Biography
"Brilliantly entertaining". DownBeat Magazine, October 2017
“Ken Peplowski is arguably the greatest living jazz clarinetist” Russell Davies, BBC2 August 2013
“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 for Polish dances and weddings virtually every weekend all through high-school. “That’s where I learned to improvise, ‘fake’ songs, learn about chord changes, etc.- 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 also by jamming with many of the 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 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 all kinds of settings, from Dixieland to avant-garde jazz. “Everything’s a learning experience in jazz music – there’s always an element of the unpredictable.” In 1984, Benny Goodman came out of retirement and put together a new band, hiring Ken on tenor saxophone.
Peplowski signed with Concord Records, under the tutelage of Carl Jefferson, the founder and president, and recorded close to 20 albums as a leader, including “The Natural Touch” in 1992 which won Best Jazz Record of the Year by the Prises Deutschen Schallplatten Kritiken, and “The Other Portrait”, recorded in Sophia Bulgaria with the symphony orchestra and highlighting Ken’s classical side. He also recorded two records on the Nagel Heyer label,”Lost In The Stars” and “Easy To Remember”, the latter of which features Bobby Short on his last recording. “I loved Bobby Short’s approach to the American songbook, and we’d talked about doing a record together for a while – I’m glad we got this one ‘in the can.’
“What’s in the future? “Who knows? I love all kinds of music, andI’d like to find more oppurtunities to bridge the gaps between different musical styles – I consider myself an interpreter of material – if something interests me, I try to put my own spin on it, without thinking or worrying about playing in any particular style. 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 these goals, be it in small clubs, the Hollywood Bowl (where he played a sold-out concert), headlining in Las Vegas, the Newport Jazz Festival, pops concerts, European festivals and clubs, or at home in NYC, doing everything from playing on the soundtracks to Woody Allen movies, guest soloing on records (his more interesting recent ones were Marianne Faithfull and Cuban vocalist Isaac Delgado) to taking on the role of 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, Woody Allen, Marianne Faithfull, Isaac Delgado & 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, then you break them. I would like to think of myself as a lifelong student!”
Ken Peplowski is a Buffet-Crampon artist, and plays the R-13 clarinet,with a Portnoy mouthpiece and Van Doren German-cut reeds. He also plays a Yamaha tenor sax and a Berg Larsen mouthpiece.
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 travels at least half of every year, playing clubs, concert halls, colleges, and pops concerts. He has headlined the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, the Blue Note, and Dizzy’s Club amongst many other venues. Ken’s CDs on the Capri label, “Noir Blue”, “In Search Of”, and “Maybe September” were released to great critical acclaim and massive airplay. He has recorded music as diverse as Italian and French folk songs, avant-garde jazz, pop, and classical music; he recorded the Darius Milhaud Clarinet Concerto with an orchestra in Sofia, Bulgaria, and was a featured soloist (playing Mozart) in 2015 at the Siletz Bay Music Festival in Oregon, where he premiered a new concerto in 2016, written for him by Dick Hyman. 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. “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.” – Will Friedwald in The Wall Street Journal, December 2012
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.
In 2015, Mark Stryker of the Detroit Free Press had this to say about Ken Peplowski’s appearance at the Detroit International Jazz Festival:
“Best repertoire diving: Clarinet Ken Peplowski, whose quartet played a joyful set Sunday under the blazing sun, resurrected two gorgeous ballads I’ve never heard played live: Billy Strayhorn’s “Ballad for Very Sad and Very Tired Lotus Eaters” and Noel Coward’s “I’ll Follow My Secret Heart.” The latter contained the most expressive reading of a melody I heard during the festival, as Peplowski’s long-breathed phrasing suggested Frank Sinatra. (Absopure Water Front Stage)”
Ken’s new album, recorded for Capri with Ehud Asherie, Matt Wilson and Martin Wind is called “Enrapture”. Here is what Bobby Reed said about the new album in DownBeat magazine:
BY BOBBY REED
Ken Peplowski, Enrapture (Capri)
The program on clarinetist/tenor saxophonist Ken Peplowski’s new album illustrates that he is not only an adventurous, open-minded interpreter but also an insightful jazz historian. The diverse material on Enrapture includes Fats Waller’s “Willow Tree,” two tunes from Bernard Hermann’s score for Vertigo and a rousing, calypso-flavored rendition of Duke Ellington’s “The Flaming Sword.” All of it is delivered with finesse, as one would expect from Peplowski and his distinguished collaborators: pianist Ehud Asherie, bassist Martin Wind and drummer Matt Wilson. The swinging title track—which was composed by Herbie Nichols (who never recorded it)—spotlights Peplowski’s compelling clarinet work. Elsewhere, he shows off his skills as a fine and mellow balladeer with an intimate tenor sax tone on “When October Goes” and “Cheer Up, Charlie” (from the soundtrack to Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory). A spare arrangement of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Oh, My Love” with clarinet, bass and light percussion is stunning. It’s followed by another powerful tearjerker, “I’ll Follow My Secret Heart” (which Frank Sinatra recorded on his 1962 LP Sinatra Sings Great Songs From Great Britain). Kudos to Peplowski for crafting such terrific music and for shedding light on these intriguing compositions.
Ken's new CD, "Sunrise" is due in April 2018, and it's a big band record of new arrangements written exclusively for him, plus some reworking of classic arrangements.