Hank Levy

Tickets: $8/$5 students

Can you imagine a blues tune with five, seven, nine, eleven or thirteen beats to a measure, or an easy shuffle in nine, ten or twelve? How about a Latin chart in seven, eleven or fifteen? Well, why not? The “new” time signatures add extra lift to traditional jazz feels and call for creative thinking to make melodies fit. For Hank Levy’s taste, the old clichés no longer worked.

Stan Kenton, one of the most influential names in big band music, started recording Hank Levy’s odd-meter charts as early as 1969. Another big band leader, Don Ellis, who also used Hank's charts on most of his recordings, was a creative writer who featured odd meters in his own compositions. Hank was most grateful to have been associated with those two artists, whose philosophy of music coincided with his own. They both encouraged new and progressive jazz.

The Hank Levy Legacy Band continues to represent some of Hank's thirty years of experimentation with odd meters. Conceived after his departure as director of Jazz Studies at Towson University, Hank directed the Alumni Band until his death in 2001. The band has continued through the efforts of a group of his former students and their love of Hank and his music. Today the Hank Levy Legacy Band consists of some of the area’s finest musicians who share that love of Hank, his music and the challenge of performing his compositions.