a notch below

a notch below somebody/something

not quite as good as someone or something else Fifty years ago, there were many big bands that were good, but they were a notch below the great ones.

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Marceli	mahr-TSE-lee	Polish
Ula	-	Polish
Adilet	-	Kyrgyz
Eliud	ee-LIE-əd (English)	Biblical
Branislava	-	Serbian, Slovak, Czech, Slovene
Mirche	-	Macedonian, Medieval Slavic