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featuring
Chuck Cooper Lilli Cooper Aisha de Haas Darius de Haas
Santino Fontana Ben Jones Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer Judy Kuhn
Elizabeth Ward Land Veronica Mansour Betsy Morgan Patrick Page
for Art, Lyrics, and more info, click on the song titles:
Painting on the Ceiling – Michelangelo
Perfect Madonna – Filippo Lippi
How Many Heads – Gentileschi, Caravaggio
The Baker’s Daughter – Raphael
Just Collect – Peggy Guggenheim
In 1568, Giorgio Vasari’s LIVES OF THE ARTISTS hit the bookstalls of Florence like a spring flood, defining a new word for a world crawling out of the Middle Ages–Renaissance. A gossipy riff on his artist-buddies Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli, and their models, collectors, and critics, Vasari’s LIVES has entertained and educated for half a millennium.
In 2025, Mel Marvin and Jonathan Levi launch their LIVES OF THE ARTISTS, a conceptual album of songs channeling the lives of Vasari’s artists. Michelangelo’s religious doubts after years flat on his back with a paintbrush in the Sistine Chapel; Botticelli’s model for his Primavera singing to the painter, buried at her feet in a chapel in Florence. Raphael’s mistress cursing the Vatican for blaming his death on her passion. And other painters horn in from a more recent renaissance, from Vermeer to Turner, Bacon to Picasso, and even Peggy Guggenheim, who centuries later collected art and artists on her walls and in her bed.
Guitars – Ted Stafford, Bernd Schoenhart, Gary Maurer
Bass – Yuka Tadano, George Rush
Keyboards – Greg Pliska
Drums – Mark Brotter
Percussion – Aaron Latos
Flute & Clarinet – Peter Hess
Saxophone – Andy Snitzer
Trumpet & Flugelhorn – Jim Hynes
Trombone – Mike Davis
Violins – Cenovia Cummins, Rachel Handman
Viola – Hiroko Taguchi
Cello – Kate Spingarn
Beats – Dahlak Brathwaite
Produced by Greg Pliska
Recorded and mixed by Gary Maurer
Recorded at Sear Sound, Manhattan
Sear Sound Staff Engineers – Maximilian Troppe, Jasper Leach and Steven Sacco
Mixed at Figure 8 Studios, Brooklyn
Figure 8 Staff Engineer – Max Hare
Mastered by Oscar Zambrano at Zampol Productions
Production Coordinator – Jackie Andresen
Special thanks to Roberta Findlay