Hank Levy

Henry Jacob "Hank" Levy (September 27, 1927 – September 18, 2001) was a Jewish American jazz composer and saxophonist whose works often employed unusual time signatures. He is best known as a big band composer for Stan Kenton and the Don Ellis Orchestra, as well as the founder and long-time director of Towson University’s Jazz Program. Levy was born in Baltimore. His interest in odd meters pre-dated Dave Brubeck's Time Out album. He studied composition with George Thaddeus Jones at Catholic University in Washington, DC, and became interested in odd meters through their use by such composers as Paul Hindemith, Maurice Ravel, and Igor Stravinsky. He was also a particularly good composer of counterpoint, which can be heard in such compositions as Passacaglia and Fugue (recorded by Don Ellis on "Live At Monterey") and Quintessence (performed, but not recorded by, Stan Kenton). Levy was also prolific as an arranger of jazz standards, though few of these arrangements were published during his lifetime. He was especially fond of the music of the stage as it came through bebop: Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern. In his last years, he more frequently turned to bebop originals, tunes by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Tadd Dameron. Though the odd meters he was associated with rarely appeared in these arrangements, and were typically conventional in respect to style, they often displayed a distinctive creativity. Levy began his full-time college teaching career at Towson State University in late 1967 creating "The Towson State Jazz Ensemble". By 1970, his hard work and passion for teaching brought the band to national prominence when his Towson State Jazz Ensemble competed and won the outstanding band honors at the prestigious Notre Dame Jazz Festival. Additional honors went to Levy's lead trumpet player, Tony Neenan who was voted "Best Lead Trumpet" of the festival. Levy died in Parkville, Maryland. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.