Interview with Tony Levin from 2017

Stick Men is a unique power trio. Founded by legendary and still cutting edge bassist / Chapman Stick artist, Tony Levin, Stick Men continues to expand the horizons of modern progressive music. With the departure of fellow Stick artist Michael Bernier, Austrian touch guitar master, Markus Reuter, has joined King Crimson band-mates Levin and drummer Pat Mastelotto for one of the most impressive forays into modern music. Absalom represents the first recorded portion of a planned longer CD release from Stick Men.

My impression of Absalom is that with the first listen, you’ll likely immediately be drawn into the expansive diversity of styles, sounds, and textures spread through this highly enjoyable and musically advanced EP. I have been listening to this collection for several weeks, and I can only say that the songs are growing even more on me. Each listen gives the opportunity to hear a different relationship of sounds I hadn’t noticed on the prior listen. This is very, very good music of our era. I highly recommend this album.

This single from Anderson, Bruford Wakeman and Howe is out of print, of course, but these days, it’s not that hard (or sometimes expensive) to get your hands on something like this.

This new five-CD collection is pretty amazing. I've said before, and will repeat it here, that this new version of King Crimson might well be the best lineup they've had, particularly in terms of live shows.

Fans of the So album will especially want to pick this up.

Old school prog fans should find plenty to like here. That said, modern progressive rock aficionados will probably like it, too. .

This is an excellent book in many ways. First, it’s a quick read – partly because it’s not all that long and partly because it’s written in such a way that it flows really well.

This single from Anderson, Bruford Wakeman and Howe is out of print, of course, but these days, it’s not that hard (or sometimes expensive) to get your hands on something like this.

Yes seldom do anything in a small way when it can be done in an epic manner. 

Steve Thorne is one of the great unsung British prog heroes, a veritable one man band who has released a series of consistently well-crafted and thought-provoking solo albums, Crimes & Reasons being his fourth.

Our old rule at Music Street Journal was, if it’s out of print, we don’t review it.

This is an EP that’s tied to a graphic novel.

Only the second album in the history of Yes to be recorded without Jon Anderson, this one, particularly since it’s the only other Yes disc with Geoff Downes on keyboards, is obviously compared to Drama.

Where do I begin on this review? I guess I should start by saying that I’m a Yes fanatic and I have been since I was twelve years old – and for those keeping track, that’s a long time ago.

This brand new DVD is a very cool thing. It includes two features along with some bonus material. Both of these features on their own would be great.

This box set is a class act. The whole thing comes in something that resembles a book. 

While any Yes album is better than the music of a lot of other bands, this is probably the group’s weakest live album.

On the one hand, Nick D'Virgilio has been out of Spock's Beard for a while now. That means that perhaps the mentions of the band and comparisons aren't entirely appropriate.

Lately we’ve been moving away from our long-held rule that in order to reviewed an item had to be in print.

Although this is out of print, I’ve decided to review it at Music Street Journal.

In the early parts of 2013 I was kind of under-impressed with the music coming out.

I saw Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe on this tour and it was purely magical.

I had never seen the mighty King Crimson play live before - not surprising, as I was only ten years old when the band last played my home town in 1974!

There was something ominous about the date of this concert -11.11.11 so it was very much a case of going for the one on the night.

The excellent “Two of a Perfect Trio” tour was a well-publicized and equally well received series of concerts featuring the bands of King Crimson legends Tony Levin and Adrian Belew.

There seem to be some Yes fans deriding the recent incarnations of Yes.

This is my first time seeing Yes with the Benoit David and Oliver Wakeman line-up.

Downey, California is best remembered for the spacecrafts, fighter jets and B-1 bombers built there over the past three or four decades.

More (and larger) photos from this concert are available in our members' area.



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It seems that there is quite a bit of live material being released from this version of King Crimson. That's a great thing because this line-up might be the best ever.

This is truly an amazing set. Looking at just the product itself, without even considering the performances will tell you that.

Anyone who has heard anything from Stick men will know what to expect here.

This is a reissue of the Yes album Open Your Eyes on 180 gram vinyl.

It used to be that at Music Street Journal we didn’t cover things that were out of print.

This double CD compilation is an interesting and unique collage of multiple percussive styles given to a wide palette of genres and colors therein.

The old rule at Music Street Journal was that we didn’t cover items that weren’t in print.

So many people these days give lip service to this charity or that, but you really have to admire the people who put their money (literally) where their mouth is. Such is the case with Simon Apple as they are donating a portion of the sale of each CD to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

It used to be a rule at MSJ that if something was out of print we didn’t cover it.

So was clearly the album that broke Peter Gabriel into the mainstream.

This DVD is one of the best from Yes.

I am a big fan of pretty much anything Billy Sherwood is involved with and I love Supertramp, so when I heard Sherwood was in charge of assembling an all star tribute to Supertramp, I was excited.

This is a double disc set. I believe that it was also released at one point in time as two single disc sets.

Here is another compilation of Yes music. It is the first two CDs from The Ultimate Yes, repackaged.

Is this album progressive rock? No.

While this is released under Xavi Reija's name, the full lineup here is full of exceptional musicians. Reija handles the drums while Tony Levin delivers bass, standup bass and Stick.

This 35th Anniversary collection of Yes shares a lot of material with other compilations of theirs.

This 35th Anniversary collection of Yes shares a lot of material with other compilations of theirs.

When King Crimson reformed after the 80s period, there were definitely elements of that period still present in their sound. 

This live album is pretty great. .

This brand new live album from Yes is cool stuff. For one thing, it's great to get live recordings of all the Drama songs. There are also two epics from Tales from Topographic Oceans and the "Leaves of Green" part from "The Ancient" on that album. They round the section out with a few other Yes classics. The live sound is great.

I've seen Yes close to twenty times (more times than I've seen any other band), and I can tell you that despite the technicality of their music and instrumental prowess, no two Yes shows are the same. That's true even when you see them on multiple nights in a row. Each performance is a little different because the music tends to take on a life of its own in live gigs. So, don't expect to hear the studio versions exactly covered here. For one thing, the line-up is different. For another thing, I don't think I've ever heard a live Yes song sound exactly like the studio version. I mean, why would you want that? You can listen to the studio version any time. I think these renditions are very faithful, and bring a new life to the songs at times. I highly recommend this, especially for those (like myself) who really love Drama.

An album that is rather maligned in fan circles, Tormato is a bit pop oriented, but really has some wonderous moments. The bass sound on this one is a bit experimental, having a very processed approach, and although the majority of the songs are more accessible, there is a spirit of prog rock jamming that creates an openness and spirit of virtuosity throughout.

I remember seeing Yes on the Union tour. It was an amazing show.

Vantomme is named for its founder Dominique Vantomme. He is a keyboardist, producer and more.

This album is fully instrumental. It’s a great disc, too. Some of the music here has appeared elsewhere (although most of the time in different arrangements)

This is a new reissue of the original Yes concert film. While the main film remains unchanged from older editions, there is quite a bit of added material here.

I’ve placed this one in the progressive rock section of Music Street Journal.