Now, as our seemingly unending conversation about race is
reenergized by a plague of police shooting unarmed black citizens and the
accompanying lack of accountability for those actions, Ralph Peterson-percussionist,
trumpeter, composer, bandleader and educator-has called upon Hughes' iconic
poem to give both title and theme to Dream Deferred, his 20th album as a leader
and his sixth on his own label Onyx Music.
Dream Deferred is also the first to feature his new quintet,
Aggregate Prime, comprising the powerful, all-star tandem of
saxophonist/flutist Gary Thomas, guitarist Mark Whitfield, pianist Vijay Iyer,
and bassist Kenny Davis.
"The album speaks to the question of that final
question Langston Hughes asks in 'Harlem' and whether we as a society are close
to answering it," says Peterson. "The answer is already there in that
if we don't do the right thing, all of our hopes and dreams will explode."
The first rehearsal for the album was in October of 2015 as pre-trial hearings
were underway for the three Baltimore police officers accused of murder in the
death of Freddie Gray while he was in their custody. (Charges were dropped
later.)
As with the whole album bearing its name, "Dream
Deferred" tries, in Peterson's words, "to capture some of the angst
and hope that gave the protest music so much energy and excitement."
Peterson blends the instruments in his ensemble in a way as to match the
roiling furor surrounding the Gray case and similar ones occurring throughout
America over the past few years, while ending with the same tone of pointed,
yet "elegant" inquiry culminating Hughes' poem.
"I wanted to highlight Gary's flute, thinking back to
Eric Dolphy and how his flute playing could be heard back during times when music also reflected the restless
energy of social change. Only," he adds, "the sound Gary brings
belongs only to him."
The months since the Freddie Gray verdict have only seen
more incidents and more protests like Eric Garner, Sandra Bland and Terence
Crutcher. "What's really at stake is whether black men will survive at
all. Nowadays simply getting in your car as a black man can end up being high
risk. And the scary thing is, the risk can come at the hands of those sworn to
serve and protect us."
The issue has special poignancy for Peterson, the son of a
former police chief and mayor of his native Pleasantville, New Jersey who once
played drums professionally in nightclubs throughout the South Jersey area.
Ralph, Sr. died two years ago and his son can't help but contemplate how his
dad would have reacted to this rash of excessive force.
"He'd have been appalled," Peterson says. "He
was a boxer and he was of the old-school belief that things could be worked out
with your hands. He was against deadly force as a first or even second resort.
It's part of a whole bent of depending on guns that my dad wouldn't have
recognized today. And I wonder myself why it is that guns have become the only
way to deal with conflict. People are into self-defense training. But nobody
boxes in the streets anymore. It's all about who has the most weaponry and
that's become a deeply fatal flaw in our society today."
The death of his father was one of many personal and
physical travails Peterson underwent in the past few years. He has undergone
surgeries for spinal fusion, hip replacement and a reconstructed ankle. "I
am Iron Man," he says with a self-deprecatory humor. Yet the ensemble's
performance of Dolphy's "Iron Man" is nothing to joke about.
A more serious, yet just as stoic approach to both
Peterson's physical struggles--and to the struggles both he and the rest of
society have had to endure over the last couple years--is reflected in his
composition, "Strongest Sword/Hottest Fire." An avid student of martial
arts, Peterson says he was inspired by a documentary about the Japanese samurai
discipline of bushido, to whose most gifted practitioners goes a sword forged
to meticulous and harshly-regimented cycles of extreme heat and cold.
Ultimately, Peterson says, "the ability of the sword to
cut cleanly comes from what seems to be abusive extremes and that's how we're
all tested by life. When life is heating up on you, your own tensile strength
becomes more resilient until things cool down for a while before getting hot
again. It's these extremes that are ideal for stress test in strengthening
metal...and your own mettle as well."
Peterson is also proud of the manner in which he has
prevailed over physical and personal difficulties. Along with the
aforementioned surgeries, he has completed his second decade of being
"drink and drug-free." He has survived colon cancer and Bell's Palsy
in addition to the aforementioned orthopedic challenges.
"The strongest sword," he says, "goes through
the hottest fire."
Ralph Peterson's Upcoming Performances:
* Nov 4 - 6 / Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola (Dream Deferred CD
Release) / New York, NY
** Nov. 25 / 9th Note / Stamford, CT
*** Jan. 26 / Scullers / Boston, MA
** Feb. 10 / 9th Note / Stamford, CT
** Feb. 11 - 12 / Smalls / New York, NY
** Feb. 13 - 14 / The Greenwich / Cincinnati, OH
** Feb. 15 / Nighttown / Cleveland, OH
** Feb. 16 / Tula's / Seattle, WA
** Feb. 17 / Jimmy Mak's (PDX Jazz Festival) / Portland, OR
** Feb. 21 / Regatta Bar / Boston, MA
* May 24 / Blues Alley / Washington, D.C.
* May 25 / Clef Club / Philadelphia, PA
* May 27 / The Side Door / Old Lyme, CT
* Aggregate Prime Quintet feat. Gary Thomas, Mark Whitfield,
Vijay Iyer, and Kenny Davis
** TriAngular III Trio feat. Zaccai and Luques Curtis
*** Sextet Reunion
No comments:
Post a Comment