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Bringing It Down to the Bass, a 
stylistically wide-ranging new 
solo album on which he’s joined 
by guests such as King Crimson 
founder Robert Fripp, drummer and 
college friend Steve Gadd, violinist 
Shankar, guitarists Earl Slick and 
Steve “The Deacon” Hunter, Levin’s 
brother Pete on organ and many 
more.
There’s an autobiographical tenor 
to the album and, for the track “On 
the Drums,” he stacks his own voice 
into an a cappella chorus intoning 
the names of the many drummers 
he’s worked with during his career 
so far.
And “so far” is certainly how 
Levin looks at it, even 56 years 
after his first recording (on Gap 
Mangione’s “Diana in the Autumn 
Wind”). That means there’s a lot to 
talk about, too, as he Zooms in from 
his hotel room before an Arizona 
stop on the Beat tour.

A CONVERSATION 
WITH TONY LEVIN
So “On the Drum” — did you leave 

anybody out 
who’s angry 
with you now?
Levin: 
(laughs) Oh, 
actually, I left 
out a bunch. I did 
that track during 
the lockdown year, 
and I spent a lot of time 
not only trying to research what 
drummers I’ve played with, ’cause I 
wanted to name them all, of course, 
but to fashion music just using the 
names of all of them and not using 
any other words. It was a labor of 
love. I’m happy to finally release 
that track. 
It’s been a big career, by any 
measure. Do you have any sort of 
big-picture view of what you’ve 
done over all these years?
Levin: It’s not something I think 
about day to day, because how lucky 
am I to be playing day to day? I’m 
focused on the music. Looking 
back on my career, the one thought 
that’s always in common for the last 
... quite a while, as soon as I was a 

mature adult, I 
began to realize 
how lucky I am 
to not only be 
doing what I 
love when I go 
on the road and 
play music live for 
people, but in addition 
how lucky I am to be able 
to have a career of that. 
Was a career in music supported 
at home or were there dreams of 
the nice Jewish doctor or lawyer?
Levin: Both my parents 
encouraged it. My brother Pete 
is three years older and became 
a musician before me. I had very 
much followed him in every way 
through the years; he’s the one who 
told me, “Don’t turn down any 
gigs. You never know when you 
might meet a good drummer or 
something.” I was probably in high 
school when he told me that. 
So, my parents encouraged us. 
They felt that to be educated you 
needed to have piano lessons when 
you were a kid, and then you could 

choose your own instrument after 
that, which we both did. And then 
you should become a doctor or a 
lawyer, which we didn’t. We stayed 
with the music and they were fine 
with it — once they accepted it. I 
appreciate now what I didn’t when 
I was a kid, which is that support. 
Even if it’s not 100 percent, that 
support is critical to become a 
professional musician. I have met 
quite a few talented people in my 
life whose parents made it hard for 
them, so somewhere along the line 
they gave up doing it.
How did bass become it for you?
Levin: Y’know, I don’t remember. 
I’d asked my parents when they were 
elderly if I said anything when I was 
a kid, and they said I just said, “I 
like the bass.” It sounds simplistic 
now, after I don’t want to add up the 
years I’ve been playing the bass and 
not doing much else. Now I realize 
it was a profoundly good decision, 
and I’m glad it didn’t come from 
any part of my brain that had an 
objective in mind except for, “I still 
love playing the bass.” I love playing 

DETAILS

Tony Levin performs with 
Beat on Sunday, Oct. 27, at 
the Masonic Temple Theatre, 
500 Temple St., Detroit. 
Doors at 6:30 p.m. Call (313) 
548-1320 for tickets or visit 
themasonic.com. 

COURTESY OF BEAT

The 
Beat

