Stewart Levine

Stewart Levine is an American record producer. He has worked with such artists as The Crusaders, Minnie Riperton, Lionel Richie, Simply Red, Boy George, Peter Blakeley, Joe Cocker, Oleta Adams, Curiosity Killed The Cat, Jamie Cullum, Aaron Neville, Sly Stone, Hugh Masekela and Killing Joke.

Stewart also produced the festival which ran alongside the Rumble in the Jungle Ali-Foreman fight in Zaire, 1974. Recalling the event on the 35th anniversary, Levine was interviewed by several publications, including Guardian News and media, LTD. In an interview with Jason Solomons of the Guardian.UK in an article dated June 2009, Levine talks of how he was inspired to put on the show. He had been with Hugh Masekela when the fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman was announced. Levine and Masekela had been room mates at the New York School of Music, and were both big boxing fans. The two thought that a concert to coincide with the fight would be a good idea in order to give the United States and the world a more broad awareness of Afcrican-American music. (1)

Although the "Rumble in the Jungle" fight between the two boxing legends was memorable, Levine's music festival which preceded it, named Zaire '74, had been largely forgotten until the recent release last year of the documentary "Soul Power".(2) The film, released on DVD in February, 2010, constituted of previously unseen footage has been previously unavailable. The festival was plagued with logistical...
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