THE NATION’S HIGHEST HONOR
IN THIS DISTINCTIVELY AMERICAN ART FORM
(SEPTEMBER 13, 2005 – LOS ANGELES, CA) National
Endowment for the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia announced today that John
Levy is one of the seven living legends of American music who will join
the ranks of the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters in
January. Levy will receive the A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy, for his career as a manager.
When notified, Levy said, “I have been in attendance at the last three
NEA Jazz Masters ceremonies and not in my wildest imagination did I
expect to ever receive this most prestigious award. To be so
honored for helping talented artists bring jazz and joy into the lives
of audiences is the thrill of a lifetime.”
Levy, the great-grandson of Louisiana slaves, was born in New Orleans
in 1912 and is considered to be the first black talent manager in jazz
and popular music. He has made millions of dollars for his clients
bringing them from sometimes-total anonymity to the rarefied atmosphere
of success.
The vast and impressive roster of notables handled by John Levy
over the past 50 years includes more than 85 artists, eight of whom are
already NEA Jazz Masters: Betty Carter, Herbie Hancock, Shirley Horn,
Ahmad Jamal, Abby Lincoln, Billy Taylor, Joe Williams, and Nancy
Wilson; and one more, Freddie Hubbard, who will join the ranks with him
in 2006. Other notable clients on the Levy roster through the years
include Cannonball Adderley, Ernie Andrews, Brook Benton, Randy
Crawford, Roberta Flack, Arsenio Hall, Eddie Harris, Johnny Hartman,
Henry Johnson, Etta Jones, Yusef Lateef, Ramsey Lewis, Herbie Mann,
Letta Mbulu, Les McCann, Wes Montgomery, Billy Paul, Dianne Reeves,
Marlena Shaw, George Shearing, Dakota Staton, Stanley Turrentine, Sarah
Vaughan, and Maxine Weldon.
Levy began his jazz career as a bassist. In 1944, he left Chicago
with the Stuff Smith Trio to play an extended engagement at the Onyx
club on New York City’s 52nd Street. Over the next years, he was
to play with many jazz notables, including Ben Webster, Buddy Rich,
Errol Garner, and Milt Jackson (also a Jazz Master), as well as with
Billie Holiday at her comeback performance at Carnegie Hall in 1948.
In 1949, George Shearing heard Levy play at Birdland with Buddy
Rich’s big band and hired him for his own group, which featured Buddy
DeFranco (yet another 2006 Jazz Master Fellow). As Levy toured
the country playing with the original George Shearing Quintet, he
gradually took on the role of road manager. Levy put aside performing
in 1951 to become the group’s full-time manager, making music-industry
history and establishing the career he would follow for the rest of his
life. Levy is still active today as manager of the legendary song
stylist Nancy Wilson and jazz vocalist Clairdee.
When “Men, Women, and Girl Singers” (Levy’s autobiography written
by his wife, Devra Hall Levy) was published in 2001, Levy said, “I’d
like to be remembered as someone who helped musicians and singers
spread the love of jazz around the world.” It seems only fitting that
the NEA honor him for that.
Initiated in 1982, the NEA Jazz Master title is the nation’s
highest honor in this distinctively American art form. Levy is
looking forward to joining his 2006 Fellows – Ray Barretto
(percussionist), Tony Bennett (vocalist), Bob Brookmeyer
(arranger-composer), Chick Corea (keyboardist), Buddy DeFranco (solo
instrumentalist, clarinet), and Freddy Hubbard (solo instrumentalist,
trumpet) – at the January 2006 awards ceremony in New York City.
NEA Jazz Master