According to Jazzwise Magazine, percussionist and composer, Ralph MacDonald, who was one of the most recorded percussionists in jazz, soul and funk as well as a Grammy Award winning songwriter, has died.
MacDonald, who penned the classic R&B tunes “Just the Two of Us” and “Where is the Love,” suffered from a stroke and lung cancer in recent years.
MacDonald, died yesterday in Stamford, Connecticut at the age of 67.
Born in Harlem in 1944, MacDonald was the son of the well-known Trinidadian calypso musician Macbeth the Great and started playing drums and percussion as a small boy. At 17 he got a job in Harry Belafonte’s steel band playing pans and percussion and stayed with him for ten years, composing Belafonte’s Calypso Carnival album in 1966.
