Biographies for the Members of Celestial Navigations
GEOFF LEVIN & CHRIS MANY
Rarely have two musicians of such different backgrounds combined their talents to create such diverse music as Geoff Levin and Chris Many have. These two have repeatedly produced scores for television series, movies, and industrial videos, as well as unique sound tracks for commercials and corporate showcases. Hundreds of awards acknowledge the musical mastery of Levin and Many.
Raised on opposite ends of the United States and trained in different fields, Chris and Geoff first met in 1970.
Geoff Levin was a Bay Area boy who took the stage with members of the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane. He developed a strong and distinctive guitar style based on the best of rock, blues and country. While leading his group, People, he produced a Top 10 hit and toured the U.S. with such notables as Credence Clearwater Revival, Santana and The Who. His recent song writing accomplishments include a country cut appearing on a hit album recorded by Kathy Mattea. Geoff also plays keyboards and handles lyrics for song projects.
Chris Many is an accomplished pianist who began studies of the Classics at age 6. Growing up in the Catskill Mountains of New York, Chris honed his skills playing in resort hotels and local rock groups and by holding down organist positions at a number of churches. He also wrote big band arrangements for jazz groups. The year 1970 brought him out to California where he met Geoff, and the seeds of Levin and Many Composing were planted.
The collaboration actually became a full-fledged musical partnership in 1984. Geoff and Chris are enthusiastic about working with traditional orchestral scores, contemporary dance cuts and a full array of synthesized compositions. They are also a part of the music library industry in both the U.S. and Canada. As a result, their music is used in thousands of shows, videos, commercials and A/V productions worldwide. Close contact with contemporary trends is maintained by offering many new cuts each year to the libraries of FirstCom and Parry Music.
Live performance is a big part of Chris' and Geoff's careers. Working together with actor Geoffrey Lewis, they are Celestial Navigations, the premiere storytelling group in America. The trio now has three albums. Their self-titled debut made Billboard's Top 12. The follow-up, "Celestial Navigations: Chapter II," reached the Top 5. And they expect to do equally as well with "Ice."
Whether their music is heard in a feature film, a TV series, a national commercial, a corporate video, an animation or their own performance group, you can expect music that captures the excitement of the extraordinary combination of talent of Geoff Levin and Chris Many.
GEOFFREY LEWIS
At the age of six Geoffrey Lewis decided to become an actor in response to the constant question, "What are you going to be when you grow up, little boy?" This decision was based on his ability and desire to dress up in strange costumes and become other people. He spent his earliest years in Rhode Island on farmland that has been in the Lewis family since the 1600's.
At the age of ten he moved west to a small village in the mountains of California. A lot of time was spent watching the clouds and dreaming of glories while roaming the mountains and learning to ski. He became a competitive skier early on and has continued to ski race to this day. Geoffrey is also an accomplished horseman and plays polo.
In high school he shunned the drama classes and instead put on his own one-man shows. They comprised lip synching to records and passages from movies he had seen. In college he studied full time in the dramatic arts department, learning the different crafts of theatre, including set building, designing costumes and experimenting with various make-ups. His drama teacher received an inquiry from the "Plymouth Summer Theatre Festival" in Massachusetts asking if the school had any promising young actors who might fit into their program.
Geoffrey was accepted and took a bus cross country to join the Plymouth Theatre, where he appeared in summer stock. From there he went to New York City and continued his studies and worked in numerous off-Broadway productions. Being from the mountains, it took about a year to adjust to city life, but Geoffrey thrived continuing to learn by observing people in the streets of New York.
One day he read a book entitled "On The Road" by Jack Kerouac and he hit the road traveling across the country. This went on for the next ten years and eventually took him to different parts of the world. Always in the back of his mind was the intention to act, perform, sing and dance.
Returning to the states he appeared in both New York and Los Angeles theatre productions. He started reading some of his original stories and poems in coffee houses in both cities. He always kept journals or pads filled with ideas, observations and character studies. Very often he would take a character he created or copied out onto the street, just to see if he could pull it off.
One day, about twenty years ago, he decided he better start making a living with this thing called acting. His first job was as a cowboy in the now classic film, "The Culpepper Cattle Company." Several television roles followed until he got a call from Clint Eastwood who cast him in "High Plains Drifter" and subsequently in four more films, "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot," "Every Which Way But Loose," "Bronco Billy" and "Any Which Way You Can." Among his many other film credits are "Dillinger" and "The Wind and The Lion" with John Milius and a couple of big money-makers, "Lucky Lady" and "Heaven's Gate." Then came the television series "Flo," for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe award.
Currently, he recently completed starring in his thirty-fifth film, "Time Out." His writing has always sustained him along with his ski racing (on a World Cup circuit for men over forty). Geoffrey continues to have a far reaching impact with his audience. Once you experience his wit, charm and extraordinary talent, you'll be consumed and enthralled by this very special artist.
