For those who have stood in a darkened venue and felt the ground shake from the low thunder of a Chapman Stick, chances are good it was Tony Levin who rumbled their bones. And for anyone who’s never been introduced to the Stick, prepare to be blown away by the sight and sound of this revolutionary stringed beast of an instrument.
On Dec. 9, the UCSC Music Center will host an exceptionally rare event: Levin and his Stick Men—fellow King Crimson alum Pat Mastelotto on drums and Markus Reuter on touch guitar—will take the Recital Hall stage to perform music from their new album, Brutal, as well as instrumentals from the Crimson catalog. And everyone will get a chance to meet the group in the lobby after the concert.
The show was originally scheduled in July, and tickets for that date will be honored. The lineup also features special guest We Are Ants To Them, featuring Andre Cholmondeley.
Decades into a career that has stretched from Peter Gabriel’s theatrical visions to King Crimson’s thundering precision, Levin continues to introduce the Stick to generations of progressive rock fans. It’s been a journey that has often led to Santa Cruz: at Palookaville with the California Guitar Trio, Moe’s Alley with Stick Men, and the Civic with King Crimson.
Levin recalls the professional pitfall that started him on that journey. Originally a classically trained musician, Levin played double bass in the Rochester Philharmonic until he joined Buddy Rich to play jazz on the road. When Rich changed his mind about having a new bass player, Levin found himself without a gig, and fatefully went to New York to find work.
“Had it not been for the kerfuffle with Buddy Rich, I might never have left Rochester,” Levin says. “So I accidentally became a studio musician early in my 20s.”
His classical training gave him technical skills that many rock musicians lacked, and his experience with jazz instilled a groove that separates great session work from merely competent playing.
A second life-changing moment came when Levin was called in to play on former Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel’s first solo album. Gabriel found a bass player who met his artistic ambitions with technical precision, while Levin gained a creative partner who would challenge him for decades to come.
Significantly, those Gabriel sessions introduced Levin to Robert Fripp, the King Crimson guitarist whose complex compositions and innovative approach to rock music would provide the perfect showcase for Levin’s evolving musical voice.
The early days produced some legendary moments. Levin recalls with particular fondness a performance at the tiny Roxy Theater in Hollywood, where Gabriel performed with the enigmatic Fripp “trying to hide off the side of the stage.” Levin watched as Gabriel stepped off the stage, mid-song, to stroll across the audience’s cocktail tables.
“Young Peter,” Levin smiles, “always adventurous, and still surprising us with what he does on stage.”
When Levin officially joined King Crimson in 1981, he faced a crucial decision that would define his sound for the next four decades. Meeting the band’s uniquely gifted players—Bill Bruford, Adrian Belew and Fripp—Levin recognized that his traditional bass playing wouldn’t match their innovative approaches. He immediately reached for his Chapman Stick, with odd tuning and touch-style playing that seemed suited to the band’s unconventional musical language, and the Stick became Levin’s signature instrument.
“It’s a touch style instrument—a little bit more like a piano than like a guitar,” Levin explains. “So by touching the strings—with both hands—you’re playing the notes.
“Watching someone play seems pretty outlandish and weird,” Levin admits. “Frankly, if I see a video of myself, I’m like, what am I doing? But actually, when you’re playing it, it’s pretty simple.”
Today, Levin continues to tour with multiple projects, while developing new material with Stick Men. The power trio recently completed work on Brutal, a name that reflects Levin’s desire to explore the band’s harder-edged musical territory.
The title came about through the kind of playful collaboration that defines the band’s creative process: Levin wrote some aggressive riffs, then imagined drummer Pat Mastelotto sampling the word “brutal” spoken by bandmate Marcus Reuter with his German accent, creating an improvisational tool that could appear in any performance.
Asked if he has advice for young artists seeking a career in music, he defers to their knowledge of the world they are growing into.
“They don’t need me to tell them the challenges,” he says. “You have some good breaks, and you have some very bad breaks.”
A “bad break” for Levin came after playing on Pink Floyd’s Momentary Lapse of Reason album. He had to decline David Gilmour’s invitation to join the band because of scheduling conflicts with a Peter Gabriel tour.
Levin views such choices as simply part of the freelance musician’s life.
“In the end,” he says, “if you’re lucky enough to have your life’s work be making music, that’s a win. That’s a great, great blessing.”
The Stick Men concert is also an opportunity to experience the UCSC Recital Hall, which rarely presents outside artists. The acoustics are designed for voice, piano and violin recitals with no amplification, and over the years the hall has been customized for recitals of computer music and electronics.
One of Santa Cruz’s best-kept secrets, it features a surround-sound system, LED fixtures that can light an elegant piano recital one day and a rock show the next, and a beautiful setting with views of rolling fields and the Monterey Bay.
Stick Men play at 8pm on Dec. 9 at the UCSC Music Center Recital Hall, 402 McHenry Rd, Santa Cruz. $49. pulseproductions.net
