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"The duality is seen in stories from Jekyll and Hyde to Darth Vader in Star Wars. And it’s in my story, my spiritual journey. In my daily maintenance of my clean time and sobriety, it’s not a struggle anymore. As I come to the halfway point in my life, I’m learning that the answers lie in the middle.”
In 1980, Ralph was accepted into the Jazz Studies program at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Some of his teachers there included Kenny Barron, Paul Jeffrey and drummer Michael Carvin.
Ralp may have been a hotshot drummer in high school, but initially he didn’t impress legendary drumming teacher Michael Carvin at Rutgers. Recalls Ralph:
"He failed me in my percussion audition because I didn’t know the 26 drum rudiments. Here’s the logic that shut me down: there are 26 rudiments and 26 letters of the alphabet. He said, ‘Learn the alphabet of the language of your instrument. Don’t ask me for any drum lessons until you have that. You can’t go to the English department and be a journalism major but only work with half the alphabet.’"
So Ralph sat next to Terence Blanchard in the big band trumpet section, and studied that instrument with yet another legendary teacher, Bill Fielder.
Once he got his drum rudiments down, Ralp began a study with Carvin, who took him through the masters of jazz drumming, like Philly Joe Jones.
In 1983 Ralph met master drummer Art Blakey, who launched the legendary Jazz Messengers in the 1950s. A few months after sitting in, Art called Ralph (then a college junior) to play along side him in his two-drummer big band. This was for a performance at the Boston Globe Festival. Ralph continued in the Jazz Messenger Big Band until Blakey’s passing.
Ralph went on to work with Betty Carter and many other jazz masters, and peers such as Donald Harrison, and members of the 1980s group of young lions, OTB (Out of the Blue).
Currently Ralph is leading his own two bands: Fo'tet, and the Ralph Peterson Sextet.
