RALPH PETERSON AND THE FO'TET PERFORM AS PART OF WILLIAM PATERSON JAZZ SERIES
The concert will begin at 4 p.m. in the Shea Center for Performing Arts on the campus in Wayne. Tickets are available in advance or on the day of the performance at $9 standard; $6 for senior citizens, non-William Paterson students and William Paterson faculty, staff and alumni. William Paterson students may attend free of charge. When he was still a junior in college, Peterson was asked by master drummer Art Blakey to play opposite him in his two-drummer big band at the Boston Globe Festival. "He gave me very explicit instructions not to imitate him," Peterson remembers. "Blakey insisted that I had my own stuff and that I had better play it, otherwise I wasn't going to grow and develop as a drummer or an artist." Peterson paid homage to Blakey on his 1992 recording "Art," which combined the master's hard-driving swing with Peterson's adventurous spirit. An active member of the jazz elite during the 1980s, Peterson recorded and toured with David Murray, Stanley Turrentine, Diane Reeves, Count Basie, Terence Blanchard and many other giants. His active work drew the attention of Blue Note Records, and in 1985 he became a co-leader in the label's stable band "OTB." His first release as a leader, "V," won the prestigious Swing Journal Gold Disc Award in 1988, Japan's equivalent of a jazz Grammy. Peterson moved to Philadelpha, Pa. and began teaching at the University of the Arts. He continues to teach and conduct clinics across the country because he believes strongly in "perpetuating the continuum correctly." In 1995, Peterson recorded "The Reclamation Project" on the Evidence label, an original body of work written after he received the Composer's Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts. The second recording features the Fo'tet in "The Fo'tet Plays Monk," their interpretations of Thelonius Monk compositions. Peterson has become a member of the Betty Carter Trio, and has toured with Joe Lovano and Joey DeFrancesco. Currently, he can be heard with the Bobby Watson Quartet, the Michael Brecker Quartet and with the Fo'tet. Peterson and the Fo'tet will be the guests for "Sittin' In," an informal, hosted discussion with the artists followed by a question-and-answer session. The talk begins at 3 p.m. in room 101 of Shea Center. Admission is free to all Jazz Room ticketholders. Launched in the spring of 1978, William Paterson's Jazz Room Series has earned a reputation for presenting concerts by eminent musicians in the jazz world. The series has been awarded numerous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and recently won a Citation of Excellence from the Council for its cultural contribution to the state. For additional information, please call William Paterson's
Shea Center Box Office at 973-720-2371. ### |
High-energy drummer Ralph Peterson
brings his swinging group the Fo'tet to William Paterson University
on Sunday, February 7 as part of the university's 1999 Winter
Jazz Room Series, now in its 21st season.