Stewart Levine (born 1946) is an American record producer. He has worked with such artists as The Crusaders, Minnie Riperton, Lionel Richie, Simply Red, Hugh Masekela, Dr. John, Randy Crawford, B.B. King, Jonatha Brooke, Huey Lewis and the News, Patti LaBelle, Sly Stone, Boy George, Peter Blakeley, Joe Cocker, Oleta Adams, Killing Joke, Jon Anderson, Boz Scaggs, Womack and Womack, David Sanborn, Brenda Russell, Lamont Dozier, Curiosity Killed the Cat, Aaron Neville, Everyday People, Jamie Cullum and The Marshall Tucker Band.
Early life
Levine was born and raised in The Bronx. At the age of seven, Levine began his lifelong musical journey by taking up the clarinet. After switching to the saxophone at age twelve, he was playing professionally by fourteen.
At seventeen Levine entered the Manhattan School of Music alongside noted musicians Herbie Hancock, Donald Byrd, and, most importantly, a young South African trumpet player by the name of Hugh Masekela. Levine and Masekela became roommates and lifelong friends.
Career
Levine left the Manhattan School of Music after one year to pursue a career as a horn player and arranger. He very quickly developed his skills as an in-demand arranger on many high-profile pop and R&B recordings. This experience led Levine into forming a production company with Hugh Masekela. They began producing records that were a hybrid of South African township grooves crossed with rhythm and blues and jazz.
They soon left New York and moved to Los Angeles to form Chisa Records, an independent label which received immediate acceptance among the recording community. Levine produced Masekela's ”Grazing in the Grass,” which became a #1 pop single, quickly selling over two million copies.
While in California, Levine met members of The Jazz Crusaders, a group who had already built a small, but loyal, following. Levine signed them to Chisa Records with the idea of combining the funk of their native Texas alongside the jazz for which they were known. This was the beginning of a style that would become known as jazz-funk and, later, “Rare Groove.” Levine produced over a dozen albums with The Crusaders, many of which were certified gold and considered classics.
In 1974, Levine came up with the idea of putting together a music festival Zaire 74 in Kinshasa set around The Rumble in the Jungle boxing match - the Ali/Foreman fight in Zaire. He produced the festival, which brought together the greats of soul music alongside Africa's greatest artists. The entire event was filmed and eventually released in 1996 as the award-winning documentary When We Were Kings.
He returned to recording, producing Minnie Riperton’s third album, Adventures in Paradise. This album is believed by many to be a template for the neo-soul movement, and has influenced artists such as D’Angelo and Jill Scott, as well as many others. This led to a very productive period in which he produced albums by Van Morrison, Motown legend Lamont Dozier’s Peddlin’ Music on the Side, which featured the classic “Goin’ Back to My Roots,” and the début album of Randy Crawford.
From here he developed a close relationship with Phil Walden and Capricorn Records, producing a series of gold albums with southern rock artists The Marshall Tucker Band, as well as The Allman Bros. Band side project Sea Level and Dixie Dregs.
He then produced the first of six albums with blues legend B.B. King. Midnight Believer was an instant hit, putting B.B. back on the charts with a gold album after a long absence. This was quickly followed by B.B.’s Grammy winning There Must Be a Better World Somewhere.
In 1982 Levine produced “Up Where We Belong” with Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes. Used as the end title song to the film An Officer and a Gentleman, “Up Where We Belong” became a #1 pop hit, Grammy winner and Academy Award winner. He then produced Sly and the Family Stone’s début album for Warner Bros. Records.
Next came Womack & Womack’s debut Love Wars. In England it quickly became a critic’s darling and a #1 album. Due to the overwhelming success of this album, Levine found himself being courted by many English A&R men, eager for him to work with their artists. He moved to London and began working with a wide range of acts from the techno dance group Blancmange to the cult band Killing Joke.