ROD LEVITT
Genres: Progressive Big Band, Big Band • United States

Rodney Charles Levitt (September 16, 1929, Portland, Oregon - May 8 2007 Wardsboro, Vermont)was an American jazz trombonist, composer, and bandleader. Levitt studied composition at the University of Washington, where he took his BA in 1951. He was in the orchestra at Radio City Music Hall from 1957 to 1963, and played with Dizzy Gillespie (1956-57), Ernie Wilkins (1957), Kai Winding (1958), and Sy Oliver (1959-60), and also worked with Gil Evans in 1959 when his orchestra accompanied Miles Davis. In 1960 he played with Gerry Mulligan and Mundell Lowe, with Quincy Jones in 1961, and with Oliver Nelson in 1962. He recorded as a leader of an octet in 1963-66 for five albums, and continued to work with this combination into the 1970s. That decade he played with Chuck Israels. Later in his career he worked with Cedar Walton and Blue Mitchell, and wrote music for commercials with a company read more...