Tony’s new album, BRINGING IT DOWN TO THE BASS will be released on Sept. 13th.
Years in the making, this album features not just Tony’s bass playing and compositions, but also 16 page booklet of his photo portraits of the basses used, AND an extraordinary cast of featured guest players
Pre-order at:
Streaming and all links:
The Dolby Atmos Mix will be at
The video of the first track, “Bringing It Down to the Bass”
The release will be in CD form, streaming, of course, and on Blu-Ray (with LPCM uncompressed 5.1 and 7.1, Dolby Atmos mixes, and four bonus tracks.) A special vinyl edition is coming later.
PLAYING on the album are:
on Drums: VINNIE COLAIUTA, STEVE GADD, MANU KATCHE, JERRY MAROTTA, PAT MASTELOTTO, MIKE PORTNOY and JEREMY STACEY
on Guitar: JOE CARO, ROBERT FRIPP, STEVE HUNTER, DOMINIC MILLER, MARKUS REUTER, EARL SLICK and DAVID TORN
on Keyboard: LARRY FAST, GARY HUSBAND, PETE LEVIN
Other players: Cello: LINNEA OLSSON - Violin: L. SHANKAR - Oboe: COLIN GATWOOD - Alto sax: ALEX FOSTER - Trumpet: CHRIS PASIN, JOSH SHPAK - Trombone: DON MIKKELSEN - Baritone sax: JAY COLLINS
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING: (from advance reviews)
Ohmigosh, my mind is blown on so many levels upon first listen! Such beautiful writing and playing
Ridiculously locked, heavy grooves.
Plenty of unexpected bass and vocal moments, laced with nuance and humor. Unbelievable guests cast … most of all just a very musical record.
Chris Jisi / Bass Magazine:
…he shatters the genre-barrier, with elements of jazz, rock, blues, classical, and ambient music woven into its colorful fabric. There’s even a barbershop quartet.
Something else that’s audible in Levin’s eighth solo album is his sense of joy
Premier Guitar Magazine
…it’s not all about that bass. Levin’s seventh solo album, and his first since 2007, is a autobiography of sorts, with the themes drawn from Levin’s musical life. It features a myriad of collaborators from his half-century-plus on the road and in the studio with Peter Gabriel, King Crimson and many, many others.
The sonic stew includes prog, jazz, thrash, a wee bit of classical, a whiff of barbershop quartet and you won’t be sure what’s around the corner.
Jim Sullivan / Pop music critic/feature writer, host of Boston Rock/Talk
The above photo is the cover of the booklet that’s in the CD package. It’s a composite; photos of a sculpture, and of me, posed to look something like the sculpture. And in the booklet, the two photos are accompanied by the following piece I wrote explaining it:
My father was an artist and an engineer, although he would have listed those in the opposite order.
In the early 1950’s he sculpted a jazz bass player out of mahogany - the player wrapped around and as one with his instrument, one hand high on the neck of the bass, the body is twisted, melting into the instrument. The face is featureless - head down, one ear pressed against the fingerboard, as players do to better hear their notes.
I was 8 years old then, and a few years later I would choose to play the bass, for reasons never examined. And now, many years later, I wonder about having lived with that singular work, and it’s quiet influence on me. I have become the embodiment of it, a hairless slim figure welded to his instrument.
And I marvel at the transformative aspect of art.
