Ron Levy | |
---|---|
Birth name | Reuvin Zev ben Yehoshua Ha Levi |
Born | Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S. | May 29, 1951
Origin | Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Genres | Blues, funk, jazz |
Occupation(s) | Musician, composer |
Instrument(s) | Piano, organ |
Years active | 1968–present |
Website | www |
Ron Levy (born Reuvin Zev ben Yehoshua Ha Levi, May 29, 1951) [1] is an American electric blues [2] musician and composer.
Levy was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. [3] He primarily plays piano and organ. Levy grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, and began playing the piano after seeing Ray Charles in concert at age 13. [1] He later switched to playing a Hammond organ. After gaining experience playing in Boston nightclubs, Levy was hired by Albert King in 1968. After an eighteen-month association, Levy joined B. B. King's backing band. Throughout the years, Levy has performed and recorded with a wide range of blues, funk, and jazz musical groups, notably including Roomful of Blues (1983 – 1987) and Ron Levy's Wild Kingdom (1988 – 2014). [1]
After learning and refining his studio chops with Hammond Scott's Blacktop Records in New Orleans, Levy became the in-house record producer and co-founder, A&R for Rounder Records' Bullseye Blues record label, [3] where he was nominated nine times for a Grammy Award as producer. He then recorded and produced 16 albums for his own label Cannonball Records from 1997 to 2000. He has since released numerous albums on his own imprint Levtron.com Records. Levy wrote in 2013 the book, Tales of A Road Dog - The Lowdown Along the Blues Highway (self-published by Levtron.com). Today, he teaches, records, produces and performs with his soul-jazz-blues Hammond organ based group, Ron Levy's Wild Kingdom Trio.
With B.B. King
With Earl King
With Roomful of Blues
Alan Rubin, also known as Mr. Fabulous, was an American musician. He played trumpet, flugelhorn, and piccolo trumpet.
Rod Piazza is an American blues harmonica player and singer. He has been playing with his band The Mighty Flyers, which he formed with his pianist wife Honey Piazza, since 1980. Their boogie sound combines the styles of jump blues, West Coast blues and Chicago blues.
Kim Wilson is an American blues singer and harmonica player. He is best known as the lead vocalist and frontman for the Fabulous Thunderbirds on two hit songs of the 1980s, "Tuff Enuff" and "Wrap It Up."
Ronnie Earl is an American blues guitarist and music instructor.
Barry Joseph Goldberg is an American blues and rock keyboardist, songwriter, and record producer. Goldberg has co-produced albums by Percy Sledge, Charlie Musselwhite, James Cotton, and the Textones, plus Bob Dylan's version of Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready".
Victor Stanley Feldman was an English jazz musician who played mainly piano, vibraphone, and percussion. He began performing professionally during childhood, eventually earning acclaim in the UK jazz scene as an adult. Feldman emigrated to the United States in the mid-1950s, where he continued working in jazz and also as a session musician with a variety of pop and rock performers.
Wild Bill Davis was the stage name of American jazz pianist, organist, and arranger William Strethen Davis. He is best known for his pioneering jazz electric organ recordings and for his tenure with the Tympany Five, the backing group for Louis Jordan. Prior to the emergence of Jimmy Smith in 1956, Davis was the pacesetter among organists.
Charles Earland was an American jazz organist.
Milton Brent Buckner was an American jazz pianist and organist, who in the early 1950s popularized the Hammond organ. He pioneered the parallel chords style that influenced Red Garland, George Shearing, Bill Evans, and Oscar Peterson. Buckner's brother, Ted Buckner, was a jazz saxophonist.
Joseph Leslie Sample was an American keyboardist and composer. He was one of the founding members of The Jazz Crusaders in 1960, the band which shortened its name to "The Crusaders" in 1971. He remained a part of the group until its final album in 1991.
Eugene McDuff, known professionally as "Brother" Jack McDuff or "Captain" Jack McDuff, was an American jazz organist and organ trio bandleader who was most prominent during the hard bop and soul jazz era of the 1960s, often performing with an organ trio. He is also credited with giving guitarist George Benson his first break.
Bernard Lee "Pretty" Purdie is an American drummer, and an influential R&B, soul and funk musician. He is known for his precise musical time keeping and his signature use of triplets against a half-time backbeat: the "Purdie Shuffle." He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2013.
Plas John Johnson Jr. is an American soul-jazz and hard bop tenor saxophonist, probably most widely known as the tenor saxophone soloist on Henry Mancini’s "The Pink Panther Theme". He also performs on alto and baritone sax as well as various flutes and clarinets.
Bennie Ross "Hank" Crawford, Jr. was an American alto saxophonist, arranger and songwriter whose genres ranged from R&B, hard bop, jazz-funk, and soul jazz. Crawford was musical director for Ray Charles before embarking on a solo career releasing many well-regarded albums for labels such as Atlantic, CTI and Milestone.
James Harrell McGriff was an American hard bop and soul-jazz organist and organ trio bandleader.
Roomful of Blues is an American blues and swing revival big band based in Rhode Island. With a recording career that spans over 50 years, they have toured worldwide and recorded many albums. Roomful of Blues, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, "Swagger, sway and swing with energy and precision". Since 1967, the group’s blend of swing, rock and roll, jump blues, boogie-woogie and soul has earned it five Grammy Award nominations and many other accolades, including seven Blues Music Awards. Billboard called the band "a tour de force of horn-fried blues…Roomful is so tight and so right." The Down Beat International Critics Poll has twice selected Roomful of Blues as Best Blues Band.
Black Top Records was an American, New Orleans, Louisiana-based independent record label, founded in 1981 by brothers Nauman S. Scott, III and Hammond Scott. The label specialized in blues and R&B music. The first release was "Talk To You By Hand" by Anson Funderburgh & the Rockets. The artist roster included Earl King, Snooks Eaglin, Lee Rocker, Guitar Shorty, and Robert Ward, among others.
Reuben Wilson is a jazz organist. He performs soul jazz and acid jazz, and is best known for his title track "Got to Get Your Own".
Hank Marr was a jazz musician known for his work on the Hammond B-3 organ.
Melvin Sparks was an American soul jazz, hard bop and jazz blues guitarist. He recorded a number of albums for Prestige Records, later recording for Savant Records. He appeared on several recordings with musicians including Lou Donaldson, Sonny Stitt, Leon Spencer and Johnny Hammond Smith.