Alan Lewine is a bassist and composer currently living in the Philadelphia region.  He founded Owlsong Productions Inc. Lewine has performed and recorded all over the world, besides the U.S., in Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Israel, Cuba and Mexico. His musical efforts have explored a wide range of styles, that have included straight-ahead and modern jazz, bebop, swing, dixie, avant garde, blues, bolero, afropop, salsa, samba, as well as contemporary classical, baroque, Balinese gamelan and flamenco-influenced music. His jazz group Red Hot Peppers was the top traditional jazz group in the Southwest US during the latter half of the 80s. He has also recently embarked on explorations of Cuban music and the Spanish medieval Sephardic music tradition with Ana María Ruimonte through their OWLSONG project Sephardic Treasures.

Alan first took up the string bass in 1978. Though he began musical studies on piano at age 6, and later studied composition and arranging with Bill Wood, Scott Wilkinson, Darrell Randall and others, he was never formally trained on the bass but learned primarily by playing. “Most of my early lessons were from pianists or guitarists who would yell at me when I played a wrong chord or drummers like the one who actually once threw his sticks at me when I messed up the beat.”

Alan has worked with many of the great names in jazz over the years, in all styles. Alan met Milt “the Judge” Hinton in 1982, and the Judge became an early principal teacher and mentor. Leroy Vinnegar was also a great mentor and inspiration when they frequently crossed paths through the jazz scene in Portland, Oregon in the early 90s. Lewine has received “green room” lessons, counsel and encouragement from the likes of Ray Brown, Harvie S, Major Holley, Lynn Seaton, John Clayton and Bruce Gertz.  Alan made numerous appearances with “alto madness” saxophonist Richie Cole in the 1980s. He has also performed with clarinetists Eddie Daniels and Kenny Davern, sax masters Joe Henderson, Clifford Jordan, Les McCann to Henry Threadgill, Jim Pepper and Vinnie Golia, vocalists such as Anita O'Day, Sheila Jordan and Mose Allison, pianists including Ronnie Matthews and George Cables, drummers Gus Johnson, Mickey Roker and Butch Miles, guitarists such as Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis, young turk Roy Hargrove, and old masters like Sweets Edison, Stephane Grapelli and Carl Fontana and many others. Once in the 80s he played duets with Charlie Haden, an experience that made a deep and lasting impression. He composed and performed around Washington D.C., including with the Alan Lewine Xtet, the Afro-Jazz Explosion, Gamelan Mitra Kusuma and as a side man.

Alan’s interest in all forms of musical and cultural expression has also led him to study traditional Ghanaian (Ewe) percussion with Obo Addy in Portland, OR, and Balinese gamelan gong kebyar with I Nyoman Suadin in Washington, D.C. Lewine performed in Suadin's Gamelan Mitra Kusuma playing the jegogan, a midbass xylophone-like instrument around Washington D.C. from 1999 through 2007. He has also worked the last several years with and recorded Never Home, an album of traditional delta and Piedmont blues, with Johnny Never in 2011.

During 2016 through 2020, Ana María and Alan Lewine undertook six successful tours of Cuba, performing in Salon Lecuona of the Gran Teatro de la Habana, the Sala Teatral of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana, the Museos de la Música in both Havana and Santiago de Cuba, the Sinagoga Centro Hebreo Sefaradi in Vedado, the Auditorio of the Biblioteca Nacional “José Marti”, Teatro Bertold Brecht, Pabiilón Cuba and the spectacular Teatro America in Havana, and several other locations.

In January 2017, Alan produced Ana María and Huberal Herrera, the greatest living exponent of the music of Ernesto Lecuona, recorded a CD of the music of Lecuona, Rosas para Lecuona, soon to be released on Owlsong.

After 16 years as a full-time journeyman jazz bassist, Alan “dropped out” of the music scene in 1994 to attend law school, and later worked as a technology transactional and policy attorney with one of the world's major cable companies. He recently retired from that sideline and returned his focus to his music from his current base in the Philadelphia region but reaching around the world.

Also a scholar, Alan taught music theory from a jazz perspective at Portland State University in Oregon and has written and lectured about ethnomusicology and the history and anthropology of various jazz styles. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the International Society of Bassists and Philadelphia’s Jazz Bridge Project.

Alan recently switched his primary instrument to a late 19^th C ¾ Tyrol bass from his too large and heavy early 19^th century 4/4 Mittenwald bass. He uses Kolstein Heritage strings and Kolstein Ultra rosin, and when amplification is needed, a Planet Wing pickup and Acoustic Image amplifier.

Awards

Over a dozen NM-MIC (New Mexico Music Industry Coalition) nominations in the late 1980s for best album (jazz), best composition (jazz), album of the year, best producer (jazz), best cover song (jazz), etc.

2017 Nominee as producer for the prize Cubadisco (Cuba’s “grammy”) based on a limited Cuban pre-release of Rosas para Lecuona.