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’s LIVES OF THE ARTISTS drops. 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. But 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.

Featuring vocals by:

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

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

Available on:

Spotify

Apple

YouTube

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

Executive producers – Mel Marvin, Jonathan Levi