Sean Levitt, guitar master (1955-2002)

2021-02-03 update: after a couple of comments below by John Lyon, author of Sean Levitt—Seven Transcriptions, which includes the most complete biographical sketch I have seen of Levitt. I have corrected some mistakes, and have only added his complete name and the dates and places of his birth and death. 

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While jazz lives are routinely thrown to the "tragic" bucket too easily, there are instances for which that label is fitting. Sean Levitt, an astounding jazz guitar player you may have never heard of, is one of those cases.

Sean Levitt in Salamanca, Spain, 1986 (Source)

Although he was known as Sean Levitt, his original name seems to have been Shawn Felipe O'Rourke. He was born in Long Beach, California, on March 14, 1955. At some point, having split up with Mr. O'Rourke, his mother Stella and jazz drummer Al Levitt became partners, which put young Sean in direct contact with the jazz tradition in New York while growing up. 

We Are the Levitts (ESP)

As the story goes, he was 13 years old when he was busking in Central Park and got noticed by someone connected to the ESP-Disk record company. This led to the family album We Are the Levitts, on whose cover young Sean can be seen in typically meditative pose. The album is late-Sixties flower-pop fare, but Sean can be heard soloing on "Fun City" and "Candy".

Sean Levitt

Fellow guitarist, friend and staunch Levitt advocate Joel Fass, has told the story of how Levitt left New York for Spain in 1982, having already had problems due to addiction to alcohol and narcotics. That said, Fass is adamant to add, and he's not alone in this, that Levitt was a good guy "with a lot of soul underneath the drugs". More from Fass about Levitt can be read here and here. 

Levitt lived for a while in Barcelona, where he left a lasting mark on the local jazz scene. He appears to have been an erratic person, yet personable regardless of his circumstances. Even though he was a prisoner of his addictions, he always took care of his appearance and stood out wherever he went. When he played, he hardly moved except for his fingers. He was pure concentration.

As a guitar player, he was, for lack of a better word, a 100% bebop player. Some of the fast, staccato phrasing may sound a bit like Pat Martino, but he was a true original. If he reminds the listener of Doug Raney, do bear in mind that Raney himself let it be known that his three main models were his father, Jimmy, Barry Galbraith, and Sean Levitt, not the other way around. His solos sound totally devoid of any signature (or otherwise) licks.

From a few newspaper archives, Levitt would have lived mainly in Barcelona from 1982, except for a few years in Madrid, some time between 1986 and 1991. After that, he would have gone back to Barcelona, only to leave for good around 1997. According to a short notice in daily newspaper La Vanguardia of Barcelona, Levitt died in Paris in June 2002. The actual date was July 8.

His legacy

For a player of his magnitude, there is very little of Sean Levitt on record. The school Taller de Músics (Musicians' Workshop) of Barcelona released a single CD later included in a posthumous 4-CD set together with previously unreleased recordings. These are now available on streaming platforms.

There is some footage of him playing on YouTube, but a couple of gigs filmed by Spanish public broadcaster RTVE for their show Jazz entre amigos (Jazz among friends) are the best way to watch him play at some length. In 2013, the same presenter, Cifu, devoted the second half of one of his radio shows, Jazz porque sí (Jazz because), to him.

One was recorded in 1986, in Salamanca, Spain, with Horacio Fumero on bass and Aldo Caviglia on drums. It can be seen here, with a bonus track, a beautiful reading of "'Round Midnight", included in a later programme.

In Salamanca he can be seen speaking briefly, in Spanish, here.

On the other, recorded in early 1991 at the regular studio of the programme and just uploaded here, he led a quartet with Chano Domínguez on piano, Richie Ferrer on bass and Guillermo McGill on drums. Gearheads will notice that he plays an Ibanez IMG2010 X-ING, a rather heavy (maple solid body) synth guitar (more info here), even though he sticks to a traditional jazz sound.

There's another gig from 1982, recorded also by Spanish public radio, here.

La Vanguardia, Feb 5, 1993

From February 5, 1993, we also have this two-guitar gig with 22-year old Kurt Rosenwinkel, either Mario Rossy or Ben Street on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums at Jazz Sí/Taller de Músics, on Soundcloud.

Focused mostly on his days at Taller de Músics in Barcelona, we now have Sean Levitt: Retrato de una memoria (Sean Levitt: Portrait of a Memory) an illuminating documentary, a loving yet honest profile of this great artist (subtitles in English).

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Links recap and music:

As I said above, there are very few recordings of Sean Levitt. Besides his releases on the Taller de Músics label, and The Levitts' album on ESP, he's on tenor sax Eladio Reinón's Es la historia de un amor on Fresh Sound, and on French singer Marie Möör's album with Barney Wilen. In sum, we have: 

• John Lyon's Sean Levitt—Seven Transcriptions, including the most complete biographical sketch I have read, can be purchased here. Even though it is brief text, Lyon uncovers more info on Levitt than anyone else so far.
• All the recordings I've found so far on YouTube and Spotify. On those, note that what's listed as Bud Powell's "The Juice" is actually "Wail" (also Powell's).
• Levitt also plays on two tracks on the album Big Band del Taller de Músicos de Barcelona: Neptuno Blues (RNE, 1986), "Bassically Yours" and "Neptuno Blues", not available on line.
• Gig from 1982 (December 17) recorded by Spanish public radio, here. The complete "Confirmation" from that gig can be heard, from 35:56, here.
• Jazz entre amigos show on Spanish public TV from 1986: here.
• One extra track from that show: here.
• Another track from that show: here.
• Jazz entre amigos show on Spanish public TV from 1991: here.
• Two-guitar gig with Kurt Rosenwinkel in Barcelona, 1993: here.
• Jazz porque sí show on Spanish national radio, broadcast in 2013: here.
• Documentary "Portrait of a Memory": here.
• All available programmes of Jazz entre amigos in alphabetical order: here.

With thanks to Professor Héctor García Roel of  Rockin' Mad in Madrid, Spain.