Brian Levy
Director of Jazz Studies/Associate Professor
College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts
School of Music and Dance
SDSU
Bio
Dr. Brian Levy is a tenor saxophonist, recording artist, and musicologist. He is the Director of Jazz Studies and an Associate Professor in the School of Music and Dance at San Diego State University.
Since arriving in 2023, he has transformed SDSU’s jazz program into one of the fastest-growing in the region, attracting top-tier students and nationally recognized faculty. Levy revitalized the program by bringing in new faculty (Gilbert Castellanos, Jane Monheit, Luca Alemanno, and Steve Cotter) and curating guest-artist visits that enable students to interact and perform with jazz luminaries such as Peter Bernstein, Jerry Bergonzi, Adam Nussbaum, Charles McPherson, Willie Jones III, Gerald Clayton, John Clayton and Joe Farnsworth.
From 2013 until 2023, Levy was a full-time faculty member at The New England Conservatory (NEC) of Music in Boston. In 2021, NEC honored Levy with the Louis and Adrienne Krasner Teaching Excellence Award in recognition of his innovative teaching methods. He is also the lead author of the new textbook, Chasin’ the Sound: Learning Jazz Improvisation through Historical Voices, published by Oxford University Press. One of the reviewers wrote “Frankly, the book already has me reimagining my approach to teaching and practicing jazz improvisation.”
As a performer, Levy was a longtime member of the Rick Hollander Quartet Featuring Brian Levy, a European-based ensemble that toured internationally nearly 20 times between 2016 and 2025. The group released three albums on Laika Records, including The Best Is Yet to Come and On the Up and Up.
Deeply committed to both performance and scholarship, Levy’s work often explores the legacy of John Coltrane and the evolution of modern jazz improvisation.
Education
- PhD in Musicology, Brandeis University
- DMA in Jazz Studies, New England Conservatory of Music
- MM in Jazz Performance, Manhattan School of Music
- BM in Jazz Performance, William Paterson University
Media
YouTube Video Links
Publications
- Levy, Brian and Keith Waters. Learning Jazz Improvisation through Historical Voices: Roles, Rhythms, and Routines. New York: Oxford University Press, (in production; scheduled for 2024 publication).
- Levy, Brian. “Harmonic and Rhythmic Oppositions in Jazz: The Special Case of John Coltrane and His Classic Quartet.” Jazz Perspectives 12 (2020): 51-91.
- Levy, Brian. “Harmonic and Rhythmic Interaction in the Music of John Coltrane.” PhD diss., Brandeis University, 2012.
- Levy, Brian “Polyrhythmic Superimposition in Jazz: An Overview of Elvin Jones’ and Jazz Artists’ Use of Hemiola and Implied Meters Before 1965.” Sonus (Fall, 2006).