Hank Levy a student’s appreciation
4/4 (for once)

Sources and credits

Everything on this site comes from the sources below.

Sources

  1. U.S. Army Field Band Jazz Ambassadors, The Legacy of Hank Levy, CD booklet (recorded 1997, reprinted 2008), including Hank’s own program notes and an interview by MSG Greg Reese, Feb. 20, 1997. www.armyfieldband.com
  2. Jacques Kelly, “Hank Levy, 73, jazz musician who taught at Towson University,” Baltimore Sun, Sept. 19, 2001. www.baltimoresun.com
  3. “Hank Levy is Towson’s quiet link to jazz,” Baltimore Sun, Apr. 13, 2001. www.baltimoresun.com
  4. Towson University College of Fine Arts and Communication, “Hank Levy’s Legacy.” www.towson.edu
  5. Hank Levy Jazz, LLC, HankLevyJazz.com: biography and anthology. hanklevyjazz.com
  6. Sean P. Fenlon, The Exotic Rhythms of Don Ellis, DMA dissertation, Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, 2002. donellismusic.com
  7. Wikipedia, “Hank Levy.” en.wikipedia.org
  8. Sierra Music Publications, Stan Kenton library. sierramusicmp3.com
  9. Mathew Klickstein, “‘Whiplash’ legacy: Towson University to posthumously honor jazz pioneer Hank Levy,” Baltimore Sun, Apr. 7, 2017. www.baltimoresun.com
  10. Bill Warfield, “Jazz Composer/Educator Hank Levy Dies at Age 73,” Jazz Education Journal 34:4 (Jan. 2002). www.proquest.com
  11. Towson University Special Collections, Hank Levy papers. archivesspace.towson.edu
  12. All Things Kenton, bibliography: The Time Revolution (Creative World, 1973). www.allthingskenton.com
  13. David Aldridge, “Hank Levy – Odd Meters, Erasers and a Time Revolution leader” (2012). davidaldridge.wordpress.com
  14. Sean Fenlon, “Hank Levy on Don Ellis: lost interview recovered by AI,” DonEllisMusic.com, Oct. 2026. donellismusic.com
  15. Sean Fenlon, “Sean the Musician,” “Musical Influences” and “Sean’s Compositions,” SeanFenlon.com. www.seanfenlon.com
  16. All Things Kenton, Live at Redlands University (Creative World ST-1015), recorded Aug. 3–5, 1970, Memorial Chapel, University of Redlands. www.allthingskenton.com
  17. SterArt Recording Legacy, YouTube upload of the Towson State University Jazz Ensemble 1979 LP, with the album’s personnel list in the description. www.youtube.com
  18. DonEllisMusic.com, “Links to other Don Ellis resources” (critical editions). donellismusic.com
  19. DonEllisMusic.com, “In Search of Don Ellis: Forgotten Genius, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 by Ken Orton.” donellismusic.com
  20. AllMusic, Stan Kenton, A Time for Love (The Final Chapter), Tantara TCD 1112, recorded Apr. 21, 1978 at Harper College, Palatine, Illinois, released 1994–95. www.allmusic.com
  21. Wikipedia, “Connection (Don Ellis album)” (Columbia KC 31766, recorded and released 1972). en.wikipedia.org
  22. Wikidata, “Hank Levy” (Q1575558). www.wikidata.org

Where sources disagree

  • Birth year. The Army booklet gives September 27, 1927. Wikipedia, HankLevyJazz.com and the Sun’s age at death (73) agree. My dissertation dedication used 1928.
  • Date of death. September 18, 2001, per the Baltimore Sun obituary published the next day. HankLevyJazz.com gives September 17.
  • Retirement. 1989 per Towson and Towson Special Collections. The Army booklet says 1991.
  • Start at Towson. 1968 per Towson University. Wikipedia says late 1967.
  • “Chain Reaction.” Hank’s own note says 13/8 (3+3+2+2+3). My own compositions page says 13/4.
  • “A Peek into a New Time Zone.” The 1997 notes date it 1992, but the Towson ensemble recorded it in 1989.
  • “Chain Reaction,” written or recorded. Hank’s notes date it 1971. Don Ellis recorded and released it on Connection in 1972. The Music page lists the year it was written.
  • “Chiapas.” Hank’s notes date it 1969 and call it the first piece he wrote for Stan. Kenton recorded it at Redlands in August 1970. We list it in 5/4, following Hank’s notes and the anthology. Wikipedia gives 5/4, 7/4 and 8/4.
  • “A Quiet Friday.” We follow the Hank Levy Jazz anthology, which lists it in 9/4. Wikipedia says 5/4.
  • “Down and Dirty.” We follow the anthology’s 10/4. Wikipedia says 5/4 and 10/8.
  • The Smithsonian Collection. Hank’s 1997 notes say “Chain Reaction” was selected for the Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz. We know of editions from 1973 and 1987 but not from 1997, and we haven’t confirmed which one he meant, so treat this as Hank’s recollection.
  • Kenton’s “A Time for Love.” Hank recalled Kenton recording his arrangement “on his last album.” The performance comes from the April 21, 1978 Harper College concert and first appeared in 1994–95 on Tantara’s archival CD A Time for Love (The Final Chapter), marked previously unreleased. Sierra Music’s Kenton library notes say the chart “did not get commercially” recorded by the band.
  • The documentary’s title. We use the Baltimore Sun’s A Head of Time: Ahead of Time. You may also see it written A Head of Time, Ahead of Time.

Photographs

All photographs of Hank on this site come from the U.S. Army Field Band’s The Legacy of Hank Levy booklet. They were taken by Army soldiers as part of their official duties, so they are U.S. government works in the public domain (17 U.S.C. § 105). Credits: MSG Tom Puwalski (portrait; studio playback, Fort Meade, 1997) and SSG Dana Tan (with the Jazz Ambassadors, January 1997). Scans were cleaned and upscaled without any generative face reconstruction.

Video and audio

Videos are embedded from YouTube in privacy-enhanced mode and load only when you press play. The preview images are copies of the YouTube thumbnails served from this site, so nothing loads from YouTube or SoundCloud until you press play. Rights belong to their uploaders and rights holders. Audio is from my SoundCloud.

About this site

An independent appreciation by Sean Fenlon. It is not affiliated with Towson University or Hank Levy Jazz, LLC. For Hank’s charts, please contact HankLevyJazz.com.

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