Billy “Spaceman” Patterson was around 13 years old when he first heard Sun Ra. The New Brunswick, N.J. native had seen the astral jazz adventurer’s name on the door of Rutgers University’s student center. He didn’t know what a Sun Ra was, but beyond that nondescript portal lay another sphere entirely: a giant globe of color, with dancers and horn players stepping out into the crowd. Years later, when Spaceman got a chance to play with Sun Ra’s Arkestra, band members could recite the exact time and place of this otherworldly encounter. “Oh yes, we remember. We prepared you for this. We came and we bathed you in sound.”

Since that cosmic christening, Spaceman has performed or recorded with everyone—from Miles Davis and Ornette Coleman, to the Bomb Squad and Boogie Down Productions, to the prolific Jamaican rhythm section Sly & Robbie (on Larry Levan-remixed classics, no less). He was even one of Bill Cosby’s longtime musical consiglieres, if that still means anything. And these are just the gigs that can be readily verified with outside sources. Though Spaceman declines to give his age (“I’m young ancient; we’re eternal beings,” he demurs), a Berklee School of Music spokesperson confirms he attended there from 1972 to 1974.

Spaceman often occupies the kind of supporting roles that don’t necessarily show up in official credits. One such gig: Bandleader on the ’90s TV police drama “New York Undercover,” where weekly musical guests ranged from established legends including James Brown and Stevie Wonder, to younger stars like Aaliyah and Notorious B.I.G. Space speaks of backing up a pre-fame Alicia Keys as she was developing her breakthrough hit “Fallin’.” He remembers a show with Pharoah Sanders where the audience was “standing on the tables, screaming,” because the music was so intense. Reached by phone at his Harlem home, Spaceman isn’t kidding when he says, “Look, I’m the only guitarist you know who’s played for everyone from Sun Ra to Kathie Lee Gifford.” And now, Frank Ocean.

When Ocean set his visual album Endless loose on the world in the early hours of August 19, a guitarist named simply Spaceman was listed in the credits for three songs. When Ocean followed up with Blonde in the evening of August 20, his accompanying Boys Don’t Cry magazine given out at pop-up shops mentioned “Space Man” among a very general roll call of album credits. His Spaceman’s identity, though, wasn’t immediately clear: a mystery among mysteries. Ace Frehley, the original “Spaceman” in KISS, seemed safe to rule out. Sadly, it turned out that Jason Spaceman, from noise-rock luminaries Spiritualized and Spacemen 3, wasn’t the guy, either. What about John Mayer, who went uncredited on Ocean’s 2012 album Channel Orange? Not Spaceman, he told me through his publicist.

All the while, on social media, another guitarist Spaceman—the one who opened a door in New Brunswick and entered the mighty gravitational field of Sun Ra—was sending a message to Earth via hashtags: “#WhoisSpaceman #IamSpaceman.” Following Spaceman on Twitter were Ocean’s close collaborator Om’Mas Keith, Ocean’s engineer Caleb Laven, and Michael Uzowuru, another Blonde/Endless guest. Keith even retweeted one of Spaceman’s transmissions. But he didn’t respond to my requests for comment. And a rep for Ocean declined to comment when I asked for confirmation. Could this really be the same Spaceman sharing Blonde and Endless credits with André 3000, Jonny Greenwood, and Pharrell?