Sean Levitt
Bill C
jazzguitar.be and has some stuff on eMusic - beautiful sound imo ...
sheetsofsound
> Does anyone know anything about this player? He was mentioned at
> jazzguitar.be and has some stuff on eMusic - beautiful sound imo ...
i don't know anything about him. I bought one of his cds from emusic a
while ago. I asked here. You might try a search . I can't remember
what was said...
Bob Russell
> jazzguitar.be and has some stuff on eMusic - beautiful sound imo ...
He was a really fine jazz player. I haven't been able to find out much
about him, but from what I understand, he was from a musical family.
His dad was a drummer and his mom was a singer; his siblings were
musicians as well. The family did an album when Sean was just a little
kid; a very young Chick Corea was also on the record. Apparently, Sean
went through a lot of drug problems and was in and out of rehab; he
died in his fifties, just a few years ago.
I stumbled across his music totally by accident a couple of years ago
and was knocked out by his sound and his creativity. We lost a great
one there.
dwabeslim
Al Leavitt ex tristano drummer and long time Paris resident. Al died a
few years back are you sure Sean passed as well?
Greg
Bob Russell
There's a lot of info on the Web saying he died in 2002.
Martin Roman
> Does anyone know anything about this player? He was mentioned at
> jazzguitar.be and has some stuff on eMusic - beautiful sound imo ...
Hi,
there is tribute page on myspace with some songs
http://www.myspace.com/seanlevitt
Great player
jazzmankg
I was just thinking about Sean and I looked him up. I was shocked to
hear he died. I met him at Bradley's at my father's gig many years
ago. He had some bone to pick with Doug. I don't quite remember. Sean
was quick to cite the trilogy of jazz guitar for him: Charlie
Christian, Wes Montgomery and Jimmy Raney. He repeated it after each
beer:)
He and Doug were pretty good friends in their teens and Sean was a few
years older, started much younger. and had it together before Doug.
Our families were interconnected thru the Levitts and the Koticks.
Since Sean is older I would gather that Doug picked up quite a few
things from listening to him. I hear a lot of similarities in their
styles. It could be that they just liked the same aftists though.
Their personalities were eerily similar too, real Queens street
toughs :) He also looked a hell of lot like Doug's other childhood
friend, actor Stefan Arngrim.
joel
> jazzguitar.be and has some stuff on eMusic - beautiful sound imo ...
Yes. I knew Sean. We were friends. His whole family are musicians: His
father is Al Leavitt, a drummer who toured with Stan Getz and others.
His mother is a singer. They live, I believe, in Paris.
Sean lived in NY till around '83, then moved to Spain, where I believe
he lived till he a died a few years ago. He was a very talented player
who a lot of good musicians on the NY scene respected, and he was
young (early 20s) when we made friends. We both hung around a lot with
Eddie Diehl and that's probably how we met. Sean stayed with Eddie for
a while, also with me for a minute. My mother told me afterwards
('don't bring me home any more stray cats'....). We jammed sitting on
my bed. When Sean played with Eddie I believe they had a following and
influenced some young players. I know Eddie loved him. Now they are
both virtually forgotten and IMO a lot of 'jazz guitarists' getting
ink could not shine their shoes.
I asked about Sean whenever I met musicians from Spain. I heard he was
working, playing on a train. I was glad. Sean was a troubled person
but beautiful underneath, a real person and a real artist. What showed
he had class to me, and the way I'll always remember Sean is: after
living a difficult street existence without a home he got a job as a
dishwasher in the Village. He perhaps felt bad about the way he had
lived and treated his friends. He owed me some stupid little amount of
money and made sure to pay me and thank me for fronting him the bread.
That was 1983 I never saw him again. RIP Sean, you are a beutiful cat.
Thank you for putting this up. I'll try to listen when there's a way.
joel
Hey, Jon! I remember those days. Sean and I nursed some beers on those
gigs of your dad's..............
blackparrot...@gmail.com
I decided to make a documentary about Sean since I am a big fan of his.
you guys can check or follow the development of the project here:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sean-Levitt-Documentary-Project/140802249408376
blackparrot...@gmail.com
>
> I was just thinking about Sean and I looked him up. I was shocked to
> hear he died. I met him at Bradley's at my father's gig many years
> ago. He had some bone to pick with Doug. I don't quite remember. Sean
> was quick to cite the trilogy of jazz guitar for him: Charlie
> Christian, Wes Montgomery and Jimmy Raney. He repeated it after each
> beer:)
>
> He and Doug were pretty good friends in their teens and Sean was a few
> years older, started much younger. and had it together before Doug.
> Our families were interconnected thru the Levitts and the Koticks.
> Since Sean is older I would gather that Doug picked up quite a few
> things from listening to him. I hear a lot of similarities in their
> styles. It could be that they just liked the same aftists though.
> Their personalities were eerily similar too, real Queens street
> toughs :) He also looked a hell of lot like Doug's other childhood
> friend, actor Stefan Arngrim.
Are you Doug's son? I am making a documentary on Sean Levitt. Let me know if that's correct.
Best regards,
Israel
