For those of us who grew up with or had the pleasure of playing in the high school band with him, Ralph success doesn't come as a surprise. We are proud to honor him as our first inductee into the "73 Warriors Hall of Fame".
God anointed Ralph with the ability to play at the age of nine years old in the city of Memphis,Tn. His first instrument was the piano and his first song was,
(Jesus Keep Me Near The Cross) during Sunday School. He soon developed his Love for the organ.
Ralph used his playing ability to assist ministries and musical groups within the city, a few of which he was the founder and director.
In 1984, he moved to Nashville,Tn. to persue his musical career. Shortly after his arrival, Ralph began playing for a couple of local churches and worked a few odd jobs while becoming aquainted with the music industry. In God's perfect time, Ralph was introduced to Dr. Bobby Jones and his music director, Derrick Lee. He auditioned and was hired as a musician for the Bobby Jones Gospel Show on the Black Entertainment Network (BET). He served in that capacity for over ten years.
Through this entity, God blessed Lofton to further use his music ministry by playing for numerous recording projects. In 1989, he was hired to tour with Bebe & Cece Winans. This tour would take him halfway around the world, as far as Siberia.
Lofton has also been blessed to make guest appearances on TV shows with such stars as, Arsenio Hall, Pat Sajak, Regis & Kathy Lee, Jay Leno, and David Letterman to name a few. He has accompanied such world-renowned artist as, Whitney Houston, Little Richard, Luther Vandross, Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, and Take 6, and has appeared on stage and recordings with over 100 gospel artist. One could just about pick up any gospel CD out of their collection and find Ralph's name on it in some musical capacity.
As a producer, he has produced three of his own instrumental projects for which he was nominated as male instrumentalist & instrumental producer in 2005 by the (Urban Gospel Allience)"UGI Awards". He has also produced projects for The Angelic Voices of Faith (Memphis,Tn.), Dr. Charles G. Hayes & The Cosmopolitan Church (Chicago,ILL.), The Christianaires, Danniebelle Hall, Sharroniese Horton & The Voices of Faith (Clarksville,Tn.) and the two-time Dove nominated In His Presence series with The Mt. Zion Baptist Church Mass Choir (Nashville,Tn.).
As a songwriter, he has written songs for such artist as Bobby Jones & New Life, Beverly Crawford, actor Rev. Clifton Davis, and Rev. Lawrence D. Thomison. In 1998, the Stella Awards used one of his compositions as their theme music. He has several gold records and many music citations to his credit.
Ralph is currently traveling with renowned jazz saxophonist, Kirk Whalum, where he is performing with musical greats, trumpeter Rod McGaha, vocalist Kevin Whalum, bassist Michael Manson, guitarist Kevin Turner, keyboardist Michael Logan, and drummer Sean McCurley.
Ralph is about to begin a new phase is his career by working with the living legend, Ms. Aretha Franklin as her organist. This will take place in the month of April.
His current partnership with Duration Music Group owned by Joseph R. Washington Jr. has birthed an instuctional organ DVD entitled, "The Art and Fundemental Basics of The Hammond Organ" and the newly released CD entitled "I Tell You Yes" featuring a mixture of instrumental gospel, smooth jazz, and harmonic vocal presentations, and a future "pregnant"
with possibilities.
Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart's desires.
Psalms 37:4 (NLT)
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