All-star band Beat covers King Crimson at Music Hall

Legendary bassist Tony Levin said “I’m just the bass player” several times with a chuckle during a recent interview. That’s kind of like Michael Jordan saying he was “just a basketball player.” In other words, it’s true, but it’s also massively modest.

Levin has spent most of his musical life in demand, playing bass on albums by Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel and perhaps most notably Paul Simon — that’s Levin’s bass you’re hearing on the hit single “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover.”

He was also a member of one of the most challenging, progressive rock bands of all time: guitarist Robert Fripp’s mighty King Crimson. Levin joined a revamped version of the group in the early 1980s along with guitarist Adrian Belew and drummer Bill Bruford, and they made three albums of heavy, intricate and intense music.

Now, Levin and Belew are returning to that music with Beat, a project that includes the insanely talented guitarist Steve Vai and drummer Danny Carey from Tool. On Sept. 29 at the Charleston Music Hall, Beat will reinterpret the classic material from Crimson’s ’80s era. Not pay tribute — reinterpret.

“I’ve never been in a tribute band,” Levin said, “I’ll put it this way: It doesn’t make my mouth water. But when Adrian told me who was going to be doing it, I could assume that it would be different in a really valid musical way, and my mouth did water. And also this is special material. It has room in it to grow and go to different places.”

The Robert Fripp–approved ensemble will tackle material from the Crimson albums Discipline, Beat and Three Of A Perfect Pair, all of which were released between 1981 and 1984. So not only is the material challenging, but Levin also hasn’t played it in 40 years or so.

“It’s been a lot of ‘Wow,’ ” Levin said of preparing for the tour. “ ‘Wow, this is so good. Wow, my part is a lot harder than I remember. Wow, I have a lot of practicing to do.’ But I was thinking that I have the easiest job here, because Steve Vai has to learn to play what Robert Fripp played.”

Which is why it’s a bit surprising that when we conducted this interview in early September, Levin was preparing to rehearse with the full group for the first time. But he wasn’t worried.
“I’m fine with that,” Levin said. “We allowed ourselves a lot of time to rehearse and get comfortable with the material, and the current plan is to learn almost all of the three albums and then choose what’s best for the shows. My hope is that the material will be a bit different in each show.”

There is typically a bond or an affinity that bassists and drummers have for each other, and though Levin has only played with Tool’s Danny Carey behind the kit a few times, he’s confident that the drummer can push him to new heights on bass.

“Here’s one thing I know about him,” Levin said of Carey. “He’s a great drummer. So it’s going to be a good experience for me. And a growing experience. If he’s musically kicking my butt, then all the better. If he’s moving me to up my game, then I’m ready for that. Plus, he’s a great guy.”
After the Beat tour is over, Levin still has plenty to do, which seems standard for a man who’s played on more than 500 albums. On his just-released new record, Bringing It Down To The Bass, Levin’s name is above the title, not buried in the session musician credits.

“In a way, the album ended up as autobiographical,” Levin said, “because I revisited so many guys I played with, like [guitarist] Mike Portnoy, who I was in Liquid Tension Experiment with. I reassembled some Peter Gabriel alumni [drummer Manu Katche and violinist/vocalist Shankar]. Steve Hunter, the guitarist, and I not only played on Peter Gabriel’s first record, but also on many Alice Cooper albums before that, and on Lou Reed’s Berlin.”

As we finished up our conversation and Levin added one more “I’m just the bass player” dash of humility, we felt compelled to ask: Levin has to take great pride in his reputation as a brilliant, first-call musician that bassists the world over admire, right?

“Nope,” he said pleasantly. “I hear about it, and it pleases me. It flatters me, but it’s not something I carry around in my inner self.

I simply approach my own music and everybody else’s music with the best intentions to try and make it as good as I can.”