Ralphe Armstrong Quartet
Saturday, June 23, 8pm

By Larry Gabriel
Photo by W. Kim Heron 

Coming from a musical family has its pitfalls. Ralphe Armstrong’s father, violinist Howard “Louie Bluie” Armstrong, started five-year-old Ralphe on his little fiddle. “Playing it was like feeding a kid spinach,” he told the MetroTimes for a 2009 article. Ralphe had a penchant for the big fiddle, and when he was seven his father built him one. The rest, as they say, is history. Armstrong won a scholarship to Interlochen Arts Academy where he studied classical bass. Scored a job with John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra at age 17 in 1973. He toured so much over the next 10 years with McLaughlin, Jean-Luc Ponty, Herbie Hancock, Eddie Harris and others he was able to “stay home” off the road for most of the next 20 years to raise his three children.

 It’s not like that slowed down his musical activity. Armstrong has played with the likes of Frank Zappa, Curtis Mayfield, Milt Jackson, Kenny Burrell, Aretha Franklin, many of the Motown greats (including Stevie Wonder), Grady Tate, Sting—and that’s just a start on the short list. Let’s just say the guy has recorded on some 100 albums and it’s not over.
In more recent years he’s toured with pianist Geri Allen and saxophonist James Carter, played with rap artists D12, and has turned to recording his own compositions and more regularly leading bands. Armstrong hosts and produces a weekly live internet TV show downtown at UDetroit Café (udetroit.com)

This weekend his sidemen are culled from some of the best the Motor City has to offer. Trumpeter Dwight Adams was a young prodigy who has worked with Marcus Belgrave (indeed he is replacing the elder statesman as Detroit’s go-to trumpeter), James Carter, and regularly tours with Stevie Wonder. Pianist Henry Gibson has bridged the gaps between bebop, fusion, avant garde and hip hop while playing with the likes of Kenny Burrell, Charles McPherson, Roy Brooks and Spencer Barefield.

Drummer Gayelynn McKinney, of the well-known McKinney clan, has worked with violin great Regina Carter among others, and is a founding member of the all-women, Grammy-nominated jazz group Straight Ahead.

A fabulous, fun-loving musician, Armstrong and his band will take a tour through fusion, funk, R&B and jazz. Bring your ears and be prepared to use them.