A deeply attentive duo of alto saxophonist Rob Brown and cellist Daniel Levin exploring an open language of gestural improvisation, where pitch often yields to texture, motion, and sonic interaction, the pair's long-standing musical trust guiding a fluid exchange that shifts from delicate, exploratory passages to energized bursts of intertwined strings, reeds and curious asides.
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Rob Brown-alto saxophone
Daniel Levin-cello
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UPC: 195269082215
Label: Mahakala Music
Catalog ID: MAHA-014
Squidco Product Code: 37275
Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2021
Country: USA
Packaging: Digipack
Recorded at Park West Studios, in Brooklyn, New York, on October 28th, 2019, by Jim Clouse.
"On Watching and Listening, longtime collaborators Daniel Levin (cello) and Rob Brown (saxophone) purposely chose to take new sonic paths. When recording the album, which is their third as a duo, they swerved around tried-and-true methods of improvisation-in Levin's liner notes for the album, he describes the process as akin to "a nail that I want to drive into wood, but instead of reaching for the hammer, I grab a pair of pliers, or perhaps some steel wool, and then use those alternative tools on the nail, and see what happens." Making Watching and Listening was about exploring the new possibilities that became available when they opened themselves up to using new tools.
Levin and Brown's flexibility to traverse these unknown territories comes from the deep trust they've built with each other. In their years playing together, they've watched each other evolve as musicians and learned how to attentively listen to each other. The new routes they've taken on Watching and Listening stemmed from that trust: In making music together, the two don't need to know what's going to happen. They don't need a theme or a concept. They trust their intentions, and that's all they need to make music.
Watching and Listening also stemmed from a new musical interest of Levin's. Over the past few years, he started to explore what it means to think of notes as something other than notes, eschewing the notion that pitches should be the primary force of the music. Instead, he wanted to explore what it meant to make music that's gestural, that progressively moves in the random directions he chose, without focusing on what pitches and tones come out. He and Brown hadn't improvised using this language before Watching and Listening, but it proved to be a fruitful new exchange for them.
Watching and Listening is a summation of an approximately three hour improvisation session at Park West Studios in Brooklyn, New York. As Levin and Brown made music together that day, they were untethered to a theme. But upon listening back to dream up titles for each track, Brown began to imagine birds. So, each title-and the album's artwork, which features wire bird sculptures that Brown made by hand-originates from that natural inspiration. It's a peaceful resting point, a respite from the stress of the past year in quarantine."-Mahakala Music
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for Rob Brown "Rob Brown (born February 27, 1962) is an American free jazz saxophonist and composer. Rob was born in Hampton, VA. He started playing saxophone at the age of 12 or 13. His first gigs were with a local Virginia and swing band. He eventually studied at Berklee College for two years and worked privately with both Joe Viola and John LaPorta. After a year on the west coast, Brown bounced back to Boston, where he met pianist Matthew Shipp. He moved to NY in 1984 where he enrolled at New York University, earned a music degree, and studied with saxophone masters such as Lee Konitz, but the teacher who had more influence on Rob conceptually was Philadelphian Dennis Sandole. Rob took the train to Philly once a week to study with him for a year and a half. His first issued recording was the duet with Shipp Sonic Explorations and since then has been actively leading groups or working as a sideman with Shipp, William Parker, Whit Dickey, Joe Morris and Steve Swell. He is a 2001 CalArts/Alpert/Ucross Residency Prize winner and has received many Meet The Composer Fund grants. In 2006 Rob was awarded a Chamber Music America New Works grant." ^ Hide Bio for Rob Brown • Show Bio for Daniel Levin "Daniel Levin is "one of the outstanding cellists working in the vanguard arena" (All About Jazz), "ridiculously fluent, virtually overflowing with ideas" (New York City Jazz Record) and "very much the man to watch." (Penguin Guide to Jazz). No matter what setting he plays in, cellist Daniel Levin occupies a musical space bordered by many kinds of music, but fully defined by none of them. "Demonstrating an impressive breadth of texture and contrast, the cellist Daniel Levin comes well prepared for a career in jazz's contemporary avant-garde." (Nate Chinen, The New York Times). Elements of European classical music, American jazz, microtonal and new music, and European free improvisation all figure prominently in his unique sound. As critic John Sharpe observes in The New York City Jazz Record, "he invokes all manner of musics with prodigious skill: jazz, classical, improv, noise, vocal chorus. His technique is unquestioned and he revels in the physicality of the instrument. Those with an adventurous streak or interest in the outer reaches of the cello universe will find much to savor." Born in Burlington, Vermont, he began playing the cello at the age of six. In 2001, he graduated with a degree in Jazz Studies from the New England Conservatory of Music, and arrived on New York City jazz scene shortly therafter. Since then, Daniel has developed his own unique voice as a cellist, improviser, and composer. Ed Hazell noted upon release of Levin's first record as a leader, "Cellist Daniel Levin is a major new voice on his instrument and in improvised music." He has performed and/or recorded with Billy Bang, Borah Bergman, Tim Berne, Anthony Braxton, Gerald Cleaver, Andrew Cyrille, Mark Dresser, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, Tony Malaby, Mat Maneri, Joe Morris, William Parker, Ivo Perelman, Warren Smith, Ken Vandermark, and many others. Daniel is the recipient of a 2010 Jerome Foundation award." ^ Hide Bio for Daniel Levin
3/4/2026
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
3/4/2026
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
Track Listing:
1. Sparrow Dusting 5:33
2. Picidae 13:16
3. Nocturnal and Binaural 7:11
4. Mourning Dove 4:40
5. Distant Recognition 8:27
6. Mocking Jack 4:43
March 2026
Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Stringed Instruments
Recordings by or featuring Reed & Wind Players
Duo Recordings
New in Improvised Music
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