Artist: Stan Levey
Stan Levey was an American jazz drummer. He was known for working with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in the early development of bebop during the 1940s, and in the next decade had a stint with bandleader Stan Kenton.
He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. 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 age 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, Don Joham 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.
A right-handed person, Levey played the drums as if left-handed, orienting his drum kit as 'mirror-image' to the standard setup. Levey has 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 with bands such as that of Quincy Jones, and Skitch Henderson and The Tonight Show Band.
Further information about Stan Levey is found here and here.
Photography credit: William P. Gottlieb, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
This content was excerpted from the Wikipedia article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Levey, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).
Stan Levey - The Beginnings of Bebop
Stan Levey: Videos
Stan Levey - Drummers, Photographers and Heavyweights
Stan Levey "The Original Original"
Stan Levey - "One For Stan"