Rabbit Hole Sessions with Abe Ovadia

• “A veteran pianist who also spent considerable time in the trenches and is now a respected musician’s musician.” The New Yorker, Steve Futterman

Evan Levine is an Upright/Electric Bassist, Composer, Guitarist and Educator that currently lives in Chicago, IL. Originally from New Jersey, Evan’s musical career started in high school as a part of the award winning Scotch Plains/Fanwood Moonglowers and a member of the Somerset Jazz Consortium. Evan received his Bachelors degree in Jazz Bass Performance from Oberlin Conservatory in 2014 and his Masters Degree in Music Improvisation from the University of Michigan in 2015. After graduating, he was a prominent figure in the Miami Jazz scene before moving to Chicago in 2017.

Evan has performed with Michelle Coltrane, Nicole Yarling, Tal Cohen, Jamey Haddad, Benny Green, Carl Allen, Kendrick Scott, Patrick Donley, Tommy Carroll, David Leon, Alex Brown, Sean Jelenik, Bonzo Squad, Benny Golson, Ellen Rowe, Nicole New, Lex Korten, Matt Gold, Andrew Green and many others. As part of the Oberlin Jazz Outreach program in 2014, Evan was part of a trio that toured across Italy in Florence, Sienna and Alba. Evan’s first album, Unsolvable Problems, was released in 2016 and featured Lex Korten on Piano and Kayvon Gordon on Drums. It featured almost all compositions by Evan and toured throughout the East Coast and Midwest. More recently, Evan has played at the South Bend Jazz Festival in 2017 with Michelle Coltrane and Hendri Lamiri’s groups.

Evan is currently a part of Emily Kuhn’s project, Helios. Helios will be featured as a part of Chicago’s, Night out in the Parks program and will perform at public parks across Chicago in June. Evan is also a member of Echoes, which will be touring in Carson City, San Francisco and Los Angeles in August. Echoes will also be releasing their sophomore album this summer.

Evan has a new trio project featuring Matt Gold (Sun Speak) and Andrew Green (Twin Talk). This album, entitled Mestizo, features Evan’s compositions and will be available in Fall 2018 on the Label Shifting Paradigms . 

Born and raised in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Arnold took accordion lessons and discovered guitar when he saw the Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show. He attended the University of South Dakota but switched to the Berklee College of Music in 1976. He took private lessons from Jerry Bergonzi and Charlie Banacos.

Drummer and percussionist, Ben Zweig, plays around the world in places such as Japan, China, the Netherlands, Germany, Israel, Chile, Cameroon, across North America, and locally at venues in his native NYC. He keeps an active performance schedule and tours frequently throughout the United States and Canada.

Born in 1992 in NYC, Zweig frequented the local scene of seasoned jazz musicians who eventually became close mentors. He has had the opportunity to share the stage with some of these masters – Randy Weston, Johnny O’Neal, Jerry Dodgion, Harold Mabern, Larry Ridley, David Williams, Roy Hargrove, Deborah Davis, Grant Stewart, Joe Cohn, and Steve Nelson. Downbeat magazine has described his playing as “especially crisp and articulate” and all about jazz, “Zweig steals it with his brush work.” Ben strives for his playing to reflect a passion for performing simple, heartfelt music.

Beginning his musical journey on drum set at age 5, he later picked up trumpet and steel drums. These early voices ultimately shaped his expression on the drums, drawing from the musical traditions of American jazz, West and Central African, Brazilian, Caribbean, and European classical music. In 2018, Zweig traveled to southeast Cameroon to work with Global Music Exchange and learn from master musicians of the Baka Gbiné pygmies. Then in 2021, a pilgrimage to learn from Brazilian percussionists across the country’s coast furthered his diasporic exploration. His fascination with rhythmic dance music from around the world led to the formation of the drum featured band, big beet. Grammy winning producer Don Sickler commented, “[Zweig] is able to combine history with the current musical environment, making it sound fresh.”

Ben’s teaching is the culmination of public schooling and private conservatory, NYC late night sessions, jazz youth programs, steel orchestras, marching bands, classical orchestras, and mentorship from musical stalwarts Joe Farnsworth, Billy Hart, Kenny Washington, Rodney Green, Justin DiCioccio, Christopher Brown, John Riley, Rogerio Boccato, and Ken Piascik. His pivotal fortune to study music in a variety of environments has fueled his love and dedication towards his own teaching practice, always with the goal of increasing students’ interest in deeper rooted music and reaching higher levels of group connection in their playing. Ben received his B.M. and a M.M. from the Manhattan School of Music. He has taught private lessons for over 15 years, currently at the Q Studiolab in Queens, NY as well as many university jazz and drum clinics across the US and Canada.

Charlie Apicella was voted onto the 84th and 86th DownBeat Readers Poll for Guitar.

He studied composition and improvisation with musical titans Yusef Lateef and Pat Martino and was trained as a historian by Archie Shepp and Dr. Billy Taylor. As a young guitarist he met his idol BB King, who offered him advice and shared some stories.

He has performed concerts and recorded with jazz legends Dave Holland, Sonny Fortune, John Blake, Jr., and Avery Sharpe as well as contemporary masters Joe Magnarelli, Vic Juris, Dave Stryker, Don Braden, and Jon Herington of Steely Dan.

In 2022 he formed The Griots Speak with bassist William Parker, saxophonist Daniel Carter, and percussionist Juma Sultan who is known for his work with Jimi Hendrix.

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Charlie Apicella is the founder and program director of Blues Alive: ancestral voices of the blues

He is Vice President of Education for the North Jersey Blues Society

He is an Eastman Guitars Featured Artist a

Guild Guitars Sponsored Artist and a

ZT Amplifiers Official Artist

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He has been a TrueFire educator since 2018 

and has published two masterclass lessons for DownBeat magazine

Frank Russo joyfully paints colorful soundscapes with his highly skilled, passionate, musical drumming. He's an in demand performer, recording artist and educator who currently resides in Maryland and teaches at Towson University. He is also an artist/educator for Bosphorus Cymbals, MD Drums and The Vic Firth Education Team. Raised in the NYC area, Frank was steeped in the rich musical heritage of the jazz legends at an early age and carriers on the legacy of a musical family.

Born and raised in Texas, Nate Hook is a musician, educator, and composer currently living in Philadelphia.  He has degrees from William Paterson University, the Peabody institute, and Eastern University.  Notable teachers he studied under from that time include Harold Mabern and Gary Thomas.

Noel Sagerman is a jazz jam drummer from New Jersey and is proficient in all sorts of live music genres and settings from late-night jazz to early morning religious services. Noel Sagerman has been playing drums since elementary school in West Orange, NJ and started playing professionally at the University of Vermont. He then spent a year playing in Japan. Later, he returned to NJ and furthered his studies with teachers Bobby Thomas, Billy Higgins, and Tim Horner. 

Some of the artists he has worked with include Irene Reid, Pharoah Sanders, "Big" John Patton, David "Fathead" Newman, Oliver Lake, Bruce Williams, Dave Stryker, Pat Tandy, Freddie Hendrix, Brandon McCune, and Pete Rodriguez, along with gospel singer/pianist Joshua Nelson on tour, and at Hopewell Baptist Church. 

A proponent of a “no holds barred” approach to modern creative improvised music, Will Strickler is an in-demand bassist performing throughout the United States.  

Will has toured the country as both a bandleader and sideman at notable venues such as Midtown Music Festival, Cliff Bells, Rockwood Music Hall, Bop Stop, BluJazz+, and many more. 

He has performed with highly acclaimed artists such as the grammy winning pop singer Daya, finalist on NBC’s “The Voice” Chris Jamison, Doc Robinson, Jess Baldwin, Lily Bloom, Zakk Jones, Sam Blakeslee, Dan Wilson and many more.

Cleveland-based drummer Anthony Taddeo has a passion for creating music that is accessible, engaging, and connects people from all walks of life. Whether as a sideman supporting musicians such as Frank Wess, Ron McClure, Bobby Selvaggio and Camila Meza or as a composer for film, he is interested in what ignites the audience’s relationship to a performance. An integral member of Cleveland’s jazz/improvised scene, he leads projects including Alla Boara, ALbaTrio, TMT Trio, and his solo project featured on “Self-Portraits” (2018). As a recording artist, he is featured on over 30 albums. Taddeo received an MFA in Composition from Youngstown State University and a BFA in Music Performance from New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music, where he studied with Jimmy Cobb, Reggie Workman and Amir Ziv. An enthusiastic educator, Taddeo is co-director of JazzFest Academy Saturday Morning Program and percussion instructor at Tri-C Jazz Fest Camp and Jazz Prep Program. He is currently endorsed by Byrne Cymbals and Out of the Drawer Percussion as a performing artist.