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Stewart Levine (born 1946) is an American record producer. He has worked with many artists such as The Crusaders, Minnie Riperton, Lionel Richie, Simply Red, Hugh Masekela, Huey Lewis and the News, Patti LaBelle, Sly Stone, Boy George, Oleta Adams, Killing Joke, Jon Anderson, Boz Scaggs, Womack and Womack and Curiosity Killed the Cat.
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Levine was born and raised in The Bronx. At the age of seven, Levine began his lifelong musical journey by taking up the clarinet. After switching to the saxophone at age twelve, he was playing professionally by age fourteen.
At the age of seventeen Levine entered the Manhattan School of Music alongside musicians Herbie Hancock, Donald Byrd, and South African trumpet player Hugh Masekela. Levine and Masekela became close friends.
Levine left the Manhattan School of Music after one year to pursue a career as a horn player and arranger. He developed his skills as an arranger on many high-profile pop and R&B recordings. This experience led Levine into forming a production company with Hugh Masekela. They began producing records that were a hybrid of South African township grooves crossed with rhythm and blues and jazz. They left New York and moved to Los Angeles to form Chisa Records, an independent label. Levine produced Masekela's "Grazing in the Grass".
While in California, Levine met members of The Jazz Crusaders, a group who had already built a small, but loyal, following. Levine signed them to Chisa Records with the idea of combining the funk of their native Texas alongside the jazz for which they were known. This was the beginning of a style that would become known as jazz-funk and, later, "Rare Groove". Levine produced over a dozen albums with The Crusaders.
In 1974, Levine came up with the idea of putting together a music festival Zaire 74 in Kinshasa set around The Rumble in the Jungle boxing match – the Ali/Foreman fight in Zaire. He produced the festival. The event was filmed and eventually released in 1996 as the documentary When We Were Kings .
Levine returned to recording, producing Minnie Riperton’s third album, Adventures in Paradise. This led to a productive period in which he produced albums by Van Morrison, Lamont Dozier's Peddlin' Music on the Side, which featured the song "Goin' Back to My Roots" and the début album of Randy Crawford. Levine developed a close relationship with Phil Walden and Capricorn Records, producing a series of albums with southern rock artists The Marshall Tucker Band, as well as The Allman Bros.
Levine produced the first of six albums with B.B. King. Midnight Believer was a hit, putting B.B. King back on the charts with a gold album after a long absence. This was followed by King's Grammy winning There Must Be a Better World Somewhere.
In 1982 Levine produced "Up Where We Belong" with Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes. Used as the end title song to the film An Officer and a Gentleman , "Up Where We Belong" became a #1 pop hit, Grammy winner and Academy Award winner. He then produced Sly and the Family Stone's début album for Warner Bros. Records. Next came Womack & Womack's debut Love Wars. In the United Kingdom it became a #1 album. Due to the success of this album, Levine moved to London and began working with a wide range of acts including the bands Blancmange and Killing Joke.
Levine was invited by an A&R man to see a new band from Manchester named Simply Red play their first gig in London. He describes the moment: "The lead singer was magical but the music sounded like a retro American soul revue. I met with Mick Hucknall and told him that we needed to come up with something fresh, not just revisit the past."
The result was Simply Red's début album Picture Book, which became a huge hit in both the UK and America. Propelled by the international #1 single, “Holding Back the Years,” it sold over seven million copies worldwide. Levine produced Curiosity Killed the Cat's Keep Your Distance in a similar "soul" style. It contained two top ten singles and became a #1 album in the UK and Europe. He followed this with Boy George's first solo album, Sold, containing the reggae influenced #1 hit single “Everything I Own.”
Next came Simply Red's A New Flame, which included the international #1 version of "If You Don’t Know Me By Now." A New Flame. In 1991 he produced Simply Red’s Stars, which became one of the largest selling albums in British history. Stars contained four UK hit singles, sold 3.5 million copies in the UK and over eleven million copies worldwide.
Levine produced three new songs for Lionel Richie's greatest hits album Back to Front. He then produced Dr. John's album Goin' Back to New Orleans, as well as albums for Huey Lewis and The News, Oleta Adams and Ireland's Hot House Flowers. Levine returned to England to produce Simply Red's next album, Life, which included the group's only UK #1 single, "Fairground".
After this album, Levine decided to take a break from the studio to concentrate on composing and playing the saxophone. He returned in 2002, producing a reunion album with The Crusaders. This was followed by another reunion with Simply Red. Levine produced their hit version of "You Make Me Feel Brand New", as well as their single "Sunrise". Next came David Sanborn's first new album in many years, Time Again.
In the summer of 2003 Levine was asked to work with young British jazz artist Jamie Cullum. Levine produced Cullum's debut album Twenty Something. Levine followed this by producing the Dr. John's N'Awlinz: Dis, Dat or D'udda, which featured New Orleans musicians alongside guests such as B.B. King and Randy Newman. Levine returned to the UK to produce Jamie Cullum's second album Catching Tales.
Levine has most recently[ when? ] produced Aaron Neville's début for Sony-BMG. The Soul Classics is a collection of some of the most memorable R&B songs of all time.[ according to whom? ]
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Hugh Ramapolo Masekela was a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, singer and composer who was described as "the father of South African jazz". Masekela was known for his jazz compositions and for writing well-known anti-apartheid songs such as "Soweto Blues" and "Bring Him Back Home". He also had a number-one US pop hit in 1968 with his version of "Grazing in the Grass".
Minnie Julia Riperton Rudolph was an American soul singer and songwriter best known for her 1975 single "Lovin' You", her five-octave vocal range, and her use of the whistle register.
Robert Dwayne Womack was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Starting in the early 1950s as the lead singer of his family musical group the Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guitarist, Womack's career spanned more than 60 years and multiple styles, including R&B, jazz, soul, rock and roll, doo-wop, and gospel.
The Crusaders were an American jazz/jazz fusion group performing from the 1960s to the 2010s. The group was known as the Jazz Crusaders from their formation in 1960 until shortening their name in 1971. The Crusaders played a wide assortment of genres, including straight ahead jazz, urban R&B, R&B-based jazz, and the blues. The band reached a commercial apex in 1979 with their hit single "Street Life", featuring lead vocals by Randy Crawford, and their accompanying album of the same name.
Leon Ware was an American songwriter, producer, composer, and singer. Besides a solo career as a performer, Ware was best known for producing hits for other artists including Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Maxwell, Minnie Riperton and Marvin Gaye, co-producing the latter's album I Want You.
Joseph Leslie Sample was an American jazz keyboardist and composer. He was one of the founding members of The Jazz Crusaders in 1960, after which its name was shortened to "The Crusaders" in 1971. He remained a part of the group until its final album in 1991, and also the 2003 reunion album Rural Renewal.
Wayne Maurice Henderson was an American soul jazz and hard bop trombonist and record producer. In 1961, he co-founded the soul jazz/hard bop group The Jazz Crusaders. Henderson left the group in 1976 to pursue a career in producing, but revived The Jazz Crusaders in 1995.
David T. Walker is an American soul/R&B, and jazz guitarist. In addition to numerous session musician duties since the early 1970s, Walker has issued fifteen albums in his own name.
Wilton Lewis Felder was an American saxophone and bass player, and is best known as a founding member of the Jazz Crusaders, later known as The Crusaders. Felder played bass on the Jackson 5's hits "I Want You Back" and "ABC" and on Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On".
William Howard "Monk" Montgomery was an American jazz bassist. He was a pioneer of the electric bass guitar and possibly the first to be recorded playing the instrument when he participated in a 1953 session released on The Art Farmer Septet. He was the brother of jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery and vibraphonist Buddy Montgomery.
Nesbert "Stix" Hooper is an American drummer and founding member of The Crusaders.
Adventures in Paradise is the third studio album by Minnie Riperton issued in May 1975 by Epic Records. The album rose to No. 5 on the Billboard Top Soul Albums chart and No. 18 on the Billboard 200 chart.
Zaire 74 was a three-day live music festival that took place on 22 to 24 September 1974 at the Stade du 20 Mai in Kinshasa, Zaire. The concert, conceived by South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela and record producer Stewart Levine, was meant to be a major promotional event for the heavyweight boxing championship match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, known as The Rumble in the Jungle. When an injury forced Foreman to postpone the fight by six weeks, the festival's intended audience of international tourists was all but eliminated and Levine had to decide whether or not to cancel the event. The decision was made to move forward, and 80,000 people attended.
Arthur Adams is an American blues guitarist from Medon, Tennessee. Inspired by B.B. King and other 1950s artists, he played gospel music before attending college. He moved to Los Angeles, and during the 1960s and 1970s he released solo albums and worked as a session musician. In 1985 he was tapped to tour on bass guitar with Nina Simone, and he staged a comeback in the 1990s when he released Back on Track, and became a respected Chicago blues player and bandleader in B.B. King's clubs.
Home Is Where the Music Is is a 1972 jazz and Afrobeat double LP by Hugh Masekela issued by the joint American label Chisa/Blue Thumb Records. The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
The Emancipation of Hugh Masekela is the fifth studio album by South African jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela. It was recorded in Los Angeles and released in 1966 via Chisa Records label. On this album he performs mostly his own songs. Tracks "Child of the Earth", "Felicidade", and "Ha Lese Le Di Khanna" were later included in his 2004 album Still Grazing.
Hugh Masekela & The Union of South Africa is the thirteenth studio album by South African jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela, released via the Chisa Records label in May 1971. The album was re-released on CD in 1994 on the MoJazz label.
Almost Like Being in Jazz is a studio album by South-African jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela. The album was released on 7 June 2005 via Chisa Records label. The album consists of 12 jazz standards. The album was also released as a double LP via Straigthahead Records. In 2012, the album was followed-up with the sequel record Friends.
The Chisa Years: 1965–1975 is a compilation album by South African jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela. The album consists of 14 rare or forgotten tracks recorded by Stewart Levine and Hugh Masekela from 1965 to 1975 when they ran their own Chisa Records label.
Zaïre 74: The African Artists is a live album of selected performances recorded at the Zaire 74 music festival in 1974, which preceded the Rumble in the Jungle boxing match between George Foreman and Muhammed Ali. The album was compiled and produced by Hugh Masekela and Stewart Levine – who had organised the festival – and was released on Wrasse Records on 26 May 2017.
