In Memoriam: Ralph Peterson Jr.

[Dr. Nelson Harrison]

In Memoriam: Ralph Peterson Jr.

NEWS, RALPH PETERSON

By DownBeat   I  Mar. 1, 2021

Ralph Peterson Jr.

(Photo: Photo: Courtesy the Peterson family)

Drummer Ralph Peterson Jr. passed away at 1:45 a.m. EST on March 1 following a six-year battle with cancer, according to his publicist, Lydia Liebman. He was surrounded by family and friends at the time of his passing. Peterson was 58.

A bandleader, composer and educator, Peterson was known as a fiery, full-of-life presence on the bandstand and off. Beginning in 1983, he burst onto the jazz scene as the second drummer in a late version of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. His resume as a sideman serves as a who’s who of jazz from the 1980s forward, including Terence Blanchard, David Murray, Branford Marsalis, Charles Lloyd, Betty Carter, Uri Caine and many more.

Peterson recorded 23 albums as a leader, from his first, Ralph Peterson Quintet: V, to his last, Legacy Alive, Vol. 6 (with The Messenger Legacy band).

In 2018, Peterson spoke to writer Bill Milkowski for DownBeat’s December issue and discussed in his straightforward way his personal battle with cancer.

“I’ve had enough chances to be dead, but I’m grateful to be alive,” he said. “And the focus and intensity and pace at which I’m now working and living is directly related to the spiritual wake-up call that tomorrow isn’t promised.” To read the complete interview, click HERE.

Peterson is survived by his wife Linea, daughter Sonora Slocum, stepdaughters Saydee and Haylee McQuay, and his spiritual daughter Jazz Robertson.

Funeral arrangements are being planned and will be announced shortly. The family asks for privacy during this time. DB

[Dr. Nelson Harrison]

Ralph Peterson Jr., Jazz Drummer and Bandleader, Dies at 58
Probably the most prominent drummer of his generation to consistently front his own groups, he was also an insightful educator and mentor.



The drummer Ralph Peterson Jr. at the Newport Jazz Festival in 2019. In his more than 30 years as a bandleader, he released roughly two dozen albums with an array of ensembles.
The drummer Ralph Peterson Jr. at the Newport Jazz Festival in 2019. In his more than 30 years as a bandleader, he released roughly two dozen albums with an array of ensembles.Credit...Alan Nahigian
Giovanni Russonello
By Giovanni Russonello
March 7, 2021
Ralph Peterson, a thunderously swinging drummer who began his career as Art Blakey’s last protégé and finished it as a mentor to a new generation of jazz talent, died on March 1 at his home in North Dartmouth, Mass. He was 58.

His publicist, Lydia Liebman, said the cause was complications of cancer, which he had been fighting for six years.

Mr. Peterson came to the fore in the 1980s as a member of the so-called Young Lions, a coterie of improvisers devoted to the core ideals of bebop: swing rhythm, acoustic instrumentation and rigorous improvisational exchange within the constraints of a standard song form.

He was probably the most prominent drummer among the Young Lions to consistently front his own groups, and over more than 30 years as a bandleader he released about two dozen albums with an array of ensembles.

One successful vehicle was the Fo’tet, an unorthodox group consisting of clarinet, vibraphone, bass and drums. It seemed to prove the joyful flexibility of the straight-ahead jazz format.

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In a 2011 interview with the pianist George Colligan, Mr. Peterson described his approach to tradition simply: “Take what you need and leave the rest.” When teaching, he said, he told students: “Don’t buy in lock, stock and barrel to any philosophy that is not based in your own experience. Because then you are not living your life.”

Mr. Peterson joined the Art Blakey Big Band in his early 20s as the ensemble’s second drummer. He then became only the second person besides Blakey — and the longest-serving — to play in his main band, the Jazz Messengers, on Blakey’s own instrument. As Blakey grew ill, Mr. Peterson increasingly took over drum duties.


ImageMr. Peterson led the band Messenger Legacy, composed of former members of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, at Le Poisson Rouge in New York in 2019.
Mr. Peterson led the band Messenger Legacy, composed of former members of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, at Le Poisson Rouge in New York in 2019.Credit...Lev Radin/Pacific Press, via LightRocket, via Getty Images
The Messengers had been the premier finishing school for straight-ahead jazz talent for decades, as Blakey brought in a stream of young musicians to fill its ranks. From the drum chair, Mr. Peterson came into contact with a Who’s Who of youthful improvisers, many of whom would hire him for their ensembles or play in his own.

After Blakey died in 1990, Mr. Peterson became a guardian of his legacy. The Ralph Peterson Quintet’s 1994 album, “Art,” was devoted to the Jazz Messengers repertoire. He later founded the band Messenger Legacy, composed of former Blakey band members, and in later years he and a group of his students recorded “I Remember Bu,” a big-band tribute to Blakey (who had taken the name Buhaina when he converted to Islam in the 1940s).

In the mid-’80s, as he began to move beyond Blakey’s shadow, Mr. Peterson played drums in Out of the Blue, a sextet of young musicians assembled by Blue Note Records. In 1988 he released his own debut album for the label “V,” featuring his quintet.

Praising that album in The New York Times, Jon Pareles called it an “exception” to the trend of albums by Young Lions who seemed stifled by their fealty to tradition. Mr. Peterson’s record, he wrote, “makes hard bop sound daring again.”

Ralph Peterson Jr. was born on May 20, 1962, in Pleasantville, N.J. His father was Pleasantville’s first Black police chief, and then its first Black mayor. His mother, Shirley (Jones) Peterson, was a manager at an aviation research center.

Ralph grew up surrounded by drummers: His grandfather had been one, as had four of his uncles. Ralph started drumming at 3.

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He is survived by his wife, Linea; two sisters, Michelle Armstead and Jennifer Armstead; a daughter, Sonora Slocum; and two stepdaughters, Saydee and Haylee McQuay. He is also survived by Jazz Robertson, a protégé he considered his “spiritual daughter.”


Alongside drums, Ralph studied the trumpet, and he entered Rutgers University’s jazz studies program as a trumpet major. But he soon departed to join Blakey’s band, and he didn’t return to school for two decades. In the early 2000s, having overcome an addiction to drugs, he returned to Rutgers to complete his bachelor’s degree.

By then he was teaching at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he became a full professor. Toward the end of his career, fed by the energy of his pupils, Mr. Peterson assembled the GenNext Big Band, a group of Berklee students modeled after the original Art Blakey Big Band. The ensemble released two albums on Mr. Peterson’s Onyx Music label, “I Remember Bu” (2018) and “Listen Up!” (2019).

In the classroom, he shared his deep knowledge of jazz history, the lessons that had come to him by way of elders like Blakey, and his own life struggles.

“Congratulations! You guys have accomplished a lot by arriving here. You are the best in your communities, the best where you come from,” he was quoted as saying to a roomful of Black students, all newly arrived on campus, in a 2018 article for DownBeat. “My job is to fuel your hunger, create more questions in your mind. And my goal is for you to leave with a sense of empowerment.”

By then Mr. Peterson was being treated for Stage 4 cancer, but he framed his resilience as a resource that his students could access.

“What I serve is the music, not my ego,” he told the class. “I’ve had enough chances to be dead, but I’m grateful to be alive. And the focus and intensity and pace at which I’m now working and living is directly related to the spiritual wake-up call that tomorrow isn’t promised.”

Correction: March 8, 2021
An earlier version of a picture caption with this obituary misstated the year the photo of Mr. Peterson in performance at Le Poisson Rouge in New York was taken. It was 2019, not 2005.