“When you grow up in Cleveland playing in a Polish polka band, you learn to think on your feet,” says Ken Peplowski,who played his first pro gig when he was in elementary school. “From my first time performing in public, I knew I wanted to play music for a living.”
By his early teens, he was teaching at the local music store, playing in a family band, and gigging around town. While still in college he joined the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra with Buddy Morrow stepping for the retired Goodman. In 1980, he moved to New York and played everything from Dixieland to avant-garde jazz. In ‘84, Benny Goodman came out of retirement, put together a new band, and hired Ken on tenor.
His career has been anything but predictable and never, ever dull. Yes, he’s played the Hollywood Bowl, Newport Jazz Festival, Litchfield Jazz Festival, pops concerts, European festivals and clubs everywhere. But he has also played on soundtracks for Woody Allen movies, recorded with Marianne Faithfull and served as music director for a series of interactive French and Italian cookbooks. A very short list of collaborators includes Mel Torme, Leon Redbone, Charlie Byrd, Peggy Lee, George Shearing, Madonna, Hank Jones, Dave Frishberg, and Rosemary Clooney.
Ken has recorded 50+ CDs as a soloist and some 400 as a sideman. He was musical director of the Oregon Festival of American Music and is a performer/consultant to The Jazz Cruise.
Praise for Peplowski is unstinting. Will Friedward of The Wall Street Journal said,“Mr. Peplowski sounds the way Goodman might if he had kept evolving…” Russell Davies of BBC2 called him “arguably the greatest living jazz clarinetist.”. Most recently, Ken is the winner of the Jazz Times Critics Poll for Clarinetist.
Ehud Asherie has worked with Cécile McLorin Salvant, Wycliffe Gordon, Catherine Russell, John Pizzarelli, Kenny Washington, and Charles McPherson, among others. His playing can be heard on the 2010 Grammy Award winning soundtrack of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire.
Peter Washington has played with John Handy, Bobby Hutcherson, Harold Land, Frank Morgan, Ernestine Anderson, Bill Charlap and Chris Connor and many more. He joined Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers in 1986 and toured with the Tommy Flanagan trio until Flanagan’s death in 2001. He was a founding member of One for All and is a visiting artist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Willie Jones III has played, toured, and recorded with Horace Silver, Roy Hargrove, Hank Jones, Cedar Walton, Milt Jackson, and Herbie Hancock. He has regularly played with pianist Eric Reed, and as the drummer for Wynton Marsalis’ Jazz at Lincoln Center orchestra.
Huston Person built his reputation as a leader with a series of soulful recordings for Prestige Records in the 60s and with his 30-year partnership with the great vocalist, Etta Jones, which lasted until her death in 2001. At 85, his career is as busy as ever and his sideman gigs are nothing short of legion. Some of the most memorable were with Lena Horne, Lou Rawls, Dakota Staton, and Horace Silver. He has recorded over 75 albums as a leader.
Litchfield Jazz Fest is honored to have Ken Peplowski and his band wrap up its 2022 Mainstage shows. This marks Ken’s 3rd appearance at Litchfield, Huston, Willie, and Peter’s 2nd.
