Ralph MacDonald is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 percussionist and song-writer. He joined Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte

Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...

's band at age 17. He wrote the Roberta Flack

Roberta Flack

Roberta Flack is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who is notable for jazz, soul, R&B, and folk music...

 and Donny Hathaway

Donny Hathaway

Donny Edward Hathaway was an American soul singer-songwriter and musician. Hathaway contracted with Atlantic Records in 1969 and with his first single for the Atco label, "The Ghetto, Part I" in early 1970, Rolling Stone magazine "marked him as a major new force in soul music."His collaborations...

 song "Where is the Love" with songwriting partner William Salter. Probably his best-known composition is the Grover Washington, Jr.

Grover Washington, Jr.

Grover Washington, Jr. was an American jazz-funk / soul-jazz saxophonist. Along with George Benson, John Klemmer, David Sanborn, Bob James, Chuck Mangione, Herb Alpert, and Spyro Gyra, he is considered by many to be one of the founders of the smooth jazz genre.He wrote some of his material and...

 - Bill Withers

Bill Withers

William Harrison "Bill" Withers, Jr. is an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985. Some of his best-known songs are "Lean on Me", "Ain't No Sunshine", "Use Me", "Just the Two of Us", "Lovely Day", and "Grandma's Hands"...

 hit "Just the Two of Us", which has since been covered by many artists, including Will Smith

Will Smith

Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. , also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in television, film and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood...

.

His recording credits number in the hundreds and include George Benson

George Benson

George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....

, David Bowie

David Bowie

David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

, Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin

Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...

, Art Garfunkel

Art Garfunkel

Arthur Ira "Art" Garfunkel is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and actor, best known as being a member of the folk duo Simon & Garfunkel...

, Billy Joel

Billy Joel

William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...

, Quincy Jones

Quincy Jones

Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...

, Carole King

Carole King

Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...

, Miriam Makeba

Miriam Makeba

Miriam Makeba , nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award winning South African singer and civil rights activist....

, David Sanborn

David Sanborn

David Sanborn is an American alto saxophonist. Though Sanborn has worked in many genres, his solo recordings typically blend jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He released his first solo album Taking Off in 1975, but has been playing the saxophone since before he was in high school...

, Paul Simon

Paul Simon

Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...

, Steely Dan

Steely Dan

Steely Dan is an American rock band; its core members are Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The band's popularity peaked in the late 1970s, with the release of seven albums blending elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop...

, James Taylor

James Taylor

James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....

, Luther Vandross

Luther Vandross

Luther Ronzoni Vandross was an American singer-songwriter and record producer. During his career, Vandross sold over twenty-five million albums and won eight Grammy Awards including Best Male R&B Vocal Performance four times...

, Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse

Amy Jade Winehouse was an English singer-songwriter known for her powerful deep contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres including R&B, soul and jazz. Winehouse's 2003 debut album, Frank, was critically successful in the UK and was nominated for the Mercury Prize...

, and Jimmy Buffett

Jimmy Buffett

James William "Jimmy" Buffett is a singer-songwriter, author, entrepreneur, and film producer. He is best known for his music, which often portrays an "island escapism" lifestyle. Together with his Coral Reefer Band, Buffett's musical hits include "Margaritaville" , and "Come Monday"...

, whose Coral Reefer Band

Coral Reefer Band

The Coral Reefer Band is the touring and recording band of American popular music singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett. Originally it was a fictional band consisting of the imaginary members Marvin Gardens, Kay Pasa, Al Vacado and Kitty Litter....

 has featured MacDonald as member since the late 1990s.

He is featured on percussion on George Benson

George Benson

George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....

's 1976 album, Breezin'

Breezin'

Breezin' is an album by jazz/soul guitarist George Benson.The album marked the beginning of Benson's most successful period commercially. Breezin topped the Pop, Jazz and R&B album charts in Billboard and spun off two hit singles, the title song and "This Masquerade," which was a top ten pop and...

; on percussion on Carole King's 1975 album, Thoroughbred

Thoroughbred (Carole King album)

Thoroughbred is an album by American singer-songwriter Carole King, released in 1976.-Track listing:#"So Many Ways" – 3:11#"Daughter of Light" – 3:11#"High Out of Time" – 3:15...

, and on Looking Glass

Looking Glass (band)

Looking Glass was an American pop music group of the early 1970s that was part of the Jersey Shore sound. They are best remembered for their million selling 1972 song, "Brandy ".-Career:...

's 1973 album Subway Serenade

Subway Serenade

Subway Serenade was the second and final album released by the band Looking Glass.-Track listing:-Personnel:*Elliot Lurie--Guitars, vocals*Larry Gonsky—Keyboards, vocals*Piet Sweval—Bass, vocals, harp*Joe Dube--Traps...

.

His song "Jam on the Groove" was featured on the breakbeat

Breakbeat

In 1992, a new style called "jungalistic hardcore" emerged, and for many ravers it was too funky to dance to. Josh Lawford of Ravescene prophesied that the breakbeat was "the death-knell of rave" because the ever changing drumbeat patterns of breakbeat music didn't allow for the same zoned out,...

 compilation Ultimate Breaks and Beats

Ultimate Breaks and Beats

Ultimate Breaks and Beats was a series of 25 compilation albums released from 1986 to 1991 by Street Beat Records...

. His "Calypso Breakdown" is on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. MacDonald also appears on Amy Lee

Amy Lee (sax)

Amy Lee is an American saxophonist, composer and arranger. She has played with a variety of musicians and singers, and is best known for being a member of Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer Band....

's CD Use Me.

External links

• Ralph MacDonald Official Website