22.

even years younger than Joe Years later, after playing with Lovano, Ken Peplowski some of the dixieland legends at Salso soared to international 's in New York, prominence. In a little more than Peplowski saw a similarity 15 years, he catapulted from a between polka music and early kids' polka band in Cleveland to American . "The Polish the most respected jazz stages in polka, believe it or not," he said, the world. "is so close to New Orleans jazz, Born May 23, 1959,Peplowski it's frightening. Everybody is grew up in the Cleveland suburb always making these parallels ofGarfield Heights. Like Lovano about where jazz came from." and most musicians, his first With a smile, he said, "I can say musical influences were at home. it's Polish American music "My father was an amateur because it's two playing musician," he remembered in an in tandem, every song has got April 2000 interview with me, four or five different parts, "He was a policeman and he used there're drum breaks, and the to bring home instruments and try clarinet improvises through the to play them himself. He started whole thing. So it was a great with the . Gave that up in way to learn how to play." frustration. Then, the clarinet. . Ken and Ted Peplowski's kids Gave that up. 1became a clarinet polka band began making a name player. Then, he wound up kind for itself around Garfield Heights ofmessing around with the accordion for the rest ofhis and Greater Cleveland and was soon appearing on radio life." and television broadcasts. "We used to go on that old Peplowski's father, however, was serious about his show Polka Varieties. We went on that show (on sons learning to play their instruments. Ken said his WEWS-TV) and some ofthe radio shows. We were out policeman father was a stern task-master. there working and that gave me a taste ofwhat it was to "My father did what they always say you're not be a professional musician. From the first time I played supposed to do with kids. He was the stereotypical in public, I thought, 'This is for me! This is what 1 want father who sat there with his arms crossed, making us to do.'" practice. You would think we would rebel against it, but Peplowski never had any other job. He always made I loved the music so much! And 1 loved the clarinet his living by playing music. from the first time I played it. I just loved the sound of His far-reaching musical tastes also began early - at the instrument." home. "Another kind of unusual thing about my At first, Peplowski was not a serious jazz fan, but he family," he said, "was everybody listened to everything. loved playing the clarinet and played at every My parents would sit down with us and listen to the opportunity. latest BeatIes record, they would listen to classical music, polka music, jazz music. And they let us spend Kids polka band a lot of the money we made to buy records. I spent He remembered, "When I was about maybe nine or money on records like you can't believe!" ten years old, with my brother, we formed a Polish polka band." They played for parties around Garfield Heights. Early jazz influences "It was," he said, "a great way to immediately jump up Among the many records Peplowski was buying were a couple of levels in playing. It was like learning how to old 1930s and '40s recordings by all-time jazz clarinet swim by being thrown into the water. legend . He explained, "Because I was "I was taking lessons all along, private lessons, at a so into the clarinet, 1 tended to gravitate toward records music store called Cattell's on Tumey Road and we used of people who play the same instrument - Benny to rehearse there with the band. We actually learned Goodman! That was the big thing for me. The light how to write music, read music, and make arrangements bulb came on." for this band. At these Polish polka dances, you have to The Goodman light bulb came on for Peplowski in play some standards, so I learned that too. I the late 1960s when he was still very young and when wound up getting a saxophone for that reason, because Goodman was considered pretty much an historic relic. 1 was playing all these old big band standards." "That was really within just a couple years of my 208 Cleveland Jazz History playing," he said. "I was ten years old or eleven years and he could even give me a feature spot in the band old. 1 think the fIrst thing 1 heard was that (Goodman) with clarinet with the rhythm section. I took the Carnegie Hall concert." opportunity and I left. So I left Cleveland when I was Goodman was not Peplowski' s only early jazz about 20 years old, after about one and a half, maybe influence. "The second big influence," he said, "was two years at Cleveland State, to go on the road with the ' s band. I picked up some records ofhis band." and I was really knocked out. My fIrst exposure to the band was the later band with Jimmy Hamilton and Touring with the Dorsey band Russell Procope, and 1 was so knocked out by their two Peplowski spent the next three years with the Dorsey different styles of clarinet playing." Orchestra, touring the country, playing saxophone and The 1970s was a relatively quiet time for jazz in clarinet in an almost never-ending series ofone-nighters Cleveland. There were only a few nightclubs presenting around the country. live jazz here, but Peplowski remembered many of the On the road with the band, Peplowski's roommate was big bands were still coming to Cleveland. "There trumpeter Jack Schantz, later the music director of the weren't many chances for the local guys to play, but Cleveland Jazz Orchestra. "He practiced all the time and bands always came in. 1 remember seeing Duke's band. listened all the time," said Schantz. "And he was a very, We saw Benny a couple of times at places like very funny guy. 1 don't think 1 ever laughed as much in my Musicarnival, and Maynard Ferguson. All the big bands whole life as when 1 was on that band. Everybody was just used to pass through town - , Ella." real funny. 1 guess you have to develop that sense of humor because the life style is really hard. It's like Garfield Heights High School perpetual jet lag. You never have enough sleep." Peplowski went to GarfIeld Heights High School Peplowski smiled when he remembered that phase of where he played in various jazz and classical musical his life. "We had a lot oflaughs on that band," he said. groups, and where he got an opportunity to hear and "Twelve-hour poker games, you know, on the bus, and meet some ofthe world's leading jazz artists. hi-jinks on the road." "There was that big movement in the ' 60s," he said, While having fun on the road and playing the music "with all those big bands coming to school programs and of Tommy Dorsey, Peplowski, according to Schantz, workshops. And we had them too. We had Maynard was studying the old music of his boyhood music hero, Ferguson's band, and ' s band came in. And Benny Goodman. "He had all these Goodman solos on for a kid like myself, it was so exciting to not only hear tape," said Schantz, "and he knew them all. He could those people play, but then talk with them. And they give play them all, note for note. And he would just sit on you tips on playing and everything. That was a big deal!" the bed, playing along with these Goodman solos." After graduating from high school, Peplowski was Peplowski admitted, "In my earlier days, I would more convinced than ever that he wanted to devote his listen to the record and get the hom out and try to play life to playing music. He enrolled at Cleveland State back some of the things. I was such a fan of Benny! I University and studied clarinet. He also began playing went through a period ofa few years of not listening to jazz gigs around Cleveland. him because, geez, 1 don't want to sound like him as much as I loved him. And because I loved him so much, Jazz group in Cleveland I thought, 'This is not right! 1 don't want to be another "I had a quartet in Cleveland," he said. "We used to imitator.' So yeah, 1 was sitting there listening to those play at this place called Newman' s Corners, this bar that records. And the same thing with Sonny Stitt. I was just just decided to have jazz. We built up a huge following. eating those things up." I was playing a couple of nights a week with the jazz group and also jamming with some of the guys around Influenced by Sonny Stitt town like Bill Gidney, a great piano player. There were While Peplowski was obviously strongly influenced by a few joints, like the Smiling Dog Saloon. There used to Goodman, he was also influenced by bebop saxophonist be a place downtown where Bill always played. Stitt. The Cleveland native had been listening to Stitt's "I was playing a little bit of jazz and I got a big records for years. While Peplowski was traveling with the break. My teacher at college, a guy named AI Blazer, Dorsey Orchestra, he had an opportunity to meet Stitt. got my quartet booked on this jazz festival in downtown "We were staying in Chicago at this place called the Cleveland. It was the Tommy Dorsey band, the Teddy President Hotel," said Peplowski. "He was there at the Wilson Trio and my group. , who was hotel. He was in town playing atthe Jazz Showcase. So leading the Tommy Dorsey band, heard me play and I very timidly knocked on his door. At that time, they made me an offer to come on the road playing lead alto gave you the room numbers ofeverybody, not like now. Ken Peplowski 209

And he comes out. I'll never forget he was on the verge of giving up this because you're 20 years old and music, the central focus of his life here's your hero. He comes out at two since he was nine years old. "I applied 0'clock in the afternoon in his pajamas. for a regular job," he said. "I talked And it looked like I had woken him up. my way into a position as the assistant But he invited me inside. manager ofa photo processing plant. I "We wound up spending the whole knew nothing about that. 1 was day together. It was amazing, an supposed to report to work on Monday. amazing day. He had me go up and get This would have been my first non­ my horn. I came back down and was music job ever. I've been working scared to death. He gave me this lesson since about ten. So, it was kind of a where he would play things for me. He blow to me and I was thinking about couldn't really articulate what he was this the whole weekend. 1 woke up that doing, but he would play it for me. I morning and thought, 'I just can't do would play it back. We'd get a fake this. 1 can't go in there. This is going book out and he'd say, 'You gotta learn to be like a big set-back. 1 gotta hang all these songs, you really have to expand in there!' 1 called up the people and your repertoire.' And he was giving me said, 'I know you're not going to lessons about playing music and playing with rhythm understand this, but 1 can't take.this job.' They thought sections and leaming." I was nuts." In many ways, Peplowski was influenced as much by Like other jazz musici~ns who have faced job crises . the bebop of Sonny Stitt as he was by the swing of in , Peplowski decided the only way to Benny Goodman. In 1997, Peplowski recorded "Purple get started, and pay the rent and keep food on the table, Gazelle," a song John Coltrane, hardly an exponent of was to accept a variety of playing jobs even if they swing, had recorded years earlier. didn't measure up to his musical goals. Besides learning some of the complexities of bebop "That's what you do when you go to New York," he from Stitt, Peplowski said he learned some universal said. "You do everything and anything. And you keep music lessons from the man he met in Chicago. meeting new circles of musicians until you find your "You know that Sonny Stitt, for many years, the little niche." critics just kind of passed him off as a Charlie Parker He played with avant garde jazz groups, symphony imitator. And he said to me, 'You can't listen to the orchestras, bebop bands, and even with aging dixieland critics. You can't listen to good reviews or bad reviews; musicians. you have to play for yourself. That's the bottom line. If "Within a month, 1 was getting a few calls to sub on you give your own personality a hundred percent, then bands," he remembered, ."and because of my clarinet you can be happy at the end of the day.' And I have playing, I was subbing a lot at Eddie Condon's taken that with me ever since. It's a very valuable piece (dixieland club). They were really kind to me because of advice. Because, otherwise, you're always trying to I didn't know the repertoire. And those old New chase this elusive market place." Orleans tunes are pretty difficult, but the guys would let After touring with the Dorsey Orchestra for three everybody else take a chorus and then me." years and studying with Stitt, Peplowski settled in New During this period, Peplowski also journeyed west an York City in the early 1980s and began a long struggle hour or so to play for a jazz appreciation club in the to become a respected jazz musician. Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton area ofPennsylvania. The club, called the Fugowees Jazz Club, put on jazz Almost quit music concerts several times a year. The "chief' ofthe Indiao­ He had his clarinet and saxophone, a lot of named group was Parke Frankenfield, an Easton resident experience and ambition, but, like many other jazz who had led the Bob Crosby . The number musicians who have gone to New York to seek fame and two man ofthe club was Red Mascara who remembered, fortune, he discovered the city had not rolled out a red "Peppy played for us many times, either as a leader or as carpet for his arrival. a side man. At first," Mascara told me, "he came in with "In fact," said Peplowski, "when I moved to New a group called the Condon All-Stars headed by Ed York, I didn't know anyone there except one saxophone Polcer (who had taken over Condon's club in New player who was on the Tommy Dorsey band. Nobody! York). Later, he came back quite often, once with a I was running out of money. I didn't have any guitarist named who was only 21, but a connections in New York for work." Peplowski admitted darn good musician." Mascara said he always had a bag 210 Cleveland Jazz History of pretzels ready for Peplowski. "He loved the want a ghost band.' We felt a little funny doing this, a pretzels." Years later, Mascara said Peplowski was "the little sleazy almost." Peplowski said the members of best clarinetist to come along in a very long time." Goodman's last band decided to play one tribute concert Peplowski also joined the big band of Loren in honor ofthe all-time jazz great. Schoenberg in New York. Schoenberg was also an "They asked us ifwe would do one more concert. And archivist and personal manager for Benny Goodman. we agreed. That was our memorial to him. We played this In 1985, Goodman hired Schoenberg's band to one thing - with me playing the (Goodman) clarinet parts." appear with him on a PBS television special. Peplowski said Goodman was "a very complicated Clevelander Peplowski suddenly found himself guy," but he said he had a good relationship with him. performing with his boyhood hero. The Garfield After playing with Goodman's last band, Peplowski' s Heights native soloed on several numbers during that career blossomed. He began playing at jazz festivals TV program, including "King Porter Stomp." around the world and made a series ofcompact discs for Other members of that band included pianist Dick , drawing on a wide variety of Hyman, guitarist , bassist Bob Haggart influences, from the polka music he played as a kid in and drummer . Eventually, Peplowski Cleveland, to the Benny Goodman classics, and the remembered, Schoenberg was fired and it became the bebop of Sonny Stitt. "The secret," he said, "I think is Benny Goodman Orchestra. to take those influences and move on." Peplowski, who had been struggling in New York, was performing with, and being appreciated by, some of Recording for Concord the biggest names in the history ofjazz, including the In 1987, Peplowski began playing with his own trio legendary Goodman. at an Upper West Side club in New York called J's. It "We worked a lot with him. And we rehearsed every was just a neighborhood restaurant and bar until week at the old Wellington Hotel," said Peplowski. Peplowski began playing there and attracting the "We did a couple of records and a PBS special." attention ofjazz fans and musicians. Later that year, he recorded his first album as a leader, Double Exposure. Playing with Goodman It included "Lava," a Peplowski re-working of the old Peplowski was playing tenor saxophone with the Goodman classic "Avalon." Benny Goodman Orchestra. "He was really excited about By the early 1990s Peplowski had become a major that band. We were playing all those old Fletcher figure at jazz concerts and festivals and recorded three Henderson charts and it was really a great time for me more albums for Concord Records - Sonny Side, Mr. and he could still have nights when that old frail man Gentle, and Rluminations. In addition, he recorded Lazy blew us offthe bandstand." Goodman at the time was 76 Afternoon with the Quartet and performed years old and had not played much in public for years. with such artists as Mel Torme, , Dan "We had a night at Radio City Music Hall," Barrett, Leon Redbone, Scott Hamilton, remembered Peplowski. [On the bill] "It was Frank and Rosemary Clooney. He was the winner ofthe 1990 , Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman and Placido JazzTimes Critics' Poll on clarinet. Domingo. Needless to say, everybody was at the top of Peplowski's 1992 compact disc, The Natural Touch, their form because when one person was on, the other earned the highest award in Europe for ajazz recording, three were watching from the wings. That night, Benny The Preis Der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik Award. played so good that we missed every entrance. The Peplowski also made a couple of compact discs for saxophone players were just sitting there, you know, Telarc International of Cleveland with Frank Vignola, open-mouthed. We literally couldn'tplay! I remember the guitarist he had played with in the Condon All-Stars playing' Steal in ' Apples' and he would take chorus after when he was scuffling for work. chorus and we have these background parts. We He had come a long way from that kids polka band in couldn't play! We just stopped playing. We were just Garfield Heights. "I can't complain," said Peplowski. in awe ofhim! Louie Benson, who was playing drums, "I'm doing good. Got a nice career happening and it's came up to me afterward and said, 'I haven't heard him a good life for me. It's a good career playing music." play like this since the !' An unbelievable night!" Peplowski also said he was glad he made that phone Goodman, the clarinetist Peplowski had been call in the early 1980s, turning down a job at a photo listening to on records since he was a kid in Garfield processing plant, and decided to concentrate on a career Heights, died June 13th, 1986 at the age of 77. in jazz. "It's one of the most rewarding things you can "After he died, they actually wanted us to keep the do," he said. "Sometimes, for many musicians, not band going because they had jobs booked all the next financially rewarding, but there is something about year. The band got together and we said, 'He didn't music that makes you play it. It's a blessing and a curse. Ken Peplowski 211

Ifyou are a real musician, you can never not play music. on the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. They played the You can't say, 'I'm going to give this up. '" "Homage Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra," which In April of 2000, Ken Peplowski came home to was composed for Peplowski by James Chirillo who Cleveland to perform with the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra had also been a member of Goodman' s last band and, and its music director, Jack Schantz, his old roommate this night, was the guest conductor ofthe CJO.

Ken Peplowski Discography

As leader: 1993 ­ Friends 1987 ­ Double Exposure (Concord) 1993 ­ The Bix Beiderbecke Era 1989 ­ Sonny Side (Concord) 1993 ­ Get Happy (Concord) 1990 ­ Illuminations - with Howard Alden (Concord) 1993 ­ I Hear Music (Concord) 1990 - Mr. Gentle and Mr. Cool- with Scott Hamilton 1993 ­ Just in Time (Concord) (Concord) 1993 - Dreamin' (Concord) 1992 ­ The Natural Touch (Concord) 1993 - Aquarelle .(Concord) 1993 ­ Concord Duo Series, Vol. 3 - with Alden (Concord) 1993 ­ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Concord) 1994 - Steppin' With Peps (Concord) 1993 ­ The Bix Beiderbecke Era (Nagel-Heyer) 1994 ­ Live at Ambassador Auditorium ­ with Sweets 1994 ­ Trombone Artistry (Nagel-Heyer) Edison 1994 ­ Whistling in the Wind (Private Music) (Concord) 1994 ­ A Tribute to (Concord) 1994 ­ Encore! Live At Centre Concord - with Alden 1994 ­ Moments Like This (Concord) (Concord) 1994 ­ Let It Happen (Concord) 1995 ­ It's a Lonesome Old Town (Concord) 1994 ­ Baseball: the American Epic (Elektra/Asylun) 1996 ­ The Other Portrait (Concord) 1994 ­ From Broadway to Bebop (Concord) 1997 ­ A Good Reed (Concord) 1994 ­ Live (Concord) 1998 - Grenadilla (Concord) 1994 ­ Fujitsu-Concord 26th Jazz Festival (Concord) 1999 ­ Last Swing of the Century (Concord) 1994 ­ Songs I Learned at My Mother's Knee & Other Low 2001 - Lost in the Stars (Nagel-Heyer) Joints (Jazzology) 1994 ­ Daddies Sing Good Night (Sugarhill) As sideman: 1994 ­ Encore! Live at Centre Concord (Concord) 1974 ­ Heritage Series (Concord) 1995 ­ Dreaming 1979 ­ 'S Wonderful: Salute to Ira Gershwin (Concord) 1995 ­ Summit Meeting 1980 ­ Concord Jazz Heritage Series (Concord) 1995 ­ It's a Lonesome Old Town (Concord) 1982 ­ Concord Jazz Heritage Series (Concord) 1995 ­ Cinema Jazz (Concord) 1982 ­ Plays Jazz Tonight (Concord) 1995 ­ Easy to Love: Songs of Cole Porter (Concord) 1985 ­ Let's Dance - with Benny Goodman Orchestra 1995 ­ It Was Me (Daring) (Music Masters) 1995 ­ Whose Honey Are You? 1985 ­ Red to Blue (Sugarhill) 1995 - Jammin' a la Condon (Jazzology) 1986 - Teny Waldo's Gotham City Band 1996 ­ Look What I Found (Arbors) 1986 ­ Chicago Jazz Summit 1996 ­ Swing is Here (Refe(ence) 1987 ­ Strictly Instrumental (Concord) 1996 ­ American Songbook Series: Richard Whiting 1987 ­ Time Waits For No One 1997 - Swingin' Jazz For Hipsters, Vols. 1 &2 (Concord) 1988 ­ In Concert in Tokyo (Concord) 1997 ­ Harold Arlen Songbook (Concord) 1988 ­ Reunion (Concord) 1997 ­ Songbook (Concord) 1988 ­ No More Blues (Concord) 1997 ­ George Gershwin Songbook (Concord) 1988 ­ Solid Ground 1997 ­ Cole Porter Songbook (Concord) 1989 ­ Lazy Afternoon (Concord) 1997 - Rodgers &Hart Songbook (Concord) 1989 ­ Howard Alden Trio Plus Special Guests (Concord) 1998 - Swingin' (Slider) 1989 ­ George Shearing in Dixieland (Concord) 1998 ­ Broadway (Nagel-Heyer) 1989 ­ I've Got My Fingers Crossed (Audiophile) 1998 ­ Fruit Cocktail 1989 ­ The ABQ Salutes (Concord) 1998 ­ The Best Thing For Me (Arbors) 1989 ­ Fireworks! Red Hot &Blues (Riverwalk) 1998 ­ Sampler, Vol. 1 (Arbors) 1990 ­ Just A-Settin' and A-Rockin' 1999 ­ (Sony) 1990 ­ Stampede (Jazzology) 1999 ­ A Rosie Christmas (Sony) 1991 - The Boss Nova Years (Concord) 1999 ­ The Best of the Concord Years (Concord) 1991 - Comet Chop Suey (Concord) 1999 ­ Sensitive to the Touch (Groove Jams) 1991 - Sugar 1999 ­ The Feeling of Jazz (Arbors) 1991 - Groovin' High (Concord) 1999 ­ Jazz Moods: Brazilian Romance (Concord) 1991 - A Concord Jazz Christmas (Concord) 1999 ­ Afterglow (Arbors) 1992 ­ Up a Lazy River 1999 ­ Sweet and Lowdown (Sony) 1992 ­ Washington Guitar Quintet (Concord) 2000 ­ Re-Discovering Louis &Bix (Nagel-Heyer) 1992 ­ Christmas With Travelin' Light (Telarc) 2000 ­ History of Jazz, Vol. 1 (Arbors) 1992 - Makin' Whoopie - with Sam Pilafian and Frank 2000 ­ Route 66 - That Sound - Vignola (Concord) with Cincinnati Pops Big Band (Telarc) 1992 ­ A Tribute to (Concord) 2000 ­ Ballad Essentials (Concord) 1992 - Groovin' High 2000 ­ Let There Be Love (Telarc) 1992 ­ Wild Oats (Jazzology) 1993 ­ What Matters Most