Ronnie Boykins

Like many Chicago jazz greats, bassist Ronnie Boykins (1935-1980) attended and studied music at the city’s DuSable High School. Boykins went on to play with blues giant Muddy Waters and tenor sax titan Johnny Griffin, but it was with fellow Chicagoan Sun Ra that he’d make his biggest impact. Boykins would play with Ra and his variously named Arkestras from 1958 through 1966, as well as with reedmen Archie Shepp and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. After Boykins left Ra, he played with pianist Mary Lou Williams and altoist Marion Brown, and, in 1975, he recorded his sole album as a leader, THE WILL COME, IS NOW, for the mythic ESP-Disk label.