DAVID BIANCULLI, BYLINE: That is FRESH AIR. I am David Bianculli. Ken Peplowski, the clarinetist and tenor saxophonist whose profession spanned from the Benny Goodman Orchestra to a long time of his personal recordings and appearances, died final week. He was 66 years outdated, and he died aboard a jazz cruise ship within the Gulf of Mexico within the hours between a morning lecture and a scheduled afternoon live performance. Immediately, we keep in mind Ken Peplowski. BBC jazz critic Russell Davies known as Peplowski arguably the best dwelling jazz clarinetist. Jazz pianist Emmet Cohen described him as an excellent musician, a pioneer of the clarinet and a mild soul.
Born in 1959, Peplowski began enjoying clarinet professionally in Ohio at age 10 as a part of a household polka band began by his father, a policeman. He joined the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in 1980, then switched from clarinet to tenor sax to play with the Benny Goodman Orchestra in 1984. After Goodman’s demise, two years later, Ken Peplowski launched into a solo profession, focusing extra on clarinet, working with a variety of artists and recording greater than 400 albums. He labored with Charlie Byrd, Rosemary Clooney, Mel Torme and Leon Redbone.
When Terry Gross spoke with Ken Peplowski in 1999, he had simply launched a CD that includes songs and preparations related along with his outdated band, the Benny Goodman Orchestra. The CD was titled “Final Swing Of The Century.” The CD opens with the track Goodman usually used to open his concert events, “Let’s Dance.”
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TERRY GROSS: Ken Peplowski, welcome to FRESH AIR.
KEN PEPLOWSKI: Thanks. Good to be right here.
GROSS: Nicely, you really performed with Benny Goodman within the final a part of Goodman’s life. How outdated have been every of you on the time?
PEPLOWSKI: This was about 1986, and I’d have been 26 on the time, and Benny was round 80 years outdated. And I used to be frightened to demise, frankly, working with him as a result of I would heard all these tales about him, and most of them weren’t excellent tales. I imply, he was generally known as type of a terror on the bandstand, a really robust bandleader. I noticed a little bit little bit of that, however I noticed principally a man who was so obsessive about music that that took up about 98% of his life. And that was in all probability the only reason for a variety of the complexities of his persona.
GROSS: Did you play clarinet or tenor?
PEPLOWSKI: No, I performed tenor. And, you already know, there’s a little bit little bit of clarinet doubling. However I gave him some tapes that I would finished enjoying clarinet, and I suppose that was the premise of him telling these those who they need to file me. However he by no means mentioned something to me about my clarinet enjoying besides, you already know, you sound good or, you already know, these type of issues.
However the first audition, he auditioned Loren Schoenberg’s band, his huge band, ‘trigger he was – he wished to take an enormous band again out on the highway. So he got here to a rehearsal session we had. And an hour glided by, and he did not present up. So we simply began enjoying some charts, and I used to be enjoying the clarinet components. And we’re in the course of an association, and I’ve acquired my eyes closed and enjoying a solo, and I may really really feel the band change and type of tense up. And with out even understanding that he was within the room, I knew he was there. After which, after all, everyone fully fell aside. And – however, you already know, he wound up hiring the entire band.
GROSS: What’s your perspective towards enjoying repertory music? Do you attempt to hold it true to the unique recording or use the unique association or recording as a jumping-off level?
PEPLOWSKI: Truly, I take type of a special perspective. I do not need anyone to recreate solos, to attempt to play particularly within the type of the outdated data. I could also be alone on this ‘trigger there’s this huge complete motion of, you already know, everyone attempting to sound just like the outdated data. However to me, the best way to maintain the music alive is play it in your personal vogue and present the viewers that you simply love this music, however do it in your personal approach. In any other case, you are treating the music like a useless music and treating it like a museum piece. And I do not desire a live performance to show right into a historical past lesson. I need the individuals to know that it is nonetheless alive. So all we did was use these preparations as a jumping-off level for us. And that is our approach of enjoying these charts.
BIANCULLI: Ken Peplowski chatting with Terry Gross in 1999. Extra after a break. That is FRESH AIR.
That is FRESH AIR. Let’s get again to Terry’s 1999 interview with Ken Peplowski. The jazz clarinetist and tenor saxophonist died final week at age 66.
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GROSS: Had been you uncovered to Benny Goodman data out of your father’s assortment if you have been rising up?
PEPLOWSKI: Yeah. My father was an novice musician. He was very surprisingly open musically ‘trigger he was a really conservative man in any other case. However all of us within the household listened to every thing from Benny Goodman to the Beatles to classical music to polka music, which was my first skilled job. And all of it type of goes in and goes into the pc there. And so it was good. And I nonetheless prefer to hearken to all types of music, and I wind up enjoying principally jazz, however I welcome some adjustments every so often. However yeah, Benny was an enormous early affect.
GROSS: How did you find yourself enjoying clarinet?
PEPLOWSKI: It is a humorous factor. He – my father introduced house a trumpet, tried to play it, gave it up in frustration, gave it to my brother. He turned a trumpet participant. He subsequent introduced house a clarinet, tried it, gave it up, gave it to me. I acquired caught with a clarinet, and I really beloved it virtually from the start. And I all the time make a joke out of this, and I inform individuals I am very fortunate, and that is true, as a result of the subsequent instrument he introduced house was the accordion.
GROSS: (Laughter).
PEPLOWSKI: And you may get the letters…
GROSS: Did he play that himself?
PEPLOWSKI: Sure, he did. You will get the letters from the accordion gamers.
GROSS: (Laughter) So that you began enjoying clarinet. Your brother was enjoying trumpet, and then you definitely performed in polka bands collectively if you have been children.
PEPLOWSKI: Yeah. We performed – we had a Polish polka band known as the Concord Kings. And I used to be, I believe, round 10, and he was round 12. And we have been like this little children novelty act round Cleveland, Ohio, and we used to go on the native TV and radio exhibits. There was a TV present known as “Polka Varieties.” And if you happen to ever keep in mind the SCTV present with the Shmenge brothers…
GROSS: (Laughter).
PEPLOWSKI: It was so near this present it is scary. However – and – however that – it is like studying learn how to swim by being thrown into the water. That is how I discovered learn how to play. , there we have been having to play these lengthy weddings and study a variety of outdated requirements along with the polkas. And the clarinet’s perform in that music is to improvise. So I type of discovered simply by doing it on the job.
GROSS: Now, I think about enjoying clarinet excluded you from enjoying in a variety of rock ‘n’ roll bands.
PEPLOWSKI: Yeah, though we did do our model of “Proud Mary” with accordion and drums and clarinet. That was a killer with the viewers.
GROSS: (Laughter).
PEPLOWSKI: However yeah, it did exclude me from that. However I took up saxophone a couple of years after the clarinet due to that, really, as a result of it match in additional with rock music and with extra of the outdated requirements. So I did my share of various sorts of jobs round Cleveland after I was developing.
GROSS: Ken Peplowski, you have studied classical music, and earlier than we discuss finding out classical music, I wish to function you enjoying a classical piece. So let’s hearken to one thing out of your CD, “The Different Portrait.” And this options you with the Bulgarian Nationwide Symphony. We’ll hear you enjoying the primary motion of “Dance Preludes” by the composer Witold Lutoslawski.
(SOUNDBITE OF KEN PEPLOWSKI AND BULGARIAN NATIONAL RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE OF WITOLD LUTOSLAWSKI’S “DANCE PRELUDES”)
GROSS: Clarinet is Ken Peplowski from his CD, “The Different Portrait.” Ken, did you research classical music since you deliberate on enjoying classical music, or did you do it only for assist along with your approach?
PEPLOWSKI: A bit little bit of each. I had an incredible trainer early on in Cleveland, a person named Al Blazer, who actually impressed upon me the necessity to study a variety of the classical method to enjoying and the way it will assist every thing I did. And it does. It helps with the respiratory, with the phrasing, with the articulation of notes. And I all the time admired the – even the jazz gamers I admired had that classical facet to them. Benny did. Jimmy Hamilton from the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Buster Bailey, individuals like that. So I began finding out all of that, the supposed legit stuff.
And since I used to be finding out that, I made a decision to go on into faculty and go for a level on the clarinet with the classical factor. Although I knew – I all the time knew I’d simply play jazz, however I primarily went to varsity simply to maintain finding out with the identical man ‘trigger he was instructing at Cleveland State. And I wound up going there for a yr and a half, after which I acquired a job on the highway with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, then that was it. Then all of it went to pot.
GROSS: How do you suppose finding out classical approach helped you enjoying jazz?
PEPLOWSKI: As a result of, once more, to – it comes again to what I mentioned earlier than about Benny impressing upon us that sense of melodicism. You must do the identical factor – if you happen to’re enjoying a chunk that’s all written out that any person wrote a very long time in the past, it’s a must to put your persona into that piece of music. And it’s a must to first study the approach. After which the trick is to neglect in regards to the approach and simply put some music into it. And if you are able to do that with classical music, that is an enormous stepping stone to doing it with jazz. And I like that type of a classical, darkish, spherical sound of the clarinet. It is such a phenomenal sound that, for me, that is what I attempt to get, even when I am enjoying one thing that is not classical.
GROSS: There is a piece of yours I wish to play from an earlier CD known as “The Pure Contact,” and it is a clarinet-bass duet. And the track is “How Deep Is The Ocean?” And I wish to play this ‘trigger I think that it actually exhibits off a number of the issues that you simply discovered with the assistance of finding out classical approach, like the attractive tone that you’ve. And in addition, a number of the elaborations in your improvisation right here sound like they could be impressed partially by a number of the classical approach that you simply discovered. Do you wish to say something about this earlier than we hear it?
PEPLOWSKI: Simply that – nicely, you are completely proper. Even now after I follow, it is principally étude, classical études, and all of it is info that goes into every thing you do. So these little elaborations that you simply’re talking of do come proper out of classical approach.
GROSS: Let’s hear it. That is clarinetist Ken Peplowski.
(SOUNDBITE OF KEN PEPLOWSKI’S “HOW DEEP IS THE OCEAN? “)
GROSS: That is my visitor, Ken Peplowski, on clarinet with Murray Wall on bass from Peplowski’s 1992 CD, “The Pure Contact.” And with your personal band, a variety of the repertoire that you simply play is songs, you already know, outdated requirements, and it is virtually mistaken to name them requirements ‘trigger they’re – a variety of them are songs that not that many individuals know. However they’re actual songs. They don’t seem to be simply, like, riff-based issues…
PEPLOWSKI: Yeah.
GROSS: …Or heads that individuals play simply to improvise on. And I am questioning what attracts you to track.
PEPLOWSKI: Nicely, I’ve a really low boredom threshold.
GROSS: (Laughter).
PEPLOWSKI: Truthfully. And…
GROSS: Yeah.
PEPLOWSKI: For me, if I am bored standing up there enjoying, the viewers has acquired to be asleep. So I wish to – the type of data I like – you already know, it is – there’s one thing about all these outdated writers. They constructed these lovely items of music that advised a complete story in 32 bars, they usually’re very fascinating harmonically. They go to all these completely different locations. And there is a lot materials on the market to attract on. And I am not a composer, you already know, so what I do is interpret different individuals’s materials. So I like to dig up outdated songs. You are completely proper.
GROSS: Do you prefer to study the lyrics of a track when you are going to play it so you possibly can take into consideration that?
PEPLOWSKI: Sure, I actually do. , it doesn’t suggest it’s a must to memorize each phrase, however I believe it is essential to study what was meant after they wrote the track, after which you possibly can take what you need from it. However if you happen to’re enjoying a ballad, it is good to know what sort of a ballad it’s, if it is a actually haunting ballad or if it is a – you already know, only a track to attempt to woo some younger girl, you already know. And my purpose – final purpose is to perform with out phrases what the good singers accomplish utilizing the phrases.
GROSS: Nicely, Ken Peplowski, I wish to thanks very a lot for speaking with us.
PEPLOWSKI: Oh, it has been a pleasure.
BIANCULLI: Ken Peplowski chatting with Terry Gross in 1999. The jazz clarinetist and tenor saxophonist died February 2. He was 66 years outdated. His closing studio album was titled “Unheard Chook” and featured him on tenor sax with string preparations written for however by no means recorded by Charlie Parker.
(SOUNDBITE OF KEN PEPLOWSKI’S “YOU GO TO MY HEAD)
BIANCULLI: Arising, Justin Chang opinions the brand new movie model of “Wuthering Heights.” That is FRESH AIR.
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