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Mark Levinson | |
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| Born | December 11, 1946 |
| Occupation(s) | Founder of Mark Levinson Audio Systems (MLAS) Cello Ltd. Red Rose Music Daniel Hertz S.A. |
| Years active | 1972–present |
| Spouse | |
Mark Levinson (born December 11, 1946) is an American audio equipment designer, recording and mastering engineer, and multi-instrumentalist musician. He was formerly married to the actress Kim Cattrall.
Mark Levinson worked as the bassist for jazz pianist Paul Bley (in 1966 through 1971 by his own account), and mentions other renowned jazz musicians with whom he played then. [1] Bley's memoir has a 1965 photo of his trio with Levinson and Barry Altschul, and tells of touring and recording in Europe with them in 1966. Bley describes Levinson and Altschul as "a rhythm section with a wide range of talents". [2]
In 1972, Levinson founded Mark Levinson Audio Systems (MLAS, Ltd.) in New Haven, Connecticut. He ran MLAS from 1972 to 1980, during which time he created products such as the LNP-2 preamplifier. He also invented the concept of high-end car sound in 1979.[ citation needed ]
However, by 1980 MLAS was in financial trouble. Levinson then asked Sanford Berlin, a retired executive in the audio industry, to invest in MLAS and to aid in the management of the company. Berlin personally invested $480,000 in the company and persuaded several others to invest an additional $300,000.[ citation needed ]
In the summer of 1984 Levinson left MLAS and founded another company to produce audio equipment, Cello Ltd. Levinson became president and one of the three directors of Cello. MLAS launched a lawsuit attempting to prevent Levinson from working in the audio industry for the rest of his life, on the grounds that he was a "walking trade name" who could "diminish the value of their asset". [3]
Levinson won the case in 1986 but lost the right to use his name as a trade name on an audio product. [4] For this reason, since several years before the lawsuit, "Mark Levinson" branded audio products have had no relationship to the brand's founder; the "Mark Levinson" brand name has been and continues to be an intellectual property wholly owned by Harman International. In resolving the case, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals wrote a 25-page decision that outlined the rights of entrepreneurs who use their own name as the name of a company.[ citation needed ] Levinson himself has continued to work in the industry, creating several new companies.
Levinson ran his second company, Cello Ltd., from 1984 to 1998. With Cello, Levinson created high-priced models such as the Audio Palette.[ citation needed ] In 1999, Levinson founded Red Rose Music, an audio company with its own New York retail store on Madison Avenue. The business model of Red Rose was to create compact, affordable products with very high-quality sound.[ citation needed ]
In 2007, Levinson moved to Switzerland and used his consulting revenue to finance the founding of Daniel Hertz S.A., an audio equipment and audio software company. [5]
Mark Levinson and the actress Kim Cattrall were married from 1998 to 2004. The couple co-wrote the book Satisfaction: The Art of the Female Orgasm (2002). [6] [7]
Nearly all of Levinson's recorded work as a jazz bassist was in jazz piano trios led by Paul Bley, with Barry Altschul on drums. [8]
Kim Victoria Cattrall is a British and Canadian actress. She is known for her portrayal of Samantha Jones on HBO's Sex and the City (1998–2004), for which she received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning the 2002 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. She reprised the role in the feature films Sex and the City (2008) and Sex and the City 2 (2010), as well as in a cameo on its revival And Just Like That... (2023).
Samuel Carthorne Rivers was an American jazz musician and composer. Though most famously a tenor saxophonist, he also performed on soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, flute, harmonica, piano and viola.
Mark Levinson is an American high-end audio equipment brand established in 1972 by eponymous founder Mark Levinson, and based in Stamford, Connecticut. It is owned by Harman International Industries, a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics.
Paul Bley, CM was a Canadian jazz pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing and his early live performance on the Moog and ARP synthesizers. His music has been described by Ben Ratliff of the New York Times as "deeply original and aesthetically aggressive". Bley's prolific output includes influential recordings from the 1950s through to his solo piano recordings of the 2000s.
Contemporary Records was a jazz record company and label founded by Lester Koenig in Los Angeles in 1951. Contemporary produced music from a variety of jazz styles and players.
Barry Altschul is a free jazz and hard bop drummer who first came to notice in the late 1960s for performing with pianists Paul Bley and Chick Corea.
McIntosh Laboratory is an American manufacturer of handcrafted high-end audio equipment headquartered in Binghamton, New York. It is a subsidiary of McIntosh Group, which is under the ownership umbrella of Highlander Partners, a Dallas-based private equity firm.
"She's Leaving Home" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, and released on their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Paul McCartney wrote and sang the verse and John Lennon wrote the chorus, which they sang together. Neither George Harrison nor Ringo Starr were involved in the recording. The song's instrumental background was performed entirely by a small string orchestra arranged by Mike Leander, and is one of only a handful of Beatles recordings in which none of the members played a musical instrument.
"I Call Your Name" is a song recorded by the English rock band the Beatles and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was written primarily by John Lennon, with assistance from Paul McCartney. It was released in the US on The Beatles' Second Album on 10 April 1964 and in the UK on the Long Tall Sally EP on 19 June 1964. On 7 March 1988, the song appeared on Past Masters, a compilation album that includes every song commercially released by the band that was neither included on the 12 UK studio albums nor the US Magical Mystery Tour LP, meaning that "I Call Your Name" appeared for the first time on a core catalogue album.
The Pet Sounds Sessions is a 4-CD box set by the American rock band the Beach Boys. Released on November 4, 1997, by Capitol Records, it compiles tracks from the group's 11th studio album Pet Sounds (1966) and its 1965–66 recording sessions. The entire album is included in its original mono mix, as well as a specially-created digital stereo mix. The set also contains instrumental tracks, vocals-only tracks, alternate mixes, and edited highlights from the recording sessions for many of the album's songs, along with several tracks not included on the album.
QUAD Electroacoustics is a British manufacturer of hi-fi equipment, based Huntingdon, England. QUAD is part of the IAG Group, with corporate headquarters located in Shenzhen, China.
Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely is the fifteenth studio album by American singer Frank Sinatra. It was released on September 8, 1958, through Capitol Records.
Chesky Records is a record company and label founded in 1978 by brothers David and Norman Chesky. The company produces high-definition recordings of music in a variety of genres, including jazz, classical, pop, R&B, folk and world/ethnic. Chesky artists include McCoy Tyner, Herbie Mann, David Johansen and the Harry Smiths, Joe Henderson, Macy Gray, Chuck Mangione, Paquito D'Rivera, Ron Carter, Larry Coryell, John Pizzarelli, Bucky Pizzarelli, Babatunde Olatunji, Ana Caram, and Rebecca Pidgeon.
Annette Peacock is an American composer, musician, songwriter, producer, and arranger. She is a pioneer in electronic music who combined her voice with one of the first Moog synthesizers in the late 1960s.
Luxman is a brand name of Japanese Luxman Corporation (ラックスマン株式会社) that manufactures luxury audio components. Luxman produces a variety of high-end audio products, including turntables, amplifiers, receivers, tape decks, CD players and speakers.
Paul Paul Haines was an American poet and jazz lyricist. Born in Vassar, Michigan, Haines eventually settled in Canada after spending time in Europe, Asia, and the United States; he had a long stint as a French teacher at Fenelon Falls Secondary School, in Ontario, Canada. Active in New York City in the 60s, he recorded Albert Ayler's Ghosts. A second recording made by Ayler called Spiritual Unity (1965) included a printed folio with text by Paul Haines called "You and the Night and Music."
Ballads is an album by Canadian jazz pianist Paul Bley recorded on March 31 and July 28, 1967 and released on ECM in 1971. The sessions' trios feature rhythm sections Mark Levinson and Barry Altschul on side B, and Gary Peacock and Altschul on side A, respectively.
Ramblin' is an album led by jazz pianist Paul Bley recorded in Italy in 1966 and released on the French BYG Actuel label.
Daniel Hertz S.A. is a high-performance audio company based in Switzerland. The company makes high-efficiency loudspeakers, power amplifiers, pre-amplifiers, integrated amplifiers, and audio processing software. Daniel Hertz provides consulting services to major companies like LG Electronics of Korea and semiconductor firm Intersil of the USA.
Long Tall Sunshine is a live album by Barry Altschul's 3dom Factor, led by drummer Altschul, and featuring saxophonist Jon Irabagon and double bassist Joe Fonda. The trio's fourth release, it was recorded during a 2019 European tour, and was issued on CD in 2021 by Not Two Records.
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