Alan Musson

A tribute to the life and music of Tony Levin

I was born in Shropshire but have spent most of my life in the West Midlands and Worcestershire. My route to Jazz followed a familiar pattern, listening to my parent's record collection and Jazz on the radio. The first records that I remember owning were by Joe Loss and Ken Mackintosh. I had an interest in Big Band music at the time as my parents took me along to concerts by many of the Bands active on the West Midlands Jazz scene in the 1970's including the Johnny Lamb Band, Garry Allcock's Midlands All-Stars Big Band, Norman Dovey's Band and, a little later, the Paul Davis Big Band. Many of these Bands played in Pub function rooms and I found it very exciting to be so close to the Bands. I always enjoyed the sound of the saxophone section and this led to my taking up alto saxophone and taking lessons from Trevor Emeney, who was, and still is to this day, a wonderful saxophonist based in Worcestershire.

I think it was seeing Bud Freeman guesting with the Johnny Patrick Big Band which turned me on to small group Jazz. That Band had a fantastic saxophone section including Joe Paterson and Garry Cox on tenor saxes. There was also a great small group featuring Joe Paterson and Mike Burney playing in a "Tough Tenors" style.

Fast forward a few years and Birmingham Jazz started bringing contemporary London based Bands and musicians to the area. After that, for me, there was no looking back.
I have been a Jazz enthusiast and collector for some 35 years. I have a particular interest in British Modern Jazz from the late 1960's and 1970's.

I will be bringing you my personal selection of some of the best Jazz from 1917 to now.
I currently broadcast a weekly Jazz Show on 102.5 The 'Bridge www.thebridgeradio.net

In addition, I provide a Jazz Blog for City TV Broadcasting and I am currently contributing CD reviews for The Jazz Rag.

Outside Jazz I work in the legal profession as a Will Writer.