Ron Levy's Wild Kingdom

Born Reuvain Zev ben Yehoshua Ha Levi on 29 May 1951 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, Levy began his musical training on clarinet during childhood. A Ray Charles concert prompted him to switch to piano at age thirteen; he soon added organ and, guided by the styles of Billy Preston and Jimmy Smith, progressed rapidly. Two years after taking up the keyboard, he was already accompanying visiting blues performers throughout the Boston region. At seventeen he was spotted and recruited by Albert King, who also became his legal guardian; while still attending high school, Levy remained with the blues legend for eighteen months. Between December 1969 and February 1976 he served as pianist and organist in B.B. King’s ensemble. From that point until 1980 he performed with the Rhythm Rockers, a unit fronted by Johnny Nicholas and featuring a young Ronnie Earl on guitar. As the resident group at Cambridge’s Speakeasy, they backed an array of established blues figures that included Walter Horton, Johnny Shines, and Roosevelt Sykes. Levy next spent three years alongside Luther ‘Guitar Junior’ Johnson before joining Roomful Of Blues from 1983 to 1987. In addition to issuing recordings with his own group, Ron Levy’s Wild Kingdom, he contributed to countless sessions for other artists and, beginning in 1985, produced a continuing series of albums for such imprints as Black Top and Bullseye Blues, eventually becoming the latter label’s staff producer.