Jazz Meets the Great Brazilian Songbook – Sam Martinelli, drums, Ken Peplowski, clarinet/sax, Tomoko Ohno, piano, Martin Wind, bass, Carina Calistro, vocals

POLI CLUB Waterbury CT, May 10, 2024, 7 & 9 PM

The creator of this exciting project, Sam Martinelli, is one of the most talented young Brazilian musicians to make New York his home in recent years. A drummer, composer, and educator Martinelli, has worked in the band of legendary trumpeter Claudio Roditi, and with Hendrik Meurkens, Marcus McLaurine, Jay Leonhart, Itaiguara Brandão, Tomoko Ohno, Dr Andre Thomas, and others.

Sam and Ken Peplowski recently joined forces to produce a recording entitled Jazz Meets the Great Brazilian Songbook, and, out of the gate, it earned a FOUR STAR DownBeat Review. This collection of sambas, choros, bossa novas and classics represents the great Brazilian tunesmiths Antonio Carlos Jobim, Ivan Lins, Joao Gilberto and others.

The record and this Poli Club program include Jobim’s Correntaza (The Stream). According to DownBeat reviewer Larry Appelbaum, it features “a delightful piano chorus by Ehud Asherie that could have continued indefinitely.” But, “most moving” he said was Martinelli’s own contribution Serenade to a Friend (for Claudio Roditi), the closing track. Claudio, who died in 2020, was a long-time faculty member at Litchfield Jazz Camp where Sam Martinelli, his protégé, joined him there as a young teaching assistant.

Ken Peplowski is one of the preeminent clarinetist/saxophonists in jazz today. He began playing with polka bands while he was still in elementary school, joined the Dorsey Orchestra in his teens and was hired by Benny Goodman in 1984. Ken has played on soundtracks for Woody Allen films and has collaborated with artists like Mel Torme, Leon Redbone, Peggy lee, Madonna, Rosemary Clooney. He can be heard on over 450 records.

Ehud Asherie has worked with Cecile McLorin Salvant, Wycliffe Gordon, Catherine Russell, John Piazzarelli and others. His playing can be heard on the 2020 Grammy-winning soundtrack for HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. He has appeared twice with Ken Peplowski on the Litchfield Jazz Festival and with his own trio there in last summer. This is his second appearance for Litchfield Jazz Presents @ The Poli Club.

Martin Wind is a member of the trios of Bill Mays, Dena DeRose, Bill Cunliffe, Ann Hampton Callaway, Ted Rosenthal, as well as the quartets of Matt Wilson and Ken Peplowski and tours with Belgian guitarist Philip Catherine. He has recorded and/or performed with Mstislav Rostopowitch, Lalo Schifrin, Monty Alexander, Pat Metheny, Clark Terry, Slide Hampton, Toots Thielemans, Anat Cohen, Benny Green and many others. He teaches at New York and Hofstra Universities.