Jazz Bassist Jonah Jonathan interviews Jazz Drummer Ralph Peterson who is one of the legendary drummers of jazz. Hes been a sideman on hundreds of recordings and a leader on 25 of his own recordings. He just released a new record called Onward and Upward With The Messenger Legacy.

Taken in part from Wikipedia:

In 1983 Ralph Peterson,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 (1985–1988), Branford Marsalis (1986), David Murray, Craig Harris (1987), James Spaulding (1988), Roy Hargrove (1989), Jon Faddis (1989), Dewey Redman, 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 in 1988, with a quintet (Terence Blanchard, Steve Wilson, Geri Allen, and Phil Bowler) on V and Volition. He also worked with Allen and Bowler as a trio in “Triangular”; Essiet Essiet replaced Bowler for the 1988 Triangular recording. In 1989 he recorded in the quartet format as “The 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 again with “The Fo’tet”, and recorded as Triangular 2 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. In 2010, Peterson took another bold step with the start-up of his own Onyx Productions Music Label.

Ralph has great stories about many of these musicians and talks at length about protecting the rights for an artist. He is wise even beyond his years and has overcome alot of personal setbacks including cancer. He has risen to the top of this music and has alot to teach. In addition to his talent on Jazz Drums and Trumpet, he is also a blackbelt in karate and practices buddhism and mediation.

Check out his website at:

http://www.ralphpetersonmusic.com/

Thanks for watching, please share, comment, subscribe, like this video and stay tuned for future interviews.

Visit our website at jazzmusiciansvoice.net