Daniel Levin

Daniel Levin, Fala Mariam, Sei Miguel: Panorama

by Alberto Bazzurro
February 20, 2025

Registrato a Lisbona fra l'ottobre 2022 (brani 4, 5 e 6, live, rispettivamente tromba sola, sordinata, violoncello solo, archettato, e duo tromba/cello) e l'aprile 2023 (tutto il resto, in trio e in studio), questo notevole album di libera improvvisazione ci rivela un retroterra che sarebbe il caso di dissodare con maggiore attenzione. Ne sono artefici il trombettista Sei Miguel, nato a Parigi nel 1961 e vissuto tra Francia, Brasile e--dagli anni Ottanta--Portogallo, la trombonista portoghese Fala Mariam e il violoncellista ...

I 10 CD nel CD-Player di... Daniel Levin

by Vincenzo Roggero
October 22, 2015

01. Joe Morris -Solos -Bimhuis (Relative Pitch -2015). Musica incredibile. Ci sono così tante informazioni in ogni frase di Joe. La prima volta che ho ascoltato questo disco, sono ritornato sui primi tredici secondi di “Trunk" almeno una trentina di volte prima di passare al brano successivo. Incredibilmente denso e fluido allo stesso tempo. 02. Henry Mancini -The Music From Peter Gunn (RCA Victor -1959). Adoro questo disco. Ogni cosa suona così “deluxe." Sono rimasto ...

Daniel Levin Trio: Fuhuffah

by Troy Collins
November 20, 2008

Fuhuffah is a departure of sorts for cellist Daniel Levin. His fourth recording as a leader dispenses with the chamber oriented instrumentation of his regular quartet (with bass, trumpet and vibraphone), in favor of a more conventional line-up. Accompanied by Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Haker Flaten and drummer Gerald Cleaver, Levin leads his trio through six original and one traditional tune that ebb and flow with previously untapped vigor.

Encapsulating a broad range of dynamics, this session occasionally veers ...

Daniel Levin Quartet: Blurry

by Paul C. Dowd
January 11, 2008

The bold and sinewy musical conversation that takes place over the course of the hour-long Blurry is revealed over multiple listens as nothing short of superb. The third and latest disc from the Daniel Levin Quartet is no small achievement in its staggered pace, yet grounding ease that gradually envelops the listener. The eight-song disc, recorded at Firehouse 12 Studio in New Haven, Connecticut, opens with Ornette Coleman's “Law Years as a hint of the warmth that ...

Daniel Levin Quartet: Blurry

by Chris May
January 3, 2008

Though there's nothing remotely revivalist or retro about it, the music made by cellist Daniel Levin's drummerless quartet--glowing, lyrical, adventurous chamber jazz--resonates strongly with the first stirrings of free jazz circa 1960 and the third stream/cool experiments of the half-decade leading up to it. Like all the most successful post-modern creative ventures, Levin's quartet positions its antecedents in plain sight, but rises above them to create something novel, fascinating and unmistakably of its own time.

Blurry is the ...

Daniel Levin: Some Trees

by Donald Elfman
March 10, 2007

Cellist Daniel Levin expands the compositional and improvisational palettes of modern jazz on Some Trees with a provocatively assembled group of adventurous musicians and pieces. Without a drummer, this group is able to rethink the dynamics and dialectic of a “jazz" group and find new phrasing, spacing and modes of interaction.

All of the players contribute vitally to this “re-mix": trumpeter Nate Wooley makes all of his effects--half-valving, dirty muting, etc.--work towards finding the optimal colors; vibraphonist Matt Moran plays ...

Daniel Levin Quartet: Some Trees

by Nic Jones
October 17, 2006

This group sets out a highly individual stall within the market of creative improvised music, not simply through the use of unusual instrumentation--and to the extent that even when these musicians tackle compositions by Eric Dolphy, Steve Lacy and Ornette Coleman, they bring to them a refreshing depth of personal interpretation and expression.

Levin's own compositions might also have been written with this group in mind, so strong is their sense of identity. The balance, and indeed the creative tension, ...

Daniel Levin, New Jazz Cellist, and His Adventurous Chamber Outing "Organic Modernism"

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
June 4, 2011

Organic Modernism (Clean Feed 212). I think I get it. It's a modernism that flows naturally out of the non-pretentious music-making of this chamber quartet, namely Daniel Levin, leader and cello, Nate Wooley, trumpet, Matt Moran on vibes, and Peter Bitenc on doublebass. This is music that may have a walking bass underneath it now and again, but the give and take is of an unforced avant sort. There are compositional elements but the main thrust is the improvisational space, ...
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Lowertown's New Music

Source: JazzINK by Andrea Canter
April 26, 2011

If the Twin Cities is a fertile playground for experimental and improvised music, then St. Paul's Lowertown is one of its hottest incubators, and particularly that short path between the Black Dog Café and Studio Z. Studio Z has been home to the Zeitgeist ensemble, sitting somewhere between modern classical, avant-garde jazz and free-wheeling “improvised" soundscapes, but the venue supports a wide range of artists and mini-festivals in its warehouse space. The Black Dog has at least weekly series of ...
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Firehouse 12 to Present the Daniel Levin Trio December 7th

Source: Improvised Communications
December 4, 2007

On Friday, December 7th, New Haven's Firehouse 12 Firehouse 12 will present cellist/composer Daniel Levin and his new trio featuring bassist Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten and drummer Gerald Cleaver. The New Haven-based Levin, who performed earlier this season with saxophonist Rob Brown's trio, will be on tour previewing new music for his next CD, which will feature live tracks from this performance as well as studio tracks recorded earlier in the day.

Critics called Levin's most recent release, last year's Some Trees ...
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Daniel Levin Quartet: Blurry on Hatology 653

Source: All About Jazz
December 2, 2007

Daniel Levin -cello Nate Wooley -trumpet Matt Moran -vibraphone Joe Morris -double bass

For anyone hearing the Daniel Levin Quartet for the first time, there's apt to be a dual response, a sense of something at once familiar and very different, a sounding which chamber music sonorities promise an unexpected emotional possibility, an invocation of something lost that is also an intimation of what is to come.

The cumulative effect of the quartet's music ...
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Daniel Levin Quartet : Some Trees on hatOLOGY 632

Source: All About Jazz
June 19, 2006

Daniel Levin Quartet : Some Trees, hatOLOGY 632

Nate Wooley - trumpet Matt Moran - vibes Daniel Levin - cello Joe Morris - double bass

Performing “Out To Lunch" by Eric Dolphy, “Wickets" by Steve Lacy, “Morning Song" by Ornette Coleman and compositions by Daniel Levin.

“It's obvious this is not an ordinary jazz quartet. Paul Bley once suggested to me that “one of the ways to get out of a particular ...
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