REQUIRED READING
ISLAND MAGAZINES
KLC CORRESPONDENTS

The Bongo Man
Key Lime Cafe's resident musician Lee Totten
talks with Ralph MacDonald about music, songwriting,
and that Buffett guy he does some work for....

Photos courtesy of Martin Cohen
www.congahead.com

Ralph MacDonald speaks with an easy rhythm, the words grooving out of his mouth and resonating with the bass and boom of a djembe.

"You know," he purrs, a broad smile breaking across his face, "when people ask me what I do I keep it simple. I tell 'em I'm just the bongo man."

He leans back in his chair, sipping a rum and coke. At 58 he has the elegance of a statesman, even while relaxing in a tee shirt and shorts. Two ceiling fans turns lazy circles, stirring the humid summer air inside a screened gazebo in his affluent Southern Connecticut backyard. Hammocks hang idly under a grove of trees to the right, and across an expansive lawn looms a house that belies MacDonald's modesty. Clearly the bongo man has done well. Really well.

When pressed, Ralph just keeps grinning, slipping his feet out of his sandals and stirring the ice in his glass. "Man, I'm just a guy from Harlem. I just want to play my music, have some fun, pay my bills and spend time with my family. That's all."

For the record, while "just" playing his music, MacDonald has performed and recorded with legends like Harry Belafonte, Roberta Flack, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, George Benson, Grover Washington, Jr., Bette Midler and Diana Ross. And while "just" trying to have some fun, he's written songs that have become American standards - literally. Tunes like "Where Is The Love," "Just The Two Of Us," "Winelight," and "Mr. Magic" have been recorded by hundreds of artists worldwide. His bills have been paid because at 27, the young man from Harlem had the gumption to start his own publishing company with two partners, and through sheer hard work and dedication, it paid huge dividends. He picked up three Grammys along the way - one as a producer, one as a songwriter and one as a musician. - and piles of gold and platinum albums. In sum total, they've afforded him the luxury of time to relax and spend with his family.

But MacDonald is a consummate musician who plays for the passion of it all, and at an age when he could clearly rest on his laurels, he's as busy as ever. His Antisia Publishing Company is still composing, recording and licensing music to an endless list of big name artists, movie studios and television networks, and every summer he goes out on the road with Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band.

"Just the bongo man" indeed.

. . . . . .

KLC: Tell me about your father.

RM: My parents are from the Caribbean - Trinidad & Tobago. They came here in the 20s. My dad was a Calypsonian - a musician. He had this 12 piece orchestra - his stage name was 'MacBeth The Great and his Creole Rhythm Boys.' He was very very popular in the west Indian community - Harlem, Brooklyn, New Queens, the Bronx. The gigs would always be opposite Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez. So I grew up knowing these people. I'm going every night with him and he's putting me on the drums to play - here's this his little kid and everyone thought it was cute, you know.

My dad came from a family of 13 and there was like 8 boys and all the boys played there drums. So they had more drums at my grandmother's house then they had food and I was playing every day just for fun. Nothing serious, never studied in school. It was a hobby.

KLC: When you were 17, you began playing professionally for Harry Belafonte. How did that happen?

RM: I met a guy who was going to take an audition with Harry Belafonte. I helped him carry the steel drums down and he did the audition and got the gig. So I used to go with him every day - you know, I was 17 - I had nothin' to do. And one day one of they guys was late.

Harry Belafonte was very strict with time - if he say 10 o'clock, at 10 o'clock you start. This is one of the reasons I'm really grateful for coming up with somebody like that. When you learn this business, it's best you learn it the right way, because if you don't you've got to go right back and learn it all over again. And working with Harry Belafonte you learned this business correct - Broadway rules. If you're late, you get docked.

So Harry Belafonte was really mad because the guy was late and he looked around. He just looked at me - I was just sitting in the chair - and said "Hey Kid, can you play?"

I said "Yeah." Which I could play because I used to watch them rehearse and when I'd go home all night I'd practice. So he said "Come on and play."

This was 1961 when Harry was bringing Miriam Makeba - a south African singer - to America because she couldn't go back home because they would have killed her because of Apartheid. She was on the show with him and she wanted to do this boot dance - this South African Miner's boot dance where before the guys go dig out those diamonds from the minds they do this ritual. Harry asked if anyone danced. Nobody said nothing. So Harry looked at me and said "Kid, can you dance?" I said "Yeah I can dance."

To make a long story short, I went out on the road in the steel band and I did this South African boot dance. I ended up staying with Harry Belafonte for ten years, while the steel band stayed for that one tour.

KLC: There was a story I heard about how you were bored during Belafonte's folk set and you more or less invented the modern accenting percussion that we take for granted. Is this true?

RM: Well, when I came along during the '60s it wasn't electric - it was all acoustic. And we had two acoustic guitars, upright bass, percussion and drums. That was a five-piece band. So everything is acoustic, nothing's loud, so when he's doing his folk music what am I supposed to do? Just sit on the stage and look dumb? So I started listening to the music and I thought "You know what? I can color the music with different sounds." So I started acquiring triangles and bells and tambourines and cowbells and before you know it I developed a whole style of percussion that was not only for rhythm but also to color the music. And people started saying "Oh wow that's nice, that's different". And it's all as a result of me sitting up on stage being bored with Harry Belafonte. I've had a whole career doing that.

KLC: So how did you get into songwriting?

RM: The bass player in Belafonte's group was a guy named Bill Salter. Now when we were on the road in Las Vegas you'd do a show at 8 o'clock you finish at 9:30, you do a show at 12 o'clock, you finish at 1:30. You don't have to work no more, and you don't have to be at work until 7:30 the next evening. So all night you're up. You go back to the hotel room and hang out and the next thing you know Bill Salter would be writing a song. I'd say "Whatchya doin'?" and he'd say "I'm writing a song."

"Yeah? Well, I got an idea too" He told me "Well, write it down."

I went back to my room that night just writing my behind off. The next night I started writing again. I took the three different things I had and took them to him and said "What do you think?"

He said "Well, let's start with this one." It was a title I had called "Is It Love." And when he finished, it turned out to be "Where Is The Love."

I started out as this little kid from Harlem. My dad was pretty famous. If I could have been half as popular as my dad, I would have been satisfied. Now I'm international. My dad was just regional, local. I get to go all over the United States, all over the world playing the music to different languages and different cultures, When you hear the song "Just the Two of Us" in Japanese, in German - it's freaky.

KLC: What did you think about the Will Smith version?

RM: Oh I loved it. I loved it. I thought that was one of the better versions.

KLC: You grew up in Harlem, yet many who grow up there never get out. How did you do it?

RM: Well, in my neighborhood they were all looking for a handout - I wasn't looking for a handout - I was always looking for a hand. We never had that jealous animosity stuff. If someone did good, we were happy for them. For me it was opportunity meets preparation. I was prepared from a little boy so it worked out. Some of these people here they don't understand what it's about, where it's coming from or what it is, even how you get there. "Oh yeah, you're lucky."

Well, when we wrote "Where Is The Love," in 1971 the Queen of England and the Vice President of Atlantic Records Nesuhi Ertegun come congratulate us and give us this gold record in England and I remember this guy telling us "Man you guys are really lucky."

In 1974 they give us another one - Grover Washington Jr., "Mr. Magic." What are you gonna say now? Lucky? All right. In 1978 they come with another one - the Bee Gees, "Calypso Breakdown." What are you gonna say now? In 1981 we come back with "Just the Two of Us." 1998 come back again with "Just The Two of Us!" Well, that might be luck, but not them other ones. How much is luck? If a man catches lighting in a bottle seven times you tell me he's lucky? That man knows what he's doing.

KLC: I often think that musicians have to wear two hats: one as artists to create, and then one as business people to make a living off of what we've created.

RM: That's it. It's not hard. You get popular you get all these people coming around you and they want to manage you and they want to do this - they don't know who you are. Where the hell do these people come from? The first time I made some money, I had all these financial advisors. This advisor comes in and asks me what I think about cattle futures. I say, "Excuse me, boss. Do I LOOK like a cowboy to you? Cattle futures?"

You don't need these people, man. The same way you try to secure that music in your mind, once that's done you have to try to secure that business part of it. You have to be more than just a musician.

KLC: You have to be a musician and a business person.

RM: Yeah, and the two don't always mix. My attorney used to always tell me when I want to go to sit in on meetings, he'd say "Don't come." I said "Why? Give me a reason." He said, "I'll give you a scenario. Suppose I go in there and say that Ralph wants 200 grand and the guy says '200 Grand? Ralph ain't worth no 200 Grand!' Right away you're gonna get an attitude."

I said "You're right, I will!"

He said "That's why I don't want you there. I can tell the guy I think you're worth 200 Grand and I don't take it personally. It's just business."

KLC: Well, and rejection is such a huge part of this business.

RM: I asked Jimmy one day "Jimmy do you read the reviews?"

Now I'm used to reviews, I can tell when a guy got something up his ass or saw a show he didn't like and this guy obviously had something up his ass. Only thing he said about the show was it made no sense, so I figure this guy just had it out for Jimmy. I said "Jimmy, did you see the review?"

He told me, "No, Ralph, I don't need that. It just hurts my feelings and I'm doing the best I can."

I thought about that and it made sense. You know, Harry Belafonte - if he got a bad review he was depressed, he was off.

KLC: How did you end up with performing Roberta Flack?

RM: I left Harry in 1970 and went with Roberta Flack in 1970 through 1975. And while I was with her in Switzerland I introduced her to the song "Where Is The Love" and she liked it. Actually it was a song called "Tradewinds" which was on the B-side of "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." What was so nice in the old days when you had the 45 was you had an A and a B-side. Now mostly the A-side got the play because that was the hit, but whatever was on the B-side sold just as much as the A side. Roberta really put us on the map in terms of songwriting.

KLC: You've had several songs that were huge hits: "Where Is The Love," "Just The Two Of Us," "Mr. Magic." Did you know when you wrote them that they'd be big, or are all your songs your children?

RM: You know what? That's right Your children is your children and you don't favor none. One just goes a little further than others. Why if it was up to me and somebody said "What do you think is the hit?" It's never what I think it is.

I was fortunate enough to play on "Mr. Magic," I was fortunate to play on "Just The Two Of Us," I was fortunate to play on "Where Is The Love" - none of those songs in the studio did we leave there and say "This is a hit." They just felt good. You do the same thing in the studio every time - why one is a hit and one isn't is beyond me. I have no idea. If we could figure it out I'd be rich. I'd be Jimmy Buffett.

KLC: Well, and even some of Jimmy's "hits" aren't necessarily the best songs he has. Some of his best songs have never been hits.

RM: Jimmy has a whole different kind of humor that I just don't have. We have something that he don't have. His stuff works for him, our stuff works for us. Now every now and then we try to merge the two and see if we can come up with something. The first time we tried to merge the two was in 1984 wrote a song called "Creola" together and that worked out pretty good. I went down to St. Barts for that which was a great time. Then after that I did two songs on Hot Water - "Pre-You" which is a ballad and also "King of Somehwere Hot". After that we did this thing on Banana Wind called "Holiday."

KLC: How did you get into producing?

RM: Well again, it's all a gradual thing from the process of being a musician, and then going into songwriting and then I owned a studio so the next step is producing records. I got to be fortunate enough to work with CBS - I had a production deal with them so I produced albums for Henry Gail, Bobby Humphrey and then I had my own deal with TK records and I also was doing Grover Washington for Asylum so, you know, it all made sense.

KLC: You must have done something right - you won three Grammys.

RM: That's what it's all about. Yeah, I just look at those Grammys, those three, and one is for being an artist, one for a producer, one for a writer. That about covers it.

Again, my dad's musician background - playing with his orchestra since the time I was young. Getting in to the business when I was 17, I got to really hone my craft with Harry Belafonte which a lot of musicians these days don't get that chance.

KLC: How did you end up playing with Jimmy?

RM: Well the engineer who does my albums also did Jimmy's. Elliot Scheiner. Jimmy at this time is opening up for the Eagles, Hotel California tour. And the Eagles did this interview for Playboy, and they asked them: "The whole world listens to the Eagles, who do you guys listen to?" And they said they listened to Ralph MacDonald.

Now Jimmy was right there so Jimmy wanted to know who Ralph MacDonald was. Glen Frey said "You don't know Ralph MacDonald, Jimmy? This cat is bad." So they played my album for him and Jimmy fell in love with it. He said "I want to put this in my music." Jimmy's engineer overheard this and said "Hey if you want to work with him, let me know. He's my good friend, I got his number right here." They called me from the studio.

I hadn't heard about Jimmy Buffett - I didn't know who he was. So Elliot called me up and said "Hold on, Jimmy Buffett wants to talk to you."

He said "Man I like your album The Path and I'd like to write some songs with you. You have an interest in that?!"

I said sure. I had just met Grace (his future wife) in the Caribbean. So any excuse to go down to Trinidad to see her and I was on it. So he said "Man, we can write in Key West, I got a house in West Palm, I got a house in Colorado" and he went on and said "And I got a house in St Bart, the Caribbean."

I said "St. Bart sounds good to me." So I went down to St Bart and we wrote the song "Creola" and that's how it started.

Later we got to talking and Jimmy is a Harry Belafonte buff. I said "Jimmy, the same thing I'm doing for you I did for Harry - put down a Caribbean vibe to Harry Belafonte's music." And he knew that I wrote a whole Caribbean album for Harry called "Calypso Carnival."

KLC: You wrote that whole album?

RM: Yeah. Back in those days Harry used to do this song called "Matilda" in the show - that used to be the finale of the show, like "Margaritaville" for Jimmy. Well he got tired of doing "Matilda" and he wanted to replace it with a new song. And me and my mouth in those days with Harry, well, I was young and brash and from Harlem.

So one day I got brash and I said "Harry, you can't sing no calypso." He said "What'd you say that for?" I said "My father was a Calypsonian."

He said "Well since your father is supposed to be this great singer and since you know so much about singing why don't you write me a song to replace 'Matilda.'"

I said, "Okay." So we went to Washington DC and I remember my father telling me that he wrote songs when I was small and if he wrote them he had to copyright them in the library of congress. So I went to the library of congress. This was in the '60s and NOBODY went to the library of congress so when they saw people they would mob you, because it gave them someone to talk to. I said to them, "Listen my dad was a songwriter."

And they said, well, if he was, what's his name? This lady took me in back and I told her his name. She pulls out this drawer - a big long thing. "Patrick MacDonald - this is all your dads stuff here." So I started looking through it and I came across this title that said "Don't Stop the Carnival." I remember that song as a little boy. So I took that so - it was just a chorus - put verses to it and presented it to Harry. He took it and replaced "Matilda."

Now years later Herman Wouk came to our concert and heard that song and decides to write a book "Don't Stop The Carnival." Then years later Jimmy Buffett decides to write the music to it, and I'm playing with Jimmy Buffett and he's telling me "Ralph, I got this thing with Herman Wouk, 'Don't Stop The Carnival." I wanted to say "Yeah, that's MINE!"

KLC: What's made your whole journey worthwhile?

RM: I love family. I have some great kids, I have a great wife, I'm so happy at this time in my life because life's been real good to me and as you see I like my leisure and this is how I get it done. I enjoy being home.. People say "Wow don't you miss working all the time," but I love spending time with my kids I can swim in the pool with them. Everything is fine. I have my Caribbean wife and we do our little Caribbean style out here in the summer. It's real great.

KLC: So why do you still go out and play with Jimmy Buffett?

RM: Because it's a good life. It's fun. Music is still fun for me. When Buffett first asked me to play with him on the road I told him no because I didn't think it would be any fun. Well, now I realize how much fun it is. And at my age now where three shows a week is just beautiful. It's just perfect. We get three off. We're off Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday every week. We're working Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays. I mean, we get to the point where sometimes we can't wait to get to the theater.

KLC: That's a lot of down time on the road. I mean, you can only do so much shopping - so what do you guys do?

RM: That's a LOT of downtime. What most of us do is we have our laptops and we continue to write and work and try to do a little work on the road. It's kind of hard because we do have a lot of time. I get a lot of rest - I can tell you that. People think "The Coral Reefer Band", hanging our partying. We do our share of partying, but rest assured every morning, seven o'clock in the morning if you go into the health club you'll see the Coral Reefer Band in there working out. It's not the partying life like everyone thinks. We used to do that, but now we're going to stay alive.