John Levy
John Levy (April 11, 1912 – January 20, 2012) was an American jazz double-bassist and businessman.
John Levy
British ethnomusicologist.
William P. Gottlieb · This image is available from the United States Library of Congress 's Music Division under the digital ID gottlieb.04671. This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A norma · Public domain
- Name
- John Levy
- Born
- 11 April 1912
- Birthplace
- New Orleans, Louisiana
- Died
- 20 January 2012
- Place of death
- Altadena, California
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- businessperson · double-bassist · music executive · musician
- Fields
- jazz
- Honours
- NEA Jazz Masters
- Languages
- English
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John Levy (April 11, 1912 – January 20, 2012) was an American jazz double-bassist and businessman.
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museum · fa95590e-9b73-44a7-92d5-3f27814fbeff · wikidata · Q1374878
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — John Levy • Born — 11 April 1912 • Birthplace — New Orleans, Louisiana • Died — 20 January 2012 • Place of death — Altadena, California • Instrument — bass
Life
Life
Levy was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1944, he left his family home in Chicago, Illinois, and moved to New York City where he played bass for such jazz musicians as Ben Webster, Erroll Garner, Milt Jackson, and Billie Holiday. In 1949, he became the bassist in the original George Shearing Quintet, where he also acted as Shearing's road manager. In 1951, Levy opened John Levy Enterprises, Inc., becoming the first African-American personal manager in the pop or jazz music field. By the 1960s, Levy's client roster included Shearing, Nancy Wilson, Joe Williams, Cannonball Adderley, Ramsey Lewis, Billy Taylor, and Nikki Price, as well as Shirley Horn and Soul singer Jimmie Raye. In 1997, Levy was inducted into the International Jazz Hall of Fame, and in 2006 he was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts. He died on January 20, 2012, aged 99, in Altadena, California.
Identity
Identity
John Levy is recorded as businessperson, double-bassist, music executive and musician.
John Levy (left) and Phil Moore (foreground), New York, N.Y., between 1946 and 1948 (Photograph by William P. Gottlieb)
William P. Gottlieb · This image is available from the United States Library of Congress 's Music Division under the digital ID gottlieb.06391. This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A norma
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
2012
John Levy died in 2012 at Altadena.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
GB.
Country
John Levy was born in New Orleans.
Birthplace
John Levy died in Altadena.
Deathplace
New Orleans.
Birth place
Altadena.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
Institutional database
- MusicBrainz artist record for John Levy
Scholarly · MetaBrainz Foundation
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q1374878: John Levy
General reference · Wikidata
Literature
Scholarly footprint
A count of publications is evidence of attention, not of standing, and is given here only as a measure.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.John Levy. idvl.org.
- 2.Marc Myers. Interview: John Levy (Part 2). jazzwax.com.
- 3.John Levy s'achète sa première contrebasse au début des années 1940, une contrebasse blanche en contreplaqué qui le fait remarquer.
- 4.John Levy Biography. allaboutjazz.com.
- 5.Pour devenir membre du Stuff Smith Trio, John Levy s'était lié d'amitié avec Harry Gray, le responsable de l'union des musiciens noirs de Chicago, qui l'informe que Stuff Smith cherche des musiciens pour former un trio. Gray recommande Levy pour ce nouveau trio et l'associe au pianiste Raymond Walters, qui est rapidement remplacé par Jimmy Jones.
- 6.The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press. 2007. 978-0-19-988640-1.
- 7.Dictionnaire du jazz. Robert Laffont. 1994. 978-2-221-07822-8.
- 8.John Levy remplace alors Trixie Blayes, qui dirige le quintet depuis trois ans mais doit arrêter pour des raisons de santé.
- 9.Lullaby of Birdland. Continuum International Publishing Group. 2005. 978-0-8264-1724-4.
- 10.Lara. Pellegrinelli. Around the horn with Shirley. jazztime. 31. mai. 2001. 252. 0272-572X. 29 janvier 2012.
- 11.John Levy fait enregistrer Nancy Wilson en 1959 et ils continueront à collaborer en studio d'enregistrement durant près de 20 ans.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
Institutional database
MusicBrainz artist record for John LevyMetaBrainz Foundation
Institutional witnessauthority record
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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