Ron Levy (born Reuvin Zev ben Yehoshua Ha Levi, May 29, 1951) is an American electric blues musician and composer. Levy was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. He primarily plays piano and organ. Levy grew up in

Brookline, Massachusetts Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, in the United States, and part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area. Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Boston, Brighton, A ...

, and began playing the piano after seeing Ray Charles in concert at age 13. He later switched to playing a

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

. 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 Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shimm ...

's backing band. Throughout the years, Levy has performed and recorded with a wide range of

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

, and jazz musical groups, notably including Roomful of Blues (1983 – 1987) and Ron Levy's Wild Kingdom (1988 – 2014). 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 Rounder Records is an independent record label founded in 1970 in Somerville, Massachusetts by Marian Leighton Levy, Ken Irwin, and Bill Nowlin. Focused on American roots music, Rounder's catalogue of more than 3000 titles includes records by Al ...

' Bullseye Blues record label, 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.

Discography

* ''Ron Levy's Wild Kingdom'' ( Black Top 1034, 1986) * ''Safari to New Orleans'' (Black Top 1040, 1988) * ''B-3 Blues and Grooves'' (Bullseye Blues 9532, 1993) * ''Zim Zam Zoom: Acid Blues on B-3'' (Bullseye Blues 9570, 1996) * ''GreaZe is What's Good'' (Cannonball 27104, 1998) * ''Ron Levy's Wild Kingdom Live!'' (Levtron 201, 2001) * ''Green Eyed Soul'' (Levtron 202, 2002) * ''Finding My Way'' (Levtron 203, 2003) * ''After Midnight Grooves'' (Levtron 204, 2004) * ''Best of Ron Levy's Wild Kingdom: B-3 Organic Grooves'' (Levtron 205, 2004) compilation of #201/202/203 * ''VooDoo BoogaLoo'' (Levtron 206, 2005) * ''Funky Fiesta!'' (Levtron 207, 2012) * ''Rumbango!'' (Leytron, 2018) With B.B. King * '' Live in Cook County Jail'' ( ABC S-723, 1970; CD reissue: MCA 11769, 1998) * ''

Live in Japan ''Live in Japan'' can refer to one of the following albums or videos: Albums * ''Live in Japan'' (21st Century Schizoid Band album) * ''Live in Japan'' (22-20s album) * ''Live in Japan'' (B.B. King album) * ''Live in Japan'' (Beck, Bogert & Appice ...

'' (ABC-King

apan Apan is a city and one of the 84 municipalities of Hidalgo, in central-eastern Mexico. The municipality covers an area of 346.9 km². Overview As of 2005, the municipality had a total population of 39,247. It was an important site in the ...

GW-131, 1971 LP CD reissue: MCA 11810, 1999) * '' L.A. Midnight'' (ABC X-743, 1972; CD reissue: Beat Goes On/BGO 853, 2009) * ''

Guess Who Guess Who may refer to: *Guess Who (B.B. King album), ''Guess Who'' (B.B. King album), 1972 *Guess Who (Slim Whitman album), 1971 *Guess Who (EP), ''Guess Who'' (EP), a 2021 EP by South Korean girl group Itzy *Guess Who (film), ''Guess Who'' (film) ...

'' (ABC X-759, 1972; CD reissue: MCA 10351, 1991) With Earl King * ''Glazed'' (Black Top 1035, 1986) With Roomful of Blues * ''Live at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel'' (Varrick 024, 1987)

References

External links

Official website
1951 births Living people Electric blues musicians American blues pianists American male pianists American jazz pianists American jazz keyboardists Jewish American musicians Musicians from Cambridge, Massachusetts 20th-century American pianists Jazz musicians from Massachusetts 21st-century American pianists 21st-century organists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians 20th-century American keyboardists 21st-century American Jews {{US-pianist-stub