I love the lithe funky grooves of ‘Mister Magic’. Evidently so did Grover, and the folk at CTI, as it became the title track of the saxophonist’s 197? album.
As well as being all over tons of amazing music – the track that first made me pay attention to him, way back in my early teens, was George Benson’s version of ‘The World Is A Ghetto’ – Ralph MacDonald wrote some stone cold classics.
He also wrote ‘Where Is The Love?’, a hit for Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway, & ‘Just The Two Of Us’, famously performed by Bill Withers, with Grover Washington.
There’s a good longer piece about Ralph online, here. Definitely worth a read.
I’m not really playing at all these days. But the video above is good, nevertheless, showing a particular groove MacDonald often used. Maybe I’ll give it a try, at some point?
Here’s a video of Ralph taking about his illustrious career:
And to finish, Ralph gives Grover a run for his shirt-off money!
