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HARMONICA IN HAND, LEVY UNLEASHES SOUND, FURY

By Howard Reich
Tribune Arts Critic

Though. Chicago has - no shortage of imposing jazz virtuosos, a few stand out.

Consider Howard Levy, the harmonica wizard who played Friday night at the Green Mill Jazz Club on North Broadway.

By virtue of his astonishing technique, radiant tone, pervasive musicianship and apparently irrepressible creativity, Levy stands as one of the most compelling jazz harmonica players working today. And though he already enjoys a huge local following, as well as a national reputation among musicians, it's only a matter of time before the rest of the world discovers the great gift of his music.

Levy led a fine quintet at the Geen Mill, where he often performs when he's in town, but it was his incendiary solos that mesmerized the crowd.

Some musicians like to ease into their performances, gaining momentum and energy as they proceed, but Levy opened his set with a remarkable burst of sound and fury.

Playing an extended solo that somehow merged quasi-baroque techniques with swing rhythms, snippets of hokey holiday tunes with passages of brilliant jazz improvisation, Levy unleashed more ideas in this opening solo than many musicians do in an entire set. For his sake, it's a pity he wasn't being paid by the note.

Until this performance, one might never have believed that is possible to articulate arpeggiated figures on the harmonica as swiftly, crisply and evenly as Levy did with seeming ease. That Levy often kept three musical lines going at once (melody, bass and interior harmony) rendered the feat all the more impressive.

It's critical to note, however, that for all his technical achievements, Levy remains a remarkably poetic player. In lyric pieces, he produced exquisitely beautiful phrases, each showing a sweetness of tone and a warm vibrato that serve as Levy's trademarks.

Throughout, Levy enjoyed enthusiastic support, particularly Jim Hines' funk-tinged, New Orleans-flavored percussion.

But, in the end, it was Levy's audacious solo playing-with its outlandish tempos, impeccable technique and alluring melodies that lit up the night.