Legendary jazz drummer/photographer Stan Levey is considered one of the earliest bebop drummers, and one of the very few white drummers involved in the formative years of bebop. He played in Philadelphia with Dizzy Gillespie’s group in 1942, at the age of 16. Soon after, he went to New York City, where he and Gillespie worked on 52nd Street with Charlie Parker and Oscar Pettiford.
After his tenure with the Stan Kenton Orchestra he moved to the West Coast in 1954, joining Howard Rumsey and the Lighthouse All-Stars, and was a major influence in West Coast jazz. Though "cool" jazz was common on the West Coast, Levey's crisp, melodic style continued to have more in common with bop than cool, and he inspired every group he ever played in. Levey played on thousands of recordings, including those with musicians Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and many more, and with bands such as Quincy Jones and Skitch Henderson and The Tonight Show Band.
Levey retired from the music business in 1973 to become a professional photographer full-time, contracting with major advertising agencies and lensing everything from fashion magazine spreads to industrial photos. Levey's jazz photos still adorn LP jackets as well, often for musicians with whom he once played. Levey assembled a formidable archive of photographs available through CTSIMAGES.
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