Ronnie Boykins Interview

[JSngry]

Apologies in advance for the low-fi. Scanning this this has been a bear. But it's worthwhile, imo.

Really, really sorry about the quality.

[JSngry]

Boykin's experience with Blue Note and publishing echoes Steve Swallow's...only Swallow played ball.

Parlan, otoh, lost his contract and got his record put in the can...at least per Boykins here.

[Dub Modal]

Pretty much that whole section on "Competition and Insecurity" and having his compositions recorded is another chapter in the more things change, the more they stay the same.

That trick Lion pulled on Parlan and others is essentially the racket of distribution. A buddy of mine who started a brewery business ran into this same thing with conglomerate distributors. You can make a great product, but if you don't play ball then you get frozen out. Reactionaries love them some fairy tales about unfettered "capitalism" but have a ten mile-wide blind spot when it comes to unscrupulous business practices. 

Also, I can't find anything relating to Southeastern College unless it's the community college in Whiteville, but there's nothing on the website to indicate whether it was an HBCU at first. Even the NC HBCU database website doesn't mention it. 

[Late]

Just read this interview while listening to The Will Come, Is Now. Thanks for posting it back in September. Boykins has always been one of my favorite bassists, ever since I first heard him with Sun Ra. When I list my favorites, however, for some reason I always forget to include him. Bad!

Boykins' work on Steve Lacy's Capers helps to make that Lacy record my very favorite of his. The trio of Lacy, Boykins, and Denis Charles—man, I wish they'd been able to record in the studio as well. As far as Boykins' ESP date—it sounds like it could have been recorded in 1965, as opposed to 1975. I didn't know that Marzette Watts recorded it.