The Funniest Man in Contemporary Jazz, Ken Peplowski Adds a Twist to His Thanksgiving Tradition

Ken Peplowski QuartetBirdlandThrough November 30A clarinetist and tenor saxophonist who is appearing at Birdland this week with his quartet, Ken Peplowski has a long tradition of traditions. For one thing, he’s been performing at New York venues every Thanksgiving week for as long as I can remember. After Dizzy’s opened in 2004, he played the last week of November for almost a decade, fronting a group that he co-led with guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli. Often, the two made the week a celebration of Benny Goodman, the jazz legend for whom both had worked. Lately he’s been playing two weeks a year at Birdland, first at the end of August in honor Charlie Parker’s birthday — in fact, he has a new album to that effect, titled “Unheard Bird” — and then he comes back to town at the end of November for his traditional Thanksgiving week spot, now at Birdland.Somewhere along the way, Mr. Peplowski launched another tradition: During this week-long run on 44th Street, he plays 10 shows with pianist Glenn Zaleski, bassist Martin Wind, and drummer Willie Jones III. The idea behind this run is that the shows will deliberately not have a set theme — i.e., a tribute to a jazz icon — but, rather, will make a point to introduce an element of randomness. During this year’s 10 sets, ending November 30, he will play both Great American Songbook standards and memorable themes by jazz instrumentalist-composers, but the idea is that he will not repeat a single number. If there are 10 tunes per set, by Saturday night he and his rhythm section will have played no less than 100 different songs. “So if you hear something you don’t like,” Mr. Peplowski announced after the first song during one set — it was Tadd Dameron’s “Lady Bird” — “don’t worry, if you come back, you won’t hear it again.”That announcement helped illustrate how Mr. Peplowski, despite a run of poor health that wasn’t helped by the pandemic, hasn’t lost his status as the funniest man in contemporary jazz. He is perhaps rivaled only by John Pizzarelli in his capacity for one-liners and bandstand shtick. For example, upon informing us that Dameron was from his own hometown, Cleveland, he asked if there was anyone else in the house from that city. Upon learning that there was, he yelled, “Security!” As a 21st century clarinetist who played in Goodman’s final orchestra, Mr. Peplowski is often compared to the bandleader, but he has always reminded me more of Jimmy Hamilton, who played for roughly 20 years with Duke Ellington’s reed section. Like Hamilton, he plays incisive, classically informed clarinet — not altogether different from Goodman — but he doubles on tenor saxophone, and his tenor style is warm and bluesy. Mr. Peplowski has played in multiple sax combinations with various other reed men, such as Harry Allen and Scott Hamilton, in addition to taking part in a famous set of clarinet duets with the late Kenny Davern. Lately, though, I’ve been thinking he would make a highly copasetic half of a two-tenor team with the great Houston Person.“Lady Bird” was an appealing opener; he swings with great soul and, as I say, warmth. He followed with “Bright Moments,” by another legend of Ohio jazz, Columbus-born Rahsaan Roland Kirk. For this, Martin Wind switched to an unusual instrument, described as “acoustic electric bass” and officially known as “The Alien.” A true hybrid of the guitar and an upright bass fiddle, this Alien has a unique sound, one that is very distinct from the electric Fender bass. They played Kirk’s signature tune with a lightly Latin underpinning and a solo from Mr. Wind.Mr. Peplowski introduced the next song, Brian Wilson’s “Caroline No,” as being relatively recent by his standards: “It’s only 60 years old.” They slowed it down to something more like ballad tempo, and there were elegant understated statements from both Mr. Zaleski, giving the keyboard a delicate, tinkly sound while high in the upper end of the treble, and Mr. Wind, again on his unique contraption. Mr. Jones accompanied them on mallets, which naturally made us think about Ahmad Jamal.When Mr. Peplowski reached the halfway point, he switched to clarinet, offering a lovely lyrical reading of the 1940 show tune “Cabin in the Sky”; his sound on the instrument was celestial enough to paint a vivid picture of a house nestled in the clouds, with angels sailing by in the background. Next, he charged into “Night in Tunisia,” the Dizzy Gillespie standard rarely played on clarinet.There was also a segment — each tune was played complete, so it wasn’t really a medley — of two classic Disney ballads: “When You Wish Upon a Star” from “Pinocchio” and “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” from “Cinderella.” As soon as Mr. Peplowski finished playing the last note of the first, in a gentle 4/4, he switched immediately to waltz time for the second. He concluded with a rousing bebopper, an exuberant version of “Wee” by drummer Denzil Best, for which he was joined by a younger musician from Amsterdam, Martí Mitjavila, playing the bass clarinet. It had to be the only time I’ve ever heard this modern jazz anthem — also known as “Allen’s Alley” — played by a frontline of two clarinets, the standard tenor and the bass instrument. Considering that I had just come up from an early set at the Birdland Theater by another brilliant young clarinetist, Australia’s Adrian Galante, it was surely the most memorable evening of international jazz clarinet that I have enjoyed in a long time.Earlier in the set, for his final tune on tenor, Mr. Peplowski turned to Walter Donaldson’s 1928 “Changes,” a song closely associated with the jazz age, Bix Beiderbecke, and Paul Whiteman — and not often played by a tenor saxophonist with a modern rhythm section. Donaldson’s lyrics are somewhat prophetic: Most 1920s jazz, and the songs about it, are concerned with rhythm and melody, yet here’s a song that talks about chord changes and key changes, which became much more important a generation later. Mr. Peplowski and his crew are virtually the only musicians I have ever heard who freely improvise over the changes of “Changes.” Leave it to Ken Peplowski to play Roaring ’20s classics on tenor sax and modern jazz on clarinet — the reverse of what one would expect. Small wonder that he is virtually the only musician I know who is equally adept at honoring the legacies of both Benny Goodman and Charlie Parker.Mr. Peplowski on December 15 is also headlining a program celebrating Charlie Parker and the 75th birthday of Birdland.

The Funniest Man in Contemporary Jazz, Ken Peplowski Adds a Twist to His Thanksgiving Tradition

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