Howard Levy
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Howard Levy (b. July 31, 1951 in Brooklyn, New York City) is an American harmonica player and pianist. In 1997, at the 39th Annual Grammy Awards he and the rest of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones won the award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance, for their live recording of their 1991 song "The Sinister Minister." A renowned interpreter of the jazz harmonica, he has played with Ben Sidran and Rabih Abou-Khalil, among others.
He has appeared on over 200 albums[citation needed] and has played on several movie soundtracks. In 2001, he composed the first concerto written for the diatonic harmonica. He has performed it many times with orchestras in the United States and Europe.
He is music director of the Latin/Jazz group Chévere de Chicago whose first album was Secret Dream. Currently he also leads the band "Acoustic Express", plays duo concerts with pianist Anthony Molinaro, and tours Europe with Michael Riessler and Jean-Louis Matinier. Howard has recorded or toured with Kenny Loggins, Bobby McFerrin, Sandip Burman, Dolly Parton and Paquito D'Rivera.
He was the first to use the overblow and overdraw techniques for chromatic playing on the diatonic harmonica in the 1970s. These allow a harmonica player to obtain all the missing chromatic notes in the Richter-tuned diatonic harmonica.
He continues to make frequent appearances on Garrison Keillor's acclaimed radio program Prairie Home Companion.
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