Ralph Peterson and The Messenger Legacy sextet

The New Messengers of Jazz

Ralph Peterson says: “Every time I play the drums it’s in tribute to Art Blakey especially in 2019...Blakey’s centennial year!”

More than 35 years ago, Ralph Peterson was handpicked by Art Blakey to be the second drummer in a special edition of the Jazz Messengers. Peterson was on the rise then, in his early 20s, and Blakey’s benediction meant the world to him.

Since then, Peterson has never missed an opportunity to repay the favor — whether in the form of his 1992 Blue Note album, “Art”, or in the pure conviction of every barreling press roll! Now he has mobilized a new band for this evening — ‘the Messenger Legacy,’ whose ranks consist of distinguished Jazz Messenger alumni: saxophonists Bobby Watson and Bill Pierce, trumpeter Brian Lynch, bassist Essiet Essiet and pianist Zaccai Curtis.

“The album — Inward Venture: Alive Vol. 5 at the Side Door (Onyx Music) — has all of the brash kinetic energy you’d expect from such an assemblage.” DownBeat

“This is what jazz repertory can feel like at its most urgent and unassuming.” Nate Chinen WBGO