[Dixielandjazz] Peter Levinson Obit

[Stephen G Barbone]

His first book, "Trumpet Blues", the life of Harry James is a classic.  
Sex, alcohol and big band swing. It doesn't get any better than that.  
<grin>
Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband

November 16, 2008 - NY TIMES - by Douglas Martin
Peter Levinson, Publicist and Biographer of Jazz Greats, Is Dead at 74

Peter J. Levinson, a music publicist who parlayed his close  
familiarity with jazz personalities into rich and sometimes intimate  
biographies of them, died on Oct. 21 at his home in Malibu, Calif. He  
was 74.

The cause was injuries suffered from a fall, said Dale Olson, a  
publicist and his longtime friend.

Nearly two years ago Mr. Levinson received a diagnosis of amyotrophic  
lateral sclerosis, the neurodegenerative disease popularly called Lou  
Gehrig’s disease. With the aid of his talking computer he was able to  
write and carry on business until the day he died.

Mr. Levinson handled publicity for stars including Dave Brubeck,  
Rosemary Clooney, Stan Getz, Woody Herman, the Modern Jazz Quartet and  
Mel Tormé. He publicized the hit television series “Dallas” and the  
film “Kramer vs. Kramer” (1979), which won an Academy Award for best  
picture. He helped to orchestrate the campaign to issue a postage  
stamp honoring Duke Ellington.

In an interview in 2004 with Tom Nolan on the Web site  
januarymagazine.com, Mr. Levinson said he had never planned to become  
an author. “I can’t say that I set a path for myself to do this,” he  
said. “It just occurred to me.”

“If you work as a publicist,” he added, “you’re working not only with  
artists but with managers and agents and so forth. You get an  
understanding of what careers are all about.”

Mr. Levinson’s first book was “Trumpet Blues: The Life of Harry  
James” (1999), a biography of the trumpeter and bandleader. Mr.  
Levinson mined his reminiscences from 24 years of knowing James, as  
well as from 200 interviews with musicians and James’s friends, to  
paint a portrait that pulled few punches.

“Long before there was sex, drugs and rock and roll, there was sex,  
alcohol and big-band swing,” People magazine said about the book. “And  
as this surprisingly absorbing biography suggests, trumpet player  
Harry James could have been the role model for Mick Jagger.”

Mr. Levinson next wrote “September in the Rain: The Life of Nelson  
Riddle” (2001), about the arranger known for his work with Frank  
Sinatra,Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole. Variety praised Mr.  
Levinson’s detailed description of the artistic and personal  
relationship between Sinatra and Riddle, again drawing from his  
experiences with both. But the review also complained that mountains  
of “mundane detail” got in the way of the Sinatra story.

His next book was “Tommy Dorsey: Livin’ in a Great Big Way” (2005),  
which told how Sinatra patterned himself after Dorsey, the trombonist  
and bandleader, in everything from his way of breathing while singing  
to his wardrobe to his dashing self-assuredness. A fourth book,  
“Puttin’ on the Ritz: Fred Astaire and the Fine Art of Panache — a  
Biography,” is scheduled to be published in March.

Mr. Levinson was born on July 1, 1934, in Atlantic City and graduated  
from the University of Virginia, where he began writing about jazz  
artists and producing jazz concerts. He continued to produce concerts  
while serving in the Army in Korea. He then took a job as a music  
publicist with Columbia Records, after a brief stint as a freelance  
writer.

He eventually started his own publicity firm in New York and later  
expanded it to Los Angeles.

Mr. Levinson is survived by his wife, Grace Diekhaus, and a brother,  
Dr. John Levinson, of Wilmington, Del.

In his 2004 interview, he said his publicity background not only  
helped him gather material for books but also helped him promote them.  
When publicists for the Harry James book failed to get him radio  
appearances, he said, he personally set up 23 interviews with disc  
jockeys.




Steve Barbone

www.barbonestreet.com
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband