The International Detroiters is comprised of some of music’s most prolific musicians. Created by Detroiter bass player/educator, Ralphe, a true music legend. A beast on both upright and electric bass, Armstrong has been active as a professional musician since he was a teenager, having done stints with everyone from Jeff Beck and Jean-Luc Ponty to John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra, Frank Zappa and the London Symphony Orchestra.
Ralphe’s most recent album, Detroit Rising, pays homage to the automobile manufacturing industry workers who supported the free word in 1941. This CD features primarily Detroit Musicians as well as musicians from Los Angeles, Nashville, and London, England that came to Detroit for their first visit. “Gretchen’s Groove” is dedicated to The Detroit Angel, Gretchen Valade.
ID features Gayelynn McKinney (drummer) from the famed McKinney family where her mother Gwendolyn was an accomplished vocalist and her father Harold McKinney a composer, pianist, band leader and jazz educator in the Detroit area, Alex Colista (saxophone), and Gerard Gibbs (keyboard), who tours the world with sax virtuoso James Carter.