O Donell Levy

[fasstrack]

I was aware of him since the '70s. He was a BADASS, had it all: groove, touch, ideas, chops, sound---and a really nice feel for pop music.

I asked Michael Howell what ever happened to him? Apparently, he got fed up w/the music business (gee, what a surprise...), moved to Singapore and became some sort of priest. Died a few years back.

Here's a youtube page w/lots of his stuff, including Windows---which I own on CD. Some of the funk stuff is dated, bit still...:

o donell levy - YouTube

[Stuart Elliott]

I think I still have an LP with Levy and George Freeman as sidemen for Jack McDuff and Groove Holmes.

[fasstrack]

I think I still have an LP with Levy and George Freeman as sidemen for Jack McDuff and Groove Holmes.

Nathan Page was another one. Ray Macchiarolla (heavy swinger himself) used to always talk about him...

[Steven Herron]

I used to go hear O'Donell Levy back in the 70's when he was a regular at The King Of France Tavern in Annapolis, MD which was owned by Charlie Byrd. Sometimes he would play with his trio (guitar, bass and drums) and sometimes his trio would back up vocalist Ethel Ennis.

I got to hear O'Donell play at least a dozen different times and he was an incredible jazz guitarist. I mean this guy just smoked it with incredibly fast, creative and clean improvised lines and super fluent jazz chord solos and passages. He was a VERY exciting guitarist to hear live - one of those guys who somehow just kept getting better as the night wore on!

[paulkogut]

I have that Groove Holmes record too! I spent many nights sitting in with George Freeman at Sid's Tropical Den.... Another cat who deserves mention is Larry Frazier, seen here with Jimmy McGriff.

PK

[fasstrack]

I used to go hear O'Donell Levy back in the 70's when he was a regular at The King Of France Tavern in Annapolis, MD which was owned by Charlie Byrd. Sometimes he would play with his trio (guitar, bass and drums) and sometimes his trio would back up vocalist Ethel Ennis.

I got to hear O'Donell play at least a dozen different times and he was an incredible jazz guitarist. I mean this guy just smoked it with incredibly fast, creative and clean improvised lines and super fluent jazz chord solos and passages. He was a VERY exciting guitarist to hear live - one of those guys who somehow just kept getting better as the night wore on!

Steven Herron
Learn To Play Chord Melody Guitar

Yeah, sorry I never caught him live. I can tell he could give you chills...

[fasstrack]

I have that Groove Holmes record too! I spent many nights sitting in with George Freeman at Sid's Tropical Den.... Another cat who deserves mention is Larry Frazier, seen here with Jimmy McGriff.

PK

Also, Thornell Schwartz (weird about ther black guys with names from other ethnic groups---I think Schwartz was actually a Jew), I believe the first guitarist in the Jimmy Smith Trio. Eddie McFadden was good, too, but (I THINK) came later.

Then, there was Bill Jennings, first with McDuff. He also made a hard-to-get record with Leo Parker...

[fasstrack]

Joe Pass also made one date---just 'passing' through---with Holmes, After Hours:

[Danny W.]

A bunch of years ago I found four of his LP's in a cutout bin and had no idea who he was. Two of them knocked me out, two were too commercial, but all of it was good music. It took me a few more years to realize that he was Butch Levy, who I had heard a few times many years earlier and was always impressed.

Danny W.

[fasstrack]

A bunch of years ago I found four of his LP's in a cutout bin and had no idea who he was. Two of them knocked me out, two were too commercial, but all of it was good music. It took me a few more years to realize that he was Butch Levy, who I had heard a few times many years earlier and was always impressed.

Danny W.

? BUTCH Levy?

[wintermoon]

his nickname

[neatomic]

while we are in the soul/organ jazz mode..how about boogaloo joe jones...atlantic citys finest!!

also dig the late great cornell dupree..vey unique stylist


cheers

[wintermoon]

Wilbert Longmire too!

[wintermoon]

while we are in the soul/organ jazz mode..how about boogaloo joe jones...atlantic citys finest!!

also dig the late great cornell dupree..vey unique stylist


cheers

I came this close to buying Ivan's Super 400 a couple yrs ago.

[wintermoon]

How could I forget the late Jimmy Ponder?
and the not-late Wally Richardson...

[AndyV]

In the same funky pop vein, I always wondered why jazzers didn't tackle this Chicago 70s radio mainstay but low and behold, Grant Green did:

[fasstrack]

In the same funky pop vein, I always wondered why jazzers didn't tackle this Chicago 70s radio mainstay but low and behold, Grant Green did:

A good match. His sound is made to order for these songs. I think he does We've Only Just Begun on this recording. The vamp was too long IMO, and didn't build or go anywhere that interesting, though.

Good stuff...

[ingeneri]

I learned about O'Donel Levy from a mentor of mine in DC. He was a Baltimore cat who had played with Lou Donaldson and Groove Holmes and knew Levy from the soul jazz circuit. My understanding is Levy did play while he was in Singapore, which has a nice underrated scene with a cadre of great American and U.S. trained players. This mentor always asked about Levy after he learned I was travelling to Singapore regularly. Sadly, Levy was inactive by then, so I didn't get to see him either when I was visiting Singapore in 2009 or later when I lived "next door" in Malaysia from 2011-2014. Wish there were more cats who played both soulfully and substantively like Levy.

[fasstrack]

Good to hear he found a music scene there...

[gfadeley]

Wintermoon, do you know if Boogaloo Joe is still around? He's one of my favorite players, but he kind of dropped off the face of the earth in the 70s...