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Ken Peplowski: Noir Blue
by Raul d'Gama Rose
Ken Peplowski has much to say; not in the sense that he jabbers incessantly, as many men with horns (and embouchures for hire) sometimes do. However, in erudite and leaping ululations, and in warm, wafting glissandos he sings of the gaiety and sadness of life. This he does through clarinet or tenor saxophone, depending on the echo and longevity he wishes his harmonic monologues to have. An old soul, with a spectacular perspective on the past, Peplowski lives in a ...
Continue ReadingKen Peplowski: Noir Blue
by C. Michael Bailey
Noir Blue is a slight coloring outside the lines for clarinetist/saxophonist Ken Peplowski. His most recent recordings (with Arbors and Nagel Heyer) have focused on older swing forms and repertoire. Presently, Peplowski is playing pure jazz quartet music with pianist Shelly Berg, bassist Jay Leonhart, and drummer Joe La Barbera. The song choice is anything but standard, thought it never ventures too far from Peplowski's comfort zone.
Noir Blue is heavy on the Ellington/Strayhorn book, clocking in with a third ...
Continue ReadingKen Peplowski / Jesper Thilo: Happy Together - Live At Birdland Volume One
by Andrew Velez
Ken Peplowski and Jesper Thilo have much more in common than the solid expertise of each on both tenor saxophone and clarinet as demonstrated here. The two effortlessly and authentically bring the Swing Era to vibrant life anew. With “Peps," who began his professional career with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, one has only to hear the first few notes from his clarinet on “I Want to Be Happy" to appreciate how great an influence Benny Goodman had on him. Thilo's ...
Continue ReadingKen Peplowski Gypsy Jazz Band: Gypsy Lamento
by Martin Longley
This is a gypsy combo of the Django Reinhardt persuasion, rather than being fully-crazed wedding party cacophony. In fact, reedman Ken Peplowski makes matters even more specialized by concentrating on a preponderance of slow plodders rather than the frenetic hurtling that many gypsy jazz guitar outfits now prefer. The album's cover is slightly strange. Two pseudo-brides in billowing white silk cavort with a pair of goats. Is this what gypsy life entails? Half of the compositions are ...
Continue ReadingKen Peplowski: Clarinet Conqueror
by Ken Dryden
Ken Peplowski has been a busy player on the jazz scene since joining the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (directed by Buddy Morrow) in 1978. A gifted clarinetist and tenor saxophonist, he met Sonny Stitt while still with the Dorsey band, ended up studying sax with him and landed a dream job playing in Benny Goodman's final orchestra in the mid '80s until the jazz legend's death in 1986.
Before the decade was over, Peplowski was one of many young ...
Continue ReadingKen Peplowski: Good Times On the Road For Reed Virtuoso
by Larry Taylor
This is the best of times for jazz musician Ken Peplowski, renowned clarinet and tenor saxophonist. So good, in fact it was difficult for him to find time to talk by phone in June.
Having just returned from playing dates in Italy, he was in the midst of performing in New York's JVC Jazz Festival and cutting a CD with the Bill Charlap Trio. “It never rains but it pours, but it is great to be ...
Continue ReadingKen Peplowski: Easy to Remember
by Elliott Simon
Ken Peplowski is perhaps the best of an albeit too short list of baby-boomer swing clarinetists. On Easy to Remember he adeptly doubles on tenor and fronts a quintet of four like-minded musicians who similarly value musicianship and melody. Pianist Ted Rosenthal and guitarist Joe Cohn share frontline duties, while bassist Joe Fitzgerald and drummer Jeff Brillinger provide a steady rhythmic accompaniment to the varied agenda. Cabaret vocal king Bobby Short displays his mastery of diction and time ...
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