DB!

Someone posted a clip of him backing a singer on "When Sunny Gets Blue" and that was the first I had heard of him. Really fine player.

Not to distract from Sean Levitt but I finally found this 70's gem I'd been searching for;

[destinytot]

When did I ever imply Rosenwinkel took the second solo????

I said when he finally appears (he doesn't play for the first two songs - I remember you and Airegin) on Confirmation.
And he sounds magnificent. The originality and concept and everything is leagues
beyond Levitt's bebop retread. No comparison really - if you have an open mind/open ears.
It's puzzling how nobody ever even mentioned just how incredible Rosenwinkel sounds on this - people (as usual) stick with what they know/are comfortable with.

Actually, Mr Rosenwinkel first appears @8:00 - for it is he who plays out the head of the aptly-titled I Remember You.

[destinytot]

Not to distract from Sean Levitt but I finally found this 70's gem I'd been searching for;

Big fan of Jimmy Ponder here.

[destinytot]

Sean Levitt was that rarest of things, and the genuine article: a 'jazz' musician who played sophisticated 'bebop' - on guitar.

I agree that Mr Rosenwinkel plays superbly.

That said, and getting personal, I'm actually pretty high in openness - but I have criteria, and I know where to draw the line.

[drivebyshooting]

Sean Levitt was that rarest of things, and the genuine article: a 'jazz' musician who played sophisticated 'bebop' - on guitar.

I agree that Mr Rosenwinkel plays superbly.

That said, and getting personal, I'm actually pretty high in openness - but I have criteria, and I know where to draw the line.

Sure Levitt is a decent player, but nowhere near a Billy Bean or Ronnie Singer, for example. Why on earth would a young guy be playing the music of his great grandparents? It's weird.
Sure, use some of that stuff in there like Metheny or Rosenwinkel, but it's ALWAYS weird when a cat tries to cop a bygone era. Grasso is the weirdest in that regard. These are cats who probably know countless standards but couldn't get through a shuffle or reggae and sound convincing.
Weird and nerdy.

[destinytot]

Sure Levitt is a decent player, but nowhere near a Billy Bean or Ronnie Singer, for example. Why on earth would a young guy be playing the music of his great grandparents? It's weird.
Sure, use some of that stuff in there like Metheny or Rosenwinkel, but it's ALWAYS weird when a cat tries to cop a bygone era. Grasso is the weirdest in that regard. These are cats who probably know countless standards but couldn't get through a shuffle or reggae and sound convincing.
Weird and nerdy.

Sean's favourite guitarist was BB King. I've heard Sean play Chuck Berry (and I've seen him duck walk - playfully, but earnestly). Nincompoop that I was, that did strike me as 'weird and nerdy'.

[destinytot]

I'm relieved that Mr Drive-by, whom I assume to have shot himself in the foot, is no longer available for comment.

@2m10s: youthful, 'weird and nerdy' Mr Benson joins the fine singing and playing of the fine music of his great-grandparents:

[55barfly]

I'm relieved that Mr Drive-by, whom I assume to have shot himself in the foot, is no longer available for comment.

@2m10s: youthful, 'weird and nerdy' Mr Benson joins the fine singing and playing of the fine music of his great-grandparents:

That's a shame. I think he was just out to be controversial.

Bottom line is, if you get up to play with bebop musicians you have to have the vocabulary and, at that time anyway, Kurt's bebop was nowhere near as cultured or extensive as Sean's.

For me, Kurt's (whose albums and concert tickets I've been buying since 2005) best playing on this recording is on You Don't Know What Love Is - complete re-arrangement and much more his style.

[destinytot]

He sounded like a RBornman disciple. There are still a few crawling about here, but at least that's one less.

Sorry, I don't get the reference.