RALPHE ARMSTRONG TRIO

Cass Tech Alum Ralphe Alan Armstrong got an early start in the
music business. In 1973, Armstrong, a 17-year old east side of
Detroit kid just out of Cass Technical high school, tried out for and
landed a gig with John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra. The
other person who auditioned at the same time was Jaco Pastorius.
“Jaco had a different sound then, he had an old beat up fretted
Fender Precision, I got the job because I played fretless, remembers Ralphe.

Following his three-year Mahavishnu stint, Armstrong joined a
stellar fusion group led by violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, a former
Mahavishnu bandmate who had also appeared on Apocalypse and
Visions of the Emerald Beyond. Ralphe can be heard ripping it up
alongside guitarists Allan Holdsworth and Daryl Stuermer and
drummer Steve Smith on Ponty’s 1977 landmark Enigmatic Ocean
as well as the 1978 follow-up Live, which Ralphe calls the “best
example of my electric bass playing on record.