Search - Ralph Peterson :: The Art of War

Edgy, engaging hard-bop

suspectre | Minneapolis | 10/30/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This was something of an impulse buy having not heard much Ralph Peterson before this disk. Boy, I haven't been disappointed. It comes across as a somewhat conventional hard-bop record that recalls Wayne Shorter's "Speak No Evil." But if it lacks ground-breaking originality, it more than makes up for it with an aggressive edge where the musicians seem to be pushing the envelope of their playing abilities. That quality, in my mind, is what makes for the most exciting music. According to the liner notes, Peterson rounded up some young-but-seasoned players for the quintet and they seem to be engaging in earnest if freindly competition. Despite stretching themselves and, in my view at least, making mistakes (I'm one who believes mistakes may lay at the core of good jazz), the band never devolves into cacophony and is at turns energetic, wrenching and beautiful. Plus Peterson's drumming is astounding."