Boston is a complex, multi-dimensional city. But it’s not wrong to picture it as a town where two sides, often summed up as the visceral and intellectual, wrestle for cultural control.

“I love that it’s got two sides, at least two sides, to it,” Boston native Tony Levin told the Herald. “It’s got a raucous side to it, a rough side, kind of built around the sports teams. But, of course, there is a historical side, a side with all the universities, an intellectual side.”

Levin wanted to express the complete city in “Boston Rocks,” a track from his latest solo album “Bringing It Down to the Bass.”

“So there’s a heavy rock sound to it,” the bassist said. “But there’s also a prog section with the (guitar-derived instrument) Chapman stick where I go into a recited poem, admittedly with a few quotes from JFK, about the city. Then I tried to throw both parts together into one piece.”

Levin has built an impressive career out of throwing together strange stuff that doesn’t work on paper but thrills on execution — “Bringing It Down to the Bass” is basically a compendium of wonderfully mishmashed styles. Levin is a jazz cat, prog rock pioneer, first-call session bassist (Paul Simon, John Lennon, Alice Cooper), Peter Gabriel sideman of 40 plus years, and key King Crimson collaborator.

While he’s excited to get on the road to promote his latest solo album, that will have to wait. Currently, he’s devoted to a King Crimson-adjacent project. His old Crimson bandmate, guitarist Adrian Belew, and Levin have teamed with guitar hero Steve Vai and Tool drummer Danny Carey in Beat — the supergroup will tackle ’80s era Crimson Oct. 11 at the Shubert Theatre. The four virtuosos had never played together as a group and that’s part of what attracted Levin to the Beat tour.

“Through the years, I’ve been aware of (Vai) as a really good player, and, like any good player I’m aware of, part of me is like, ‘I hope I get to play with this guy sooner or later,’” Levin said. “It’s been an interesting challenge for him to learn (original King Crimson guitarist) Robert Fripp’s parts, which are notoriously difficult. He started six, eight months before the tour practicing these parts. And, more importantly, making them his own parts.”

“None of us want to hear the exact notes Fripp played,” he added. “We are both playing the material faithfully and finding plenty of room to stretch out. I’ve been particularly thrilled to hear what Danny Carey and Steve do to the material we played in the ’80s to make it different, to have it grow.”

Levin is happy to revisit the past, but not to repeat it. The solo album is a perfect example of that with its cast of a dozen aces. There are tracks that pull together his Gabriel bandmates from the late ’70s. Other places have him working with Robert Fripp or drummer Steve Gadd, who he’s known since his college days at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. With so many collaborators and his constant road work, the album took years to finish.

“Of course, I’m not going to turn down a Peter Gabriel tour or a King Crimson tour,” he said. “I also have a band called Stick Men that I fill in the spaces (between tours) booking shows and a jazz band with my brother Pete, called Levin Brothers.”

“My album and my promotional tour are important to me but they’re second on my list, or third,” he added with a laugh. “After Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, or in this case the Beat tour.”

For tickets and details visit, tonylevin.com