***Breaking News***: Chuck has received a call from John Mayer to work on Mayer's new project. He will be recording with John in early December. Leavell also just finished recording five tracks in Nashville for David Nail's next project. He continues to work on his own new CD, a tribute to pioneering blues piano players from the 30s/40s/50s era and recently conducted his third round of recording sessions in Athens, Ga. Stay tuned!
Allman Brothers to Receive Lifetime Achievement Grammy in Los Angeles
Chuck Leavell will be included in the Lifetime Achievement Award during a Special Awards event on February 11th. Upon hearing the news, he said:
“I am honored beyond words to be included in receiving the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award bestowed upon The Allman Brothers Band at the 2012 Grammys in LA. My years with the ABB were golden ones, and I still consider myself a Brother. I look forward to standing on the podium with Gregg, Dickey, Butch, Jaimo and the others to accept this prestigious recognition. ABB forever!”
More information on the Special Awards event here. [...] Continue Reading…
From Sea Level to Tree Level
via http://brucerosenstein.com/blog/2011/11/chuck-leavell-from-sea-level-to-tree-level/
One of the best examples of a multidimensional person living in more than one world is Chuck Leavell. He is probably best known as a top-level pianist who has played with The Rolling Stones for nearly 30 years and was with the Allman Brothers Band before that. He has also led his own band, Sea Level, and hisdiscography is jaw-dropping. But as his recent bylined piece, A Rock ‘n’ Roll Tour de Forest, in The Wall Street Journal shows, he also operates on many other important levels: operator (with his wife, Rose Lane) of a tree farm in Georgia, conservationist, environmental/sustainable development advocate, author and tech entrepreneur.
His recent TedXAtlanta video about balance in life and balance in development demonstrates the personal characteristics that have made him a success: he comes across as passionate, articulate, genial and informed. Although I never met him during my music world days, I’ve known about him since the beginning of his music career in the early 1970s. I’m sure he meets and interacts with a fascinating diversity of people in each of his roles, and that his involvement in so many worlds feeds an intense intellectual curiosity.
It’s encouraging that he has attracted so much attention. His most recent book,Growing a Better America, was published earlier this year. In recent weeks, besides the WSJ piece, there has been a New York Times college football-themed blog post interview with him, Postcard From Alabama: Playing for the Stones, Rooting for the Tide; and Chuck Leavell On Piano Jazz, a recent piece on NPR.org that includes his enjoyable and informative 2003 interview/music appearance on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz. We should all be grateful that Leavell is truly living in more than one world. [...] Continue Reading…
What’s In That Bag: Tunes for the Christmas Season
via http://music.sonomaportal.com/2011/12/15/in-the-groove/
…My second favorite disc, also a golden oldie, was released in 1998 on the now defunct Capricorn label. The artist, Chuck Leavell, is an Alabama native who gained prominence as a member of The Allman Brothers Band when he was recruited in 1972. He made his mark in the band with the release of Brothers and Sisters and brought a new dimension to the band with his scorching musicianship on songs like “Jessica,” “Ramblin’ Man” and “Southbound.” In addition to his work with the ABB, he also played on records by Alex Taylor (James’ older brother), Laid Back, Gregg Allman’s first solo record and Highway Call, the first solo release by Dickey Betts. Following his tenure with the band, he was tapped to become keyboardist and musical director for the Rolling Stones, a job he has had since the 1980s. He has also worked with Eric Clapton, George Harrison and others. [...] Continue Reading…
The Ad Man and The Rocker
via http://www.georgiatrend.com/December-2011/The-Ad-Man-And-The-Rocker/
It’s a good thing for Joel Babbit that The Rolling Stones weren’t on tour in 2008 when he called their longtime keyboardist, Chuck Leavell, about an idea for a new website.
“The timing was just right,” says Leavell, a Georgia Music Hall of Famer and sought-after player who has gigged with the Allman Brothers, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Blues Traveller and The Black Crowes (among others) and founded his own Southern fusion band, Sea Level, and is also a celebrated tree farmer and conservationist.
“If we’d been touring, it would have been difficult for me to engage in something like this,” Leavell says. “So I’m glad Joel called when he did, because it really has re-energized me.”
The “it” that has re-energized Leavell is The Mother Nature Network (www.mnn.com), Babbit’s brainchild, the Atlanta-based website that has spread across the planet like triffids with frequent flyer miles.
Since it was launched in January 2009, MNN has become the most-visited for-profit environmental site on the WWW, receiving about 3.3 million visits per month and 11 million page views (the number of pages a user checks out while visiting a site).
That growth may or may not have something to do with Leavell’s involvement, but there was never a doubt in the marketing maverick’s mind that the conservation-focused musician should be part of the scheme. [...] Continue Reading…
Chuck Leavell and Friends to play New Orleans Jazz Fest 2012
Last year the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival confirmed its roster of performers in January, this time it has done so a month earlier. Once again the event will take place over two weeks, on April 27 – 29 May 1 and the May 5 – 8. The first weekend will feature music from: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, John Mayer, Al Green, Trombone Shorty, Bon Iver, Jill Scott, Allen Toussaint, Iron & Wine, Dr. John & the Lower 911, Steel Pulse, Gomez, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Chuck Leavell & Friends, Gary Clark Jr. and many additional artists, including a headliner yet to be announced. The second weekend’s roster of players includes: The Neville Brothers, The Eagles, Foo Fighters, Bonnie Raitt, My Morning Jacket, Levon Helm Band with special guest Mavis Staples and Steve Earle, Bunny Wailer, Galactic, Zac Brown Band, Herbie Hancock and his Band, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Ne-Yo, Maze feat. Frankie Beverly, Rodrigo y Gabriella, Florence + the Machine, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Esperanza Spalding, Bruce Hornsby, funky Meter, Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s 50th Anniversary Jam and numerous more artists including another major TBA.
Tickets for the event at the New Orleans Fairgrounds will go on sale today. The full lineup is here. [...] Continue Reading…
‘Growing A Better America’ at Parades Bookstores in Airports Across America
If you’ve been traveling by air lately, you likely will have seen Chuck’s new book, “Growing A Better America” in some of the airport stores. The Parades stores have been proudly displaying it as well as some of Chuck’s other books. Airports that are carrying them include:
- Charlotte
- LGA, NY
- Atlanta
- Providence, RI
- Jacksonville, FL
- Ft Meyers, FL
- West Palm Beach, FL
- Spokane
- Phoenix
- Detroit
- Louisville, KY
- Cincinatti
- Greensboro, NC
- Savannah
- Columbia, SC
- Dayton, OH
- Lexington
- Knoxville
[...] Continue Reading…
A Rock ‘n’ Roll Tour de Forest
via http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204394804577009801456226014.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
As the most recent Rolling Stones tour, “A Bigger Bang,” drew to a close in the summer of 2007, I started to ponder what I would do afterwards.
We had toured for exactly two years, playing some 147 shows across the world. There’d been the halftime show at Super Bowl XL in Detroit, the concert with more than 1.5 million attendees in Rio de Janeiro. We had filmed “Shine a Light” at the Beacon Theater in New York, with Martin Scorsese directing. Our last three shows, at the O2 Arena in London, the Stones’ backyard, were completely sold out.
By all accounts, it was a wildly successful tour, and having it come to an end was pretty sad. Over the years we—musicians, technicians, stage hands and the crew—had formed strong bonds; our families had even grown close. Now we would be dispersing to parts unknown and might not be reunited for years.
But it was time to move on—and I have to admit that the prospect of not having to pack a bag almost every night was mighty appealing. While I was road-weary, I wasn’t, however, quite done with my rambling. I had arranged to do my own short tour of Europe, “Green Leaves and Blue Notes.” I was jazzed about shifting to my own groove. The tour would take place mostly in Germany, and I wouldn’t just be performing; there would also be a media outreach effort on behalf of local forest landowners.
[...] Continue Reading…
In Tune With Trees
via http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/sc-trav-1122-georgia-eco-stay-20111122,0,1877456.story
BULLARD, Ga. — The great room at the Charlane Plantation lodge is spectacularly and authentically rustic in design from its polished hardwood floors to the massive beams high above. It features an impressive stone fireplace and a wooden bar carved from timber harvested from the plantation’s sprawling forestland.
As owner Rose Lane Leavell pauses in describing to a visitor one of the finer points of the restored 1835 farmhouse, her husband sits down at a thoroughly modern, gleaming black Yamaha grand piano situated in one corner of the airy room.
With the slightest encouragement, Chuck Leavell launches into a rousing, yet soulful blues number, singing and playing in a Southern boogie style that instantly recalls the best of his former band, the legendary Allman Brothers. [...] Continue Reading…
Playing for the Stones and Rooting for the Tide
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Chuck Leavell has traveled the world with the Rolling Stones, but he still calls Tuscaloosa home. And he still counts himself as a die-hard fan of Alabama football.
[...] Continue Reading…
