The LeVert Experience

Most young, burgeoning male vocalists who had a father who was a legendary member of a group so successful that the world knew that they were destined for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame wouldn’t even touch a microphone. When your father is a member of The O’Jays, and the dynamic soulful voice of such hits like “For The Love of Money,” “I Love Music,” “Used Ta Be My Girl” and “Stairway to

Heaven,” most singers wouldn’t think they could carve out their own niche in music history. Many R&B songsmiths who did make it into the music industry, with the weight of that lineage on their shoulders, would go on to form a pioneering group with their younger brother and their good friend and songwriting buddy, with their own soul-stirring string of hits: (POP, POP, POP, POP) GOES MYMIND,BABYI’M READY,ADDICTEDTOYOUandCASANOVA(all#1 songs from albums that all placed in the Top 10 on the charts with every release). Even fewer would step away from the hitmaking group to go on to have solo success, record a #1 song with their father, pair to 2 other hugely successful R&B titans (LSG) and form another group and go on to sell millions of records, while writing and recording amazing songs for and with some of the greatest talents in music history, leaving a legacy of masterful music and rousing performances long after their early and untimely death at 40 years old.

But then again, there is only one GERALD LEVERT. And for all of his fame, gold and platinum album sales and the joy of being a father to 3 beautiful children, Gerald Levert still thought about home and Cleveland, OH and, knowing what other talent lived in the same community that nurtured him, Gerald reached in, while at the height of his success and found MEN AT LARGE (SO ALONE, USE ME, LET’S TALK ABOUT IT, all top 10 R&B hits) and RUDE BOYS (MY KINDA GIRL, ARE YOU LONELY FOR ME and IT’S WRITTEN ALL OVER FACE, all Top 5 smashes, including two #1 hits). Gerald, along with his late brother Sean and Mark Gordon, who were the blended brilliance that were the original voices of the luscious and lethal LEVERT, along with Eddie Levert, Gerald and Sean’s father and the powerhouse co-lead vocalist of The O’Jays,

formed Trevel (Levert backwards) Productions. Through that soul sound machine, they would work with the likes of Stephanie Mills, Miki Howard, Troop, Christopher Williams, on various movie soundtracks, and with the O’Jays themselves, to name a few. The production company is responsible for signing both MEN AT LARGE and THE RUDE BOYS to Atlantic Records, launching and supporting both groups to the top of the charts. There seemed like there was no stopping the musical mastery of Gerald Levert. But music suffered the loss of him in 2006, before he won his 2008 Grammy for Best Traditional R&B Performance or his 2008 NAACP Image Award for Best Duo/Group with his father and before he won his 2007 tribute with the “Just Cool Like Dat” Award at the BET Awards. It seemed that we’d have to hear Gerald’s voice on the radio and in our cars and leave his legacy on stage, like he did every time he sang, with his brother or his friend or with his dad.

Until THE LEVERT EXPERIENCE was born. As radio disc jockey and syndication pioneer Tom Joyner was about to embark upon the last of his highly successful cruises, which brought many of R&B giants and their devoted fans together for unprecedented days and nights of music, he had an idea. That brought Mark Gordon (LEVERT), David Tolliver (MEN AT LARGE) and Joe Little III (RUDE BOYS) together for a powerful, power packed tribute to Gerald Levert. This wasn’t just 3 gifted male vocalists singing for a man who had influenced them. This wasn’t just 3 brothers getting together to pay tribute to a man who had helped to make them all household names on Saturday afternoons when chores were being done as the radio blared their hits. This was 3 men who had the opportunity to say thank you to an R&B guru, who had a soulful sound and a Midas touch, who had left us too soon and while he had paid tribute to Smokey and Patti and other giants, Gerald Levert never got his due. Until now.

“When they called from Tom Joyner, I was like this is family,” says Levert founding member and producer Mark Gordon, who helped Gerald to pen many of those groundbreaking R&B hits. They thought it might be a rare, one-night-only, but poignant moment in music history. But news of the union of these 3 titans soon traveled across social media and spaces where real music is loved and the new year begins with a new series of shows that will take the group from back home to OH to perform at The Forum and they’ll travel to bless the NoMi (North Miami) Music Festival, and take the stage along with Anthony Hamilton, Carl Thomas and Michel’le, as they shake the souls of music lovers!

Individually, the members of THE LEVERT EXPERIENCE are bringing Gerald’s ferocious fervor for the stage and love of the fans with them. But they are all

bringing so much more. MARK GORDON brings the rich history of Levert with him and those hits just kept coming and coming, with a series of gold album and platinum bestsellers and production work with everyone in music that wanted to prove that they had the vocal chops to handle the music that the brothers from The Rock and Rock Hall of Fame’s hometown were creating. After Levert went on to pursue their own personal goals, Mark moved to LA and continued to build and bring music to life with the likes of Musiq Soulchild, IMX/Immature and Marques Houston. DAVID TOLLIVER, who was body positivity pioneer before he even knew it when he and duo partner Jason Champion, broke out on the music scene and destroyed stereotypes about large men and sex appeal. They made hits and went on to do television, movies and David has even done stage plays and hosted successful radio shows, plural. But his most important and proudest accomplishment is that he’s launched the Eat Your Heart Out Movement, that fights childhood obesity and teenage mental health. He’s lost more than 120 lbs, but none of the R&B swagger that got him labeled “Blaq Pavarotti” for his robust tenor. And JOE LITTLE was mentored by Gerald, who proudly handed “Written” to the soul stirrer and the single went on to win Billboard’s R&B Single of the Year and cemented Joe’s powerful voice into the annals of music, where he has since been inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame. All the hits that Gerald Levert and Trevel Productions laid down for the lovers of music will be performed and THE LEVERT EXPERIENCE is going to be an experience that music and the stage won’t soon forget!

THE LEVERT EXPERIENCE celebrates 4 decades of captivating performances, soul bearing hits and the dynamic legacy of Gerald Levert with 3 of the greatest voices in music.