Ralph MacDonald March 15, 1944 to December 18, 2011, RIP.
As I fly back home after being with our great friend Ralph MacDonald for the last two days of his life, I am experiencing a roller coaster of emotions. All that makes sense to me now is gratitude for the legacy of music he left and the imprint his presence made on so many lives, including mine. Thank you Ralph!
He died peacefully at home with family and loved ones around. We were privileged to be with him at the end. I was especially blessed to receive an urgent text from Charleston Miles, long time friend of Ralph and head of Security for Jimmy Buffett. Charleston told me it was time. We met up there and shared a life-changing time with Ralph, his family and dear friends.
One particularly touching moment of the weekend was when we showed Ralph a Coral Reefer Band Concert video that a fan had sent me from the recent Meeting of the Minds gathering in Key West, FL. (Thank You fans!!!) Ralph sat up in his bed with his family, Charleston and me around him. We watched nearly the whole 2 hour+ concert, including Nadirah Shakoor and Tina Gullickson singing his song, “We are a Family – Generations” with Mike Utley at the piano. I cannot express to you the importance of having that video to show Ralph!
Some things in musicians are learned and practiced, some are innate, and some you just say, “Well, there’s no way up that mountain.”
Years before I met Ralph, I was well familiar with his incredible skills from listening to his records. I remember the first time I heard him play in person. Ralph was on a cowbell, we were sitting in a relaxed circle with Jimmy Buffett running through a song. I had no idea what he was doing, but his simple quarter notes, bounced and fell, leapt and lilted into a breathing rhythm that made my shoulders feel right and my heart relax, my torso moved and my foot tapped and the song came alive.
Ralph could do that. I saw him time and time again sit in the studio and have the engineer roll to particular parts of the song, “take it to the bridge”, he’d say, “Okay, now let’s just do the choruses.” He apparently had layers of a percussion symphony pre-composed in his head. One part after another unfolded and his art revealed itself. Ralph was a master of efficiency, with a shake of his hand or a beat of his palm he transformed a song into a breathing, living being.
As a songwriter and composer his body of work will stand the test of time, two of my favorites, “Just the Two of Us”, “Where is the Love”, are classics. As a young man in the 60s, during the early days of the Civil Rights movement he perfected his skills working with the great Harry Belafonte.
I will never forget his stories about that period, from marching with Dr. King at Selma, to being in a hotel when the management drained the pool because African-Americans had had the audacity to swim in it.
His influence reaches to every part of the American music experience. To drop just a few names, you can check out his work with Roberta Flack, Bill Withers, Grover Washington Jr., Paul Simon, George Benson, David Bowie, Aretha Franklin, Art Garfunkel, Billy Joel, Quincy Jones, Carole King, Miriam Makeba, David Sanborn, Steely Dan, James Taylor, Luther Vandross, Amy Winehouse, and of course Jimmy Buffett. The list goes on and on.
As important as his musical influence is, his vast array of friendships always astounded me. I count myself blessed to be one and experience a tiny corner of Ralph’s vast life during our years together in the Coral Reefer Band and on side projects that we did together.
Ralph’s son Anthony MacDonald and I mused and told many stories for the past two days. The time in St. Barth where there were no percussion instruments to be found, but undeterred, Ralph grabbed two pieces of paper and rubbed them together and created a serious groove.
Ralph was full of life. After he passed his son Anthony and I sat next to his body. Anthony said, “He lived life to the fullest.” In unison we looked at each other and said, “And then some!”
On Friday afternoon when I first showed up at Ralph’s house and sat next to him in his hospice state, I saw him, not being able to speak, having difficulty breathing and communicating with his eyes from his thin body. Words started forming a poem in my mind and I scratched them out on a piece of paper.
Don’t try to understand my pain
For my pain would deceive you
Be the Light for me
The sound of heaven,
This out of tune
Instrument needs
To remember
This broken drum
With rusted tuning lugs
Needs the sound
Of the clubs I played
That burned the night
Sweaty bodies, not sweaty palms
Dancing in the grace
That is us
Melting like sand
Into glass
The Crystal that turns light
Into a beat and a groove
So stunning
That all we can do
Is Dance and Rejoice.
That is me
Do you remember?
Thank you Ralph, we remember, and then some…
Here is a song I played a many times this weekend for Ralph before he passed. This recording is a previously unreleased version of the PM Song with Joan Bouise singing, Fingers Taylor on Harmonica, Tony Cedras of the Paul Simon Band on Accordion and yours truly on upright bass. Joan Bouise was a wonderful singer and dear friend from New Orleans whom I played many duo shows with in New York and St. Louis. Click on link to play song…
Here are some “Hotel Concert” videos we did on tour in 2009
“I’m So Happy” – Ralph MacDonald, Nadirah Shakoor, Uncle Jim
“Everybody Needs a Chair” – Ralph MacDonald, Nadirah Shakoor, Uncle Jim
