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27-608: His compositions include " Where Is the Love ", a Grammy Award winner for the duet of Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway ; " Just the Two of Us ", recorded by Bill Withers and Grover Washington Jr. ; and " Mister Magic " recorded by Grover Washington Jr. Growing up in Harlem , New York , United States, under the close mentorship of his Trinbagonian father, Patrick MacDonald (a calypsonian and bandleader originally from Trinidad and Tobago who used

54-567: A Scottish funk and R&B band that had a series of soul and disco hits between 1974 and 1980. They are best known for their million-selling instrumental track " Pick Up the Pieces ", and their albums AWB and Cut the Cake . The band name was initially proposed by Bonnie Bramlett . They have influenced others, such as the Brand New Heavies , and been sampled by various musicians, including

81-558: A charter member of Jimmy Buffett 's Coral Reefer Band . He is also featured on percussion on George Benson 's 1976 album, Breezin' ; on percussion on Carole King's 1975 album, Thoroughbred , and on Looking Glass 's 1973 album Subway Serenade . His song "Jam on the Groove" was featured on the breakbeat compilation Ultimate Breaks and Beats . His "Calypso Breakdown" is on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. He provided

108-480: A cover of "Where Is the Love" in 1989 for Paris' debut album So Good . "Where Is the Love" debuted at number twenty-eight on the UK Singles Chart , peaking at number nineteen in its second week before accumulating a total of eight weeks on the chart. CD single Vinyl "Where is the Love" was recorded by Australian singer songwriter Rick Price and New Zealand-born singer-songwriter Margaret Urlich . It

135-627: A heroin overdose at a Los Angeles party on 23 September 1974. Gorrie also overdosed, but Cher kept him conscious until medical help arrived. The NME reported in January 1975 that AWB played a benefit show for McIntosh's widow at the Marquee Club in London. McIntosh was replaced by Steve Ferrone , previously of Bloodstone , who had replaced McIntosh before in Brian Auger 's Oblivion Express. In 1975,

162-443: A steelband's rhythm section is often called). Calypso and the steelpan were Ralph MacDonald's roots. He recorded a song called "You Need More Calypso", written by William Eaton to articulate how he felt the music world could more benefit by the genre his homeland had given to the world. On December 18, 2011, MacDonald died of lung cancer . His wife, Grace, and four children Jovonni, Anthony, Atiba and Nefra-Ann survive him. MacDonald

189-653: Is in essence one half of the classic AWB. They released an album titled Three Sixty in 2017 and performed live together along with supporting musicians. As of 2019, Alan Gorrie and Onnie McIntyre are the only two original members left in the Average White Band. Original tenor sax player Molly Duncan died on 8 October 2019, shortly after it had been announced that he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. In June 2023, AWB announced their final tour, Let's Go Round Again One Last Time. "That it's finally coming to an end

216-399: The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. MacDonald regularly travelled back to Trinidad and Tobago, where he renewed his work in the steelpan , particularly on the hills of Laventille, Trinidad with the multiple Steelband Panorama champions Desperadoes Steel Orchestra , whose shows he attended and with whom he played whenever he got the opportunity, "beating iron" in "The Engine Room" (as

243-489: The Beastie Boys , Public Enemy , TLC , The Beatnuts , Too Short , Ice Cube , Eric B. & Rakim , Nas , A Tribe Called Quest , Christina Milian , and Arrested Development , making them the 15th most sampled act in history. AWB was formed in early 1972 in London by Alan Gorrie , and Malcolm "Molly" Duncan , with Owen "Onnie" McIntyre, Michael Rosen (trumpet), Roger Ball , and Robbie McIntosh joining them in

270-530: The No. 58 song for 1972 . The song won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals . In the lyrics, the singer realizes that the one (s)he loves remains in love with someone else. The singer remarks "I guess it must have been my fate to fall in love with someone else's love. Now all I can do is wait." There have been numerous cover versions of this song: British soul singer Mica Paris and American singer-songwriter Will Downing released

297-680: The stage name "Macbeth the Great"), MacDonald began showing his musical talent, particularly with the steelpan , and when he was 17 years old started playing pan for the Harry Belafonte show. He remained with the Belafonte band for a decade before deciding to strike out on his own. In 1967, together with Bill Eaton and William Salter, he formed Antisia Music Incorporated. Antisia is based in Stamford, Connecticut. In 1971, Roberta Flack recorded " Where Is

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324-400: The Love ", which MacDonald and Salter had written. The duet with Donny Hathaway won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal . The single was awarded gold status and sold more than one million copies. MacDonald played on the session for the song. He performanced on Herbie Mann 's album "Discothèque" in 1975. One of MacDonald's best-known co-compositions is " Just

351-611: The Love (Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway song) " Where Is the Love " is a popular song written by Ralph MacDonald and William Salter, and recorded by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway . Released in 1972 from their album, Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway . It peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and spent a week each at number one on the Billboard Easy Listening chart (July 1972) and R&B chart (August 1972). Billboard ranked it as

378-509: The Two of Us ", a single sung by Bill Withers , with saxophone performance by Grover Washington, Jr. It reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 , and has since been covered and sampled by many artists, including Will Smith . As a solo recording artist, MacDonald scored a massive disco hit with “Calypso Breakdown”, recorded for the TK Records imprint, Marlin Records. It was also featured on

405-537: The band had played together before in Scotland, but had moved to London separately and met up by chance at a Traffic concert. They decided to jam together; a friend heard them and remarked: "This is too much for the average white man," which became adapted as the name of the band. The band's breakthrough was a support slot at Eric Clapton 's comeback concert in 1973. MCA Records released their debut album, Show Your Hand (1973), which sold poorly. Bruce McCaskill, who

432-565: The band. Ligertwood left after the album's recording and drummer Tiger McNeil joined for the reunited band's live shows. McNeil was with the group until 1994. He was then succeeded by Peter Abbott (ex- Blood, Sweat & Tears ), who in turn was replaced by Fred "Catfish" Alias in September 1998. Drummer Adam Deitch did a two-year stint with AWB from 1999 to 2001. Average White Band has continued recording (1997's Soul Tattoo , 1999's Face to Face ) and touring since. Ball worked on Soul Tattoo with

459-546: The group but was replaced by Fred Vigdor (aka Freddy V.) in 1996. Brian Dunne took over the drum chair in 2001 and when Eliot Lewis left the band in September 2002 to pursue other musical opportunities (including a stint with Hall and Oates ), he was replaced by Klyde Jones. Their line-up as of 2002 became Alan Gorrie (bass guitar, guitar, lead and backing vocals), Klyde Jones (keyboards, bass guitar, guitar, lead and backing vocals), Onnie McIntyre (guitar, vocals), Freddy V (sax, keyboards, vocals), and Brian Dunne (drums). Dunne

486-509: The name AABB (Above Average Black Band). It was both a tribute to AWB's knowledge of funk and a tongue-in-cheek play on the Scottish band's name. AWB followed up with the LPs Cut the Cake (1975) and Soul Searching (1976), both big sellers and yielding further Top 40 singles. Cut the Cake was dedicated by the surviving band members to McIntosh's memory. A double live album Person To Person

513-737: The original line-up. Hamish Stuart quickly replaced Rosen. Duncan and Ball, affectionately known as the Dundee Horns, studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art (now part of the University of Dundee , but which at the time was part of the Dundee Institute of Art and Technology, now known as Abertay University ), and were previously members of Mogul Thrash . Gorrie and McIntyre had been members of Forever More . McIntyre and McIntosh were used as session musicians on Chuck Berry 's recording of " My Ding-a-Ling ". According to Duncan, members of

540-1539: The percussion to " Mister Magic " recorded by saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr. MacDonald also appears on Amy Lee 's CD Use Me . With Peter Allen With Average White Band With Patti Austin With Ashford & Simpson With Gato Barbieri With Bee Gees With George Benson With Blood, Sweat & Tears With David Bowie With The Brecker Brothers With Martin Briley With The Brothers Johnson With James Brown With Jimmy Buffett With Kenny Burrell and Grover Washington Jr. With Jonathan Butler With Ron Carter With Ray Charles With Merry Clayton With Judy Collins With Randy Crawford With Lou Courtney With Jackie DeShannon With Paul Desmond With Yvonne Elliman With Little Feat With Roberta Flack With Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway With Aretha Franklin With Michael Franks With Glenn Frey With Art Garfunkel With Barry Goldberg With Lesley Gore With Hall & Oates With Tim Hardin With Donny Hathaway Where Is

567-575: The single " Pick Up the Pieces ", taken from the No. 1 AWB album, reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song knocked Linda Ronstadt's "You're No Good" out of No. 1 and sold over one million copies. It was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in March 1975. It also prompted The J.B.'s , James Brown 's backup band, to record and release a song in reply, "Pick Up the Pieces, One by One", under

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594-810: Was covered in the late 1990s by Louise . Ferrone went on to work with Duran Duran and later with Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers from 1994 until Petty's death in 2017. Hamish Stuart joined Paul McCartney 's touring group. In 1985 Gorrie released a solo album, Sleepless Nights . The classic lineup of Gorrie, McIntyre, Ball, Stuart, Duncan and Ferrone reunited for one last time at the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary in 1988. Gorrie, McIntyre, and Ball then continued in 1989 to record Aftershock . Alex Ligertwood (ex- Santana , Jeff Beck Group and another veteran of Brian Auger's Oblivion Express) also appeared on this album, replacing lead singer Hamish Stuart, along with Eliot Lewis who co-wrote with Gorrie and joined

621-502: Was Clapton's tour manager, liked the band's music and agreed to manage them. He borrowed money to take them to the US and to promote them. McCaskill had many contacts from his days with Clapton and managed to get Atlantic Records to sign them. The band relocated to Los Angeles and released the follow-up, AWB , better known as The White Album . It reached No. 1 and was the first of many with renowned producer Arif Mardin . McIntosh died of

648-650: Was cremated, with his ashes buried at the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York. His recording collaborations number in the hundreds and include Burt Bacharach , George Benson , David Bowie , Aretha Franklin , Art Garfunkel , Billy Joel , Quincy Jones , Carole King , Miriam Makeba , David Sanborn , Paul Simon , Steely Dan , James Taylor , Luther Vandross , Amy Winehouse , Bob James , Ashford and Simpson , Nana Mouskouri , The Average White Band , Hall & Oates , The Brothers Johnson , and he spent years as

675-409: Was issued in late 1976. Their next LP, Benny & Us , was a collaboration with Ben E. King . After several more albums, "Warmer Communications" (1978), "Feel No Fret" (1979) and after a switch to the U.S. Arista label, "Shine" (1980) and "Cupid's In Fashion" (1982), AWB's audience and sales dwindled. The group initially disbanded by 1983. Their 1980 disco hit " Let's Go Round Again " (UK No. 12),

702-700: Was released on November 29, 1993, and peaked at number 31 in Australia . It was included as a bonus track on Ulrich's 1994 album, Live . In 1993, Price and Urlich were part of Export Music Australia (EMA) and Austrade's second Wizards of Oz promotion. They toured Japan together with the group Yothu Yindi . At the ARIA Music Awards of 1994 , the song was nominated for ARIA Award for Best Adult Contemporary Album but lost to The Journey by Tommy Emmanuel . CD single (659884 2) The Average White Band The Average White Band (also known as AWB ) are

729-525: Was replaced by Rocky Bryant as drummer as of the 2006 tour. After Jones left in 2011 to join Hall and Oates, Monte Croft (keyboards, bass, guitar) and former Earth, Wind & Fire member Morris Pleasure (keyboards, bass, guitar) came in to do brief stints before Rob Aries arrived in 2013. Brent Carter (ex- Tower of Power ) has been singing with AWB since 2011. In July 2015, Malcolm 'Molly' Duncan, Steve Ferrone and Hamish Stuart reunited to form The 360 Band. This

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