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| Ralphe Armstrong |
One of the
most-asked questions about jazz bassist Ralphe Armstrong’s debut album HomeBass was why it took him so long to
release it. Not that he hasn’t been busy. For years, Armstrong has been playing
all over the world with such names as Aretha Franklin, Carlos Santana, John
McLaughlin, Sting and James Carter, so it’s not as if he’s had much time to
focus on a solo project. What’s more, the album he has released, HomeBass (out last month on the jazz
label Detroit Music Factory) is a performance of Armstrong at the 1996 Detroit
Jazz Festival that he’s had in the can since then. Asked why put it on now
after 17 years, Armstrong says with a straight face that if it was good back then,
it’s good right now.
Seated at a
table in the Motown Room at Bert’s Marketplace, nursing a
cranberry-orange juice drink, Armstrong says, “When something is good it’s
good, and when it’s bad it’s bad. Let me rephrase that. What I’m trying to say
is I’ve listened to a lot of recordings over the years of myself and of other
musicians. And when musicians say that a performance was killer and we
should’ve recorded that … Well, I had a killer performance in 1996, and I
recorded it. In the words of Count Basie if it was good then it’s good now.”
HomeBass is a big deal for Armstrong. The album is a mix of acoustic jazz
and jazz fusion played by
a group Armstrong dubbed the International
Detroiters, including trumpeter Rayse Biggs, drummer Gayelynn McKinney, pianist
Henry Gibson and guitarist Toty Viola. The album represents all Armstrong is,
which is to say, for starters, a selfless bandleader, a big ham, and one of the
finest all-around bassists Detroit has produced. Notably, he’s not reluctant to
allow his bandmates to share the limelight. Biggs, for example, blows a bigger
hole than the one in the ozone on “So What.” McKinney’s sounds as if she played
two drum kits simultaneously on “Freedom Jazz Dance.”
“If you listen
to the CD, it shows the real Ralphe Armstrong. I play jazz bass. I play
classical music. You can hear that on ‘Dear Old Stockholm.’ Then the album also
shows me with the electric music. The only thing I didn’t do was sing the
blues, or do standard blues,” Armstrong said. “This album showcases my styles;
that’s why I did it live. The most important thing about it is I’m showing my
city, Detroit. That’s why I called it HomeBass.”
Armstrong is a good-natured man with a heart as big as his upright
bass. On the bandstand and during interviews he can be comical, poking fun at
his bandmates. The joking can be corny. Introducing the band on the album, he
told the audience Henry Gibson won a Hennessy drinking contest when he actually
won a jazz contest Hennessy sponsored. Asked how often Armstrong tours, he
claimed he flies so much he’s grown feathers. But when the music starts
Armstrong is strictly business. He damn near plays the strings off the bass.
The bass practically has to gasp for air after his solos.
Some of his bandmates
consider him more of a big brother than a boss. Gayelynn McKinney, the drummer
with jazz combo Straight Ahead who was featured on HomeBass, and who is herself daughter of the late jazz legend
Harold McKinney, tells us, “He’s always looked out for me. He has been the
musician that helped me get out there. My father put me out there musically.
Straight Ahead put me out there another kind of way by being signed to Atlantic
Records, but Ralphe put me out there playing with big-name people that he was connected
to. He got me a gig with Chaka Khan.”
Then again,
Armstrong’s brotherly affection for McKinney makes a lot of sense. Like
McKinney, Armstrong is a son of a legend. His dad, Howard Armstrong, was a
larger-than-life character who played with the likes of Sleepy John Estes, Big
Bill Broonzy and Memphis Minnie during the Great Depression. Director Terry
Zwigoff made the elder Armstrong the central figure of his 1985 documentary Louie Bluie about the last of the black
string bands.
Ralphe was
exposed to all that music as a child, and his own career took flight before
long. As a teen he was subbed in the band behind Smokey Robinson and the
Miracles, and then toured with John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra and
Carlos Santana. To this very day, Armstrong can recall every detail of landing
that gig with Santana.
“I got this
call on the phone. It was Mahavishnu [McLaughlin], and he said, I want you to
talk to somebody. Guess who that somebody was on the other line? It was Carlos
Santana. He said, I want you to play in my band. I was holding the telephone
shaking. I thought I needed a pair of Depends; I was shaking like Don Knotts,”
Armstrong recalls.
He’s worked
nonstop since those days. He jokes that he’s played with so many famous
musicians and bands to keep track he has to keep a list in his wallet.
Armstrong is on the road 150 days of the year, most recently, touring with the
all-star Miles Davis tribute band Miles Smiles with trumpeter Wallace Roney,
Larry Coryell, Rick Margitza, and Alphonse Mouzon. Not bad company. In fact,
Armstrong believes he’s reached a new plateau in his career.
“What’s good
about Miles Smiles is it’s the music I want to do and it’s with an all-star
band. It’s putting me at this plateau in my life where I’m considered an
all-star musician and that’s special to me”.
As one of the
busiest jazz bassists to come from Detroit, and given all his accomplishments,
it is odd Armstrong never saw himself an all-star. He certainly has the
credentials. Two decades was a long time for an all-star to hold off on his
debut as a leader. McKinney doesn’t mind putting that in perspective.
“I guess Ralphe
didn’t feel the need to have his own project,” McKinney says. “Now, he felt it
was time for his voice to be heard. His voice has been heard on other people’s
projects. Now it’s time for people to hear what he has to say as a solo
artist.”
The Ralphe Armstrong Quartet plays New Year Eve at the Dirty Dog Jazz
Café, 97 Kercheval Ave., Grosse Pointe Farms; 313-882-5299 for reservations;
dirtydogjazz.com. Armstrong and McKinney
play with pianist Bill Meyers in the SBH Trio every Thursday at Bert’s
Marketplace, 2727 Russell St., Detroit; 313-567-2030.
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