def compress(data, compresslevel=_COMPRESS_LEVEL_BEST, *, mtime=None):
    """Compress data in one shot and return the compressed string.

    compresslevel sets the compression level in range of 0-9.
    mtime can be used to set the modification time. The modification time is
    set to the current time by default.
    """
    if mtime == 0:
        # Use zlib as it creates the header with 0 mtime by default.
        # This is faster and with less overhead.
        return zlib.compress(data, level=compresslevel, wbits=31)
    header = _create_simple_gzip_header(compresslevel, mtime)
    trailer = struct.pack("<LL", zlib.crc32(data), (len(data) & 0xffffffff))
    # Wbits=-15 creates a raw deflate block.
    return header + zlib.compress(data, wbits=-15) + trailer
                                       ^ 
                                       Level should be here

I noticed this while benchmarking against python-isal. This benchmarks add level 1 and it seemed oddly slow. 

This can be fixed easily. PR coming up.

ping