Ralph Peterson Jr.

Ralph Peterson Jr. (born May 20, 1962) is an American jazz drummer and bandleader.

Four of Peterson's uncles and his grandfather were drummers. Peterson himself began on percussion at age three. He was raised in Pleasantville, where he played trumpet at Pleasantville High School and worked locally in funk groups. He applied to Livingston College and Rutgers to study drums, but he failed the percussion entrance exam and enrolled as a trumpeter instead, graduating in 1984.^[1]

In 1983, he joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers as the second drummer, playing with him for several years. He worked with Terence Blanchard and Donald Harrison in 1984 and with Walter Davis (1985, 1989), Tom Harrell (1985), Out of the Blue (1985–88), Branford Marsalis (1986), David Murray, Craig Harris (1987), James Spaulding (1988), Roy Hargrove (1989), Jon Faddis (1989), Dewey Redman and Mark Helias (1989), and Wynton Marsalis (with the Count Basie ghost band).

During the 1990s, Peterson played as a sideman with Jack Walrath, Craig Handy, Charles Lloyd, Kip Hanrahan (1992), Bheki Mseleku, Courtney Pine, Steve Coleman, George Colligan, Stanley Cowell, Mark Shim, and Betty Carter.

He began recording as a leader around 1988, with a quintet V, or Volition, with Terence Blanchard, Steve Wilson, Geri Allen, and Phil Bowler. He also worked with Allen and Bowler as a trio in Triangular; Essiet Essiet replaced Bowler for their 1988 recording. In 1989 he recorded in quartet format as Fo'tet with Don Byron, Steve Wilson (later Bobby Franchesini), Melissa Slocum (later Belden Bullock), and Bryan Carrott. After living in Canada for some time, he returned to Philadelphia, where he worked with Fo'Tet and recorded as Triangular Too with Slocum and Uri Caine. He also led the group Hip Pocket, with whom he played trumpet.

Peterson has taught at Berklee College of Music in Boston^[2] and University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Discography

As leader

• V (Blue Note, 1987)
• Triangular (Blue Note, 1988)
• Volition (Blue Note, 1989)
• Ralph Peterson Presents the Fo'tet (Blue Note, 1989)
• Ornettology (Somethin' Else, 1990)
• Art (Blue Note, 1992)
• The Reclamation Project (Evidence, 1994)
• Fo'tet Plays Monk (Evidence, 1995)
• Back to Stay (Sirocco Jazz, 2000)
• Triangular 2 (Sirocco Jazz, 2000)
• The Art of War (Criss Cross Jazz, 2001)
• Subliminal Seduction (Criss Cross, 2002)
• Test of Time (Criss Cross, 2003)
• Fo' tet Augmented (Criss Cross, 2004)
• Outer Reaches (Onyx, 2010)
• The Duality Perspective (Onyx, 2012)
• ALIVE Volume I (Onyx 2013)
• ALIVE Volume II (Onyx 2014)
• Triangular III (Onyx 2016)
• Dream Deferred (Onyx 2016)

As sideman

With Uri Caine

• Sphere Music (JMT, 1993)
• Toys (JMT, 1996)
• Blue Wail (Winter & Winter, 1999)
• The Goldberg Variations (Winter & Winter, 2000)

With Craig Harris

• Blackout in the Square Root of Soul (JMT, 1989)

With David Murray

• New Life (Black Saint, 1985)
• I Want to Talk About You (Black Saint, 1985)
• Ballads (DIW, 1988)
• Deep River (DIW, 1988)
• Spirituals (DIW, 1988)
• Lovers (DIW, 1988)
• Tenors (DIW, 1988)

With Tom Harrell

• Moon Alley (Criss Cross, 1985)

References

Sources

• Gary W. Kennedy, "Ralph Peterson Jr.". Grove Jazz online.
• Scott Yanow, Ralph Peterson at Allmusic