This step-change release for Ralph Peterson, the 58 year-old Art Blakey-inspired drummer and bandleader, brings together no less than 14 former members of Blakey's iconic Jazz Messengers bands – including pianist Joanne Brackeen, guitarist Kevin Eubanks and saxophonists Craig Handy, Billy Pierce and Jean Toussaint – on all new pieces composed and played by various combinations of the lineup. Two big virtues are quickly apparent – the enthusiasm of the guests to tap into Blakey's irrepressible energy, and Peterson's own tireless creativity at the drums, supplying a stream of rich-toned textures, soft mallet sounds and stinging cymbal beats that shape the music as creatively as a good arranger might. But though these pieces are fine tributes, they're not replicas. A tune like ‘Forth and Back’ is powered by the Messengers' classically strutting walk, but there are Monkish dissonances and free-jazzy elisions in its exclamatory triplet theme and the ensuing solos. Horns swap heated licks, trumpet and trombone call and respond on the fast-boppish title track; ‘Waltz for Etienne and Ebony’ – a warm and spacious episode of propositions and answers – sounds like a sophisticated longer composition condensed; ‘Red, Black and Green Blues’ has a classic Blakey backbeat, while Peterson's popular ‘El Grito’ is a salsa-bop shout-up with a rousing percussion finale. The take-it-in-turns soloing palls a little, but Onward and Upward is much more than an homage, it's an honouring of Art Blakey in the forward-looking spirit he always intended.