By Ron Wynn
NASHVILLE, TN — Ralph Peterson Jr., a drummer, bandleader, composer and educator whose lunging propulsion and volatile combustion were hallmarks of a jazz career spanning more than 40 years, died last week in North Dartmouth, Mass. The cause was complications from cancer, his manager, Laura Martinez, told NPR Music; Peterson had been living with the disease for the last six years. He was 58. Peterson was a marvelous rhythmic force, and a gifted mentor for young jazz musicians.
He was featured in many contexts. These included albums by trumpeter Terence Blanchard and saxophonist Donald Harrison, heading bands like Triangular, a piano trio, and the Fo’tet, with a frontline of saxophone and vibraphone. Peterson also was the heir of Art Blakey, the drummer-bandleader of the Jazz Messengers, whose ranks produced several generations of major jazz talent.
Peterson was initially as the second drummer in a Jazz Messengers Big Band. He became Blakey’s protégé and devoted his 1994 Blue Note album Art to Blakey’s music and memory. He also later formed the Messenger Legacy, a wrecking crew of other prominent Jazz Messengers alumni. Among many in Peterson’s circle were saxophonists Steve Wilson, Craig Handy and Wayne Escoffery; clarinetists Don Byron and Todd Marcus; cornetist Graham Haynes; and pianists Geri Allen, Michele Rosewoman, Orrin Evans and Uri Caine.
After appearing on albums by Out of the Blue, a band assembled by Blue Note Records as a vehicle for young jazz players, Peterson made several of his own releases for the label — starting in 1988 with Triangular and V, both featuring Geri Allen.
With the Fo’tet, active through the ‘90s, Peterson joined Bryan Carrott on mallet percussion. The group combined repertory and new music on several acclaimed albums.
He also had an impressive career as an educator at the Berklee College of Music.There he formed the GenNext Big Band as a crucible for Berklee talent, patterned after the Blakey big band; its first album, in 2018, was a Blakey tribute titled “I Remember Bu.”
Peterson released that album on his own Onyx Music, which he formed out of frustration with the unavailability of his Blue Note recordings. His next album, due out this spring, is titled “Raise Up Off Me,” referring in part to the experience of Black Americans with law enforcement.
