Ralph Alfonso's book Ralph: coffee, jazz & poetry (Water Row Press), is in better book stores now. His third CD, Sophisticated Boom Boom (Bongo Beat Records), was released recently.

Ralph Alfonso
by James Muretich
Calgary Herald, Dec. 15, 1997

Ralph's older and uglier now than he was in the days when he managed the Toronto punk band The Diodes and looked like the young Ray Davies of The Kinks in search of mod attire.

But, Ralph Alfonso is way cooler now, too. In fact, a British magazine has called him "the coolest man on the planet." (It's not true, of course, but you get the vibe.)

You see, he's Ralph . . . Ralph, the Beat-style poet who hits the road performing across the country with his musical combo . . . Ralph, the recording artist who has released three CDs, including his latest 'n' greatest Sophisticated Boom Boom . . . Ralph, the little fanzine that's just had its first 25 monthly issues collected and published in the United States by Water Row Press as Ralph: coffee, jazz & poetry.

"The younger generation hasn't clued in to the basic truth which is the older and uglier we get, the cooler we get, which is completely the antithesis of modern rock culture which is a culture of youth, youth, youth," Alfonso says during a telephone interview from his home in Vancouver.

"They have this mistaken idea that the older and uglier you get, of course, you'll be washed up. And if you stay within the strict confines of rock culture, your usefulness will be outlived -- but once you stray into this other territory, the guys like (Bob) Dylan, the stuff that's a bit smarter, then the rules of the literary world kick in - and that's uglier, older equals cooler."

As Ralph so rightly points out, he's not "a 20-second sound bite" for some ubiquitous radio or TV station.

He's got a 30-year history as a band manager and major label executive who threw it all away to find "his own little planet."

Life on that planet included the start of his fanzine publication, Ralph, in November 1992.

It was a collection of poems, thoughts, musical-literary-Internet recommendations, all written in his child-like voice.

In a simple language, Ralph the fanzine delves into melancholy and existential longing, but it also celebrates those simple things that stay the night -- friendship, late night conversation, romance and pop-culture gems from Ray Davies to poetry, jazz records and the bossa nova, Latin-jazz singer Astrud Gilberto.

Aided by a 30-minute feature on Peter Gzowski's morning show on CBC, Ralph, the person and the fanzine, both struck a sympathetic chord.

Demand for the 'zine grew and grew to the point where Ralph now mails it out to 10,000 or so people a month.

It grew to the point where an American publisher, run by Beat confidant and former Jack Kerouac Estate employee Jeff Weinberg, decided to publish the first 25 issues of Ralph.

"When these first issues came out, it was like throwing out a message in a bottle and the people that responded were people of a similar feeling," says the 42-year-old artist.

"It always saddens me when some very smart, creative people are set adrift with no lifeline to anywhere else. If I can be a glorified pen pal service, that's fine. That's where the back page (of Ralph, the fanzine) comes in. It tries to link people to Web sites, books, music that they can relate to."

Ralph is a crazy, creative combo of punk, pop and poetry culture for like-minded spirits looking for a little solace and inspiration.

His poetry and observations may be simple but they're from the soul. His new CD fuses poetry with jazz, rock and late-night bongo-guitar variations. It's all too real.

And that's what separates Ralph, in all his incarnations, from the poets and performance artists who are more in love with the sound of their own voices.

"My poems are almost like little, subtle mantras. There's nothing to some of them. There's like 10 words. But if you just dig a little deeper, there's a whole other subtext," says Ralph.

"What I'm doing is not about today, it's about that point when your peers go, OK, you've arrived. It's OK to buy your books. It's OK to play your music.

"And when that happens, I'm sure the people at the nursing home will tell me the news."

And when that happens, Ralph will smile. After all, he'll be older, uglier . . . and cooler.