“When you grow up in Cleveland, Ohio, playing in a Polish polka band, you learn to think fast on your feet”, says Ken Peplowski, who played his first pro engagement when he was still in elementary school. “From my first time performing in public, I knew I wanted to play music for a living.”
Ken, and his trumpet-playing brother Ted, made many local radio and TV appearances and played dances and weddings virtually every weekend all through high-school. “That’s where I learned to improvise, ‘fake’ songs, learn chord changes, – it’s exactly like learning to swim by being thrown into the water!”
By the time Ken was in his early teens, he was experimenting with jazz by playing in the school “stage” bands and jamming with local jazz musicians. “By the time I hit high school, I was teaching at the local music store, playing in our family band, and playing jazz gigs around town while still getting up early every day for school.”
After a year of college, Ken joined the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra under the direction of Buddy Morrow. “Buddy heard me with my quartet at a Cleveland jazz festival along with Teddy Wilson’s trio and the Dorsey band and made an offer right then and there for me to not only play lead alto, but to have a feature spot on the clarinet with the rhythm section. It was a great ‘road-school’. We learned the discipline that goes with playing one-nighters every day for 48 weeks out of the year, and Buddy was a great, very generous bandleader.” Peplowski met Sonny Stitt while on the road with the Dorsey band, and studied with him. “He was, and is, an inspiration to all of us who make a living ‘on the road’. I’ve never heard anybody play with such amazing consistency as Sonny, through all kinds of settings.”
In 1980, Ken moved to New York City, and was soon playing in everything from Dixieland to avant-garde jazz. In 1984, Benny Goodman came out of retirement and put together a new band, hiring Ken on tenor saxophone.
“What’s in the future? “Who knows? I love all kinds of music, and I’d like to find more opportunities to bridge the gaps between musical styles – I consider myself an interpreter of material. If something interests me, I try to put my own spin on it. Basically, I like a challenge, I’m a sucker for a good melody, and I love playing for audiences, big or small.”
And he has certainly achieved this goal, in small clubs, the Hollywood Bowl Las Vegas, Newport Jazz Festival, pops concerts & European festivals and clubs. At home in NYC, he has played on the soundtracks to Woody Allen movies, guest soloed on records recently for Marianne Faithfull and Cuban vocalist Isaac Delgado and has served as music director for interactive French and Italian cookbooks (“Menus And Music”).
The litany of musicians Ken has collaborated with includes: Mel Torme, Leon Redbone, Charlie Byrd, Peggy Lee, George Shearing, Madonna, Hank Jones, Dave Frishberg, Rosemary Clooney, Tom Harrell, James Moody, Cedar Walton, Houston Person, Steve Allen, Bill Charlap, & Erich Kunzel. (“Although not necessarily in that order,” says Ken).
Peplowski also does many workshops for students of all ages- “My goal is to get the students to learn how to teach themselves, and to learn how to bring out their own best qualities; after all, jazz is about individuality-first you learn the rules, and then you break them. I would like to think of myself as a lifelong student!”
Ken Peplowski has recorded approximately 50 CDs as a soloist, and close to 400 as a sideman – some of the artists he’s performed/recorded with include Charlie Byrd, Mel Torme, Rosemary Clooney, Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops, Hank Jones, Peggy Lee, Bill Charlap, Woody Allen, Benny Goodman, and Madonna. He has headlined the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, the Blue Note, and Dizzy’s Club amongst many other venues. Ken was the musical director of the Oregon Festival Of American Music (OFAM) for eight years, and is a longtime performer/consultant to The Jazz Cruise, where he was elected into the Jazz Cruise Hall Of Fame in 2013.
In 2012, Will Friedward of The Wall Street Journal said “Mr. Peplowski sounds the way (Benny) Goodman might if he had kept evolving, kept on listening to new music, kept refining his sound, polishing his craft, and expanding his musical purview into the 21st century.” And in 2013 Russell Davies from BBC2 “Ken Peplowski is arguably the greatest living jazz clarinetist.”
In 2014, Ken was the recipient of the Sarasota Jazz Festival’s “Satchmo” award, given to him for his “unique and enduring contribution to the living history of jazz”; in March, Ken was also the guest of honor at a “Highlights In Jazz” concert in NYC saluting him for “his matchless musical achievements”. He was the 2015 recipient of HotHouse Magazine’s “Fans’ Decision Jazz Award” on clarinet.
He resides in New York City with his wife, dog, and whatever children happen to be passing through. Peplowski is a Buffet-Crampon artist, and plays the R-13 clarinet, with a Portnoy mouthpiece and Vandoren German-cut reeds. He also plays a Yamaha tenor sax and a Berg Larsen mouthpiece.
This is Ken Peplowski’s first appearance at the Litchfield Jazz Festival. We’re excited to have him lead jazz greats Bucky Pizzarelli on guitar, Joe Locke on vibes, Nicki Parrott on bass, Matt Wilson on drums, and Ehud Aherie on piano in his Benny Goodman Tribute.
