Learning in Cincinnati
Ben Levin’s musical education took shape around Cincinnati’s piano players and the band led by his father, guitarist Aron Levin. Early classical lessons did not hold his interest. A subsequent teacher began with music Ben wanted to play, and at eight he started studying with Ricky Nye. Nye taught him theory and blues form, but listening assignments were equally important. Records by Otis Spann, Little Brother Montgomery, Jay McShann, Ray Charles, and the great boogie-woogie pianists opened up several different ways of making the instrument speak.
Levin has singled out the experience of sitting at two pianos in Nye’s home, watching a phrase played and then working out how to respond. His introduction to blues piano included both recorded performances and living musicians. Cincinnati’s boogie-woogie events brought visiting players into close contact with local audiences, sometimes in informal house gatherings. Hearing a fast Albert Ammons-style piece followed by a quieter blues helped him understand the repertoire as a living performance language with considerable internal variety.
From the Heaters to Ben’s Blues
At eleven, Levin began sitting in with his father’s group, the Heaters. Initially he had enough material for a short set; as audiences stayed to hear him, the family worked out ways for him to remain longer. By his mid-teens he was taking a larger role in leading performances. Aron remained an important guitarist and collaborator. Their working relationship gave Ben practical experience in pacing a set, communicating with an audience, and moving from a guest appearance to responsibility for an entire evening.
His first overseas booking, at the boogie-woogie festival in LaRoquebrou, France, in 2017, prompted his first album. Nye encouraged him to bring something listeners could take home. Ben’s Blues was recorded when Levin was seventeen and mixed original songs with established repertoire. The title traces back to an exercise Nye wrote during their earliest blues lessons. ‘Little Girl’ and ‘Have You Lost Your Mind?’ came from Levin’s own experiences. Making the record connected technical study with songwriting and the ordinary business of being a touring musician.
The debut also established a pattern that would recur: Levin placed his own material beside songs that had taught him something. His musical identity developed through selecting and interpreting repertoire as well as writing it. That approach suited a pianist interested in the differences between New Orleans rhythm, Chicago ensemble blues, and the more polished vocal-and-piano sound associated with Charles Brown. Each offered a different setting for a singer who accompanied himself.
Before Me and the pandemic albums
Before Me appeared through VizzTone in 2019, with Bob Margolin, Bob Corritore, and veteran King Records drummer Philip Paul among the participants. The repertoire included ‘I Feel So Good,’ the James Cotton instrumental ‘Lightnin’,’ and ‘Confessin’ the Blues.’ Levin recalled spending considerable time mastering the introduction to the last of those. The album earned a Blues Music Award nomination for emerging artist album in 2020. It also began a recurring association with Corritore that would later lead to appearances on other musicians’ records.
Carryout or Delivery followed in 2020. Written and recorded during the pandemic, it found humor in disrupted daily routines while expanding the keyboard palette to Hammond organ and Wurlitzer electric piano. Eight of its twelve tracks were Levin compositions. Songs such as the title number put contemporary subjects into established blues and rhythm-and-blues forms; the closing Floyd Dixon song ‘Time Brings About a Change’ carried a more reflective mood. The record showed him treating blues as a way to address his own circumstances.
Still Here, released in 2021, had a more personal center. Aron had survived a severe case of COVID-19, and father and son returned to recording after his recovery. The title song and ‘Christmas Rain’ reflected the strain of that period. Alongside them, Levin continued to study challenging older repertoire, including Jimmy Witherspoon’s ‘Love and Friendship.’ The album used several configurations, from smaller combinations to a full band, allowing the piano and the exchanges among musicians to carry different amounts of weight.
Guests, duets, and Back to Baton Rouge
Take Your Time arrived in 2022 with Lil’ Ed Williams, Bob Stroger, and Lil’ Jimmy Reed among its guests. Its titles include ‘Jazzman Blues,’ ‘Longer Hours, Shorter Pay,’ and ‘Mr. Stroger’s Strut.’ The guest format grew naturally from Levin’s efforts to bring visiting musicians into Cincinnati for performances. A blues brunch series helped him build working relationships that could continue beyond one concert, through further shows and recording sessions.
One of those relationships led to Back to Baton Rouge, credited to Lil’ Jimmy Reed with Ben Levin and released by NOLA Blue in 2023. Levin produced the project and played piano beside Reed’s guitar, harmonica, and singing. Aron supplied second guitar, Walter Cash Jr. played bass, and Ricky Nye and Shorty Starr shared the drumming. The songs combined existing material with originals by Reed and the Levins. For Ben, the project joined his interest in music history to the immediate work of making a new record with an older artist.
The same year, Waiting Just for You paired him with singer Stella Heath. Its four duets explored the meeting of blues piano and jazz singing in a smaller setting. Ben Levin Presents a Holiday Blues Revue followed in 2024, featuring Lil’ Ed, Lil’ Jimmy Reed, Sonny Hill, and Candice Ivory. Its varied guests reflected different interests within Levin’s music, from Chicago slide-guitar blues to soul singing and jazz phrasing. He also played Hammond on ‘Skating’ and ‘Christmas Mood,’ extending an interest in organists such as Jimmy Smith, Groove Holmes, and Hank Marr.
History, collaboration, and a widening career
Levin’s work with Philip Paul fostered an interest in oral history and recording research. While studying history at the University of Cincinnati, he interviewed older musicians and investigated their careers. He has also spoken about learning from bassist Walter Cash Jr., whose experience connects Cincinnati’s present-day musicians with an earlier club and recording scene. These relationships have shaped his understanding of repertoire as something carried by people, including players whose names were sometimes absent from original record credits.
His later appearances include Candice Ivory’s New Southern Vintage and Bob Stroger and the Headcutters’ Bob Is Back!, both listed in his 2025 discography, and Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials’ 2026 album Slideways. Touring has taken him through the United States, Europe, Brazil, and Japan. Across his own albums, duets, and guest work, he has retained the combination established early in Cincinnati: close attention to older piano styles, an appetite for collaboration, and songs drawn from the experiences of his own generation.