Rob Brown / Daniel Levin Duo
Many years of working together in a variety of settings have enabled Brown and Levin to develop a unique and dynamic set of improvisatory approaches to the duo format. Both musicians have played supporting roles in each other’s projects, evidenced by the ease with which they are able to both fully inhabit and simultaneously circumvent the expectations of melody and accompaniment. Drawing on a staggering collective palette of textures, timbres, gestures, and sheer technical virtuosity, Brown and Levin create music that is astonishingly engaging, original, and exciting....
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Rob Brown / Daniel Levin Duo
Many years of working together in a variety of settings have enabled Brown and Levin to develop a unique and dynamic set of improvisatory approaches to the duo format. Both musicians have played supporting roles in each other’s projects, evidenced by the ease with which they are able to both fully inhabit and simultaneously circumvent the expectations of melody and accompaniment. Drawing on a staggering collective palette of textures, timbres, gestures, and sheer technical virtuosity, Brown and Levin create music that is astonishingly engaging, original, and exciting.
Rob Brown is “one of the most talented musicians playing in the avant-garde” (The New York Times). Born in Hampton, Virginia in 1962, Brown moved to New York City in 1984, and since then has been actively leading groups or working as a sideman with Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Joe Morris, Whit Dickey, and many others. Rob has performed and/or recorded with Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Denis Charles, Bill Dixon, Butch Morris, Reggie Workman, Henry Grimes, Roy Campbell Jr., Hamid Drake and Fred Hopkins, as well as various dance groups, poets, and performance artists. He has toured Europe extensively. He is a 2001 CalArts/Alpert/Ucross Residency Prize winner and has received many Meet The Composer Fund grants and a Chamber Music America New Works grant in 2006. “A fiercely original voice” (JazzTimes).
Daniel Levin is “one of the outstanding cellists working in the vanguard arena” (All About Jazz), and “very much the man to watch.” (Penguin Guide to Jazz). Born in Burlington, Vermont, Levin graduated with a degree in Jazz Studies from the New England Conservatory of Music, and arrived on New York City jazz scene shortly therafter. Since then, he has developed his own unique voice as a cellist, improviser, and composer. Ed Hazell noted upon release of Levin’s first record as a leader, “Cellist Daniel Levin is a major new voice on his instrument and in improvised music.” He has performed and/or recorded with Billy Bang, Borah Bergman, Tim Berne, Anthony Braxton, Gerald Cleaver, Andrew Cyrille, Mark Dresser, Tony Malaby, Joe Morris, Joe McPhee, William Parker, Warren Smith, Ken Vandermark, and many others. Daniel is the recipient of a 2010 Jerome Foundation award.
Natural Disorder is their latest release, available on Not Two Records.
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