The Squid's Ear Magazine


Brown, Rob / Daniel Levin: Watching And Listening (Mahakala Music)

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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Product Information:

Personnel:



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.
Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Artist Biographies

"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."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Brown_(saxophonist))
3/4/2026

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"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."

-Daniel Levin Website (http://daniel-levin.com/about)
3/4/2026

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:
Related Categories of Interest:

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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