Hello and welcome to the clarinet ninja podcast. My name is Jay Hassler. As always, I'm doing my best to bring you the finest in clarinet information and entertainment. Today we're doing something that I've never done before. Uh we're doing a celebration, a eulogy, uh celebration of Kemplowski, a clarinetist in person who had a big impact on our world. And unfortunately, he passed away in February 2026. I met him. I'd heard him play a little bit uh but not enough to sustain uh a podcast all of my own. And with great uh effort and an extraordinary amount of generosity and good fortune, I've put together something that I think is a fitting tribute to Ken, his music, his life, and what he brought to all of us. Uh when he was on this jazz cruise, uh two prominent clarinet players were with him, Pikito Da and Anak Owen. They both were kind enough to join me uh for a talk and my good friend Evan Christopher who didn't happen to be on the cruise but did many many gigs with Ken. I couldn't get all three of them to join me at one time. So I made what I'm calling a documentary style, but it's basically conversations uh cut from one to the next. Their voices are all quite different. So, if you're listening to audio only, don't worry. You you will be able to tell them apart. Uh, I also want to give a great deal of thanks to three more people who I do not know. Lee Mner was incredibly helpful getting me set up with a photograph. That photograph is not his. That photograph comes from John Abbott. John Abbott I learned about subsequently uh who has uh an incredible portfolio of photographs not only of jazz musicians but of a lot of other things. If you ever need a picture taken I would suggest checking out John Abbott. Uh I'm going to link to both of them. Uh Lee does some wonderful writing about jazz. I'm going to link to how to get a hold of him or how to maybe not get a hold of him but see what he writes. definitely going to link John Abbott in the description. And then the other person who has made this, you know, really come alive is a gentleman named Corey Weeds who was uh very kind to uh allow me to use uh some of Ken's playing uh to really uh show as well as tell uh what Ken was all about. Corey operates Seller Records, C E L L A R Records, and has done an incredible job documenting, recording, and uh putting forth uh wonderful jazz music into the world. I will link that in the description and show notes. Let's take it back to February 2026. So the clinet night was with Ken and Cohen and myself and we have a wonder we didn't want the night to to to end because it was was so much fun and then we went to the bar together and uh so that means that uh Ken played with us his final notes, the final note of his life. Ken has been um year after year he's been part of the of the crews and part of the people that presenting bands a very very important presence and and um and then the last few years um we were happened to be on the cruise with with with Camplask with Pakito de Rivera and uh and with Ken and Pakito they they always they always matched us you know they always okay the three of you so you got to play together you got to do a show so we've done um some shows in the past together and and we've done the night before he passed. We we've done they called it the art of the clarinet and we we got together on the cruise and we each suggested couple songs and we just worked out the set of music and and we played and it was just you know it's it's I mean I'm standing between Pakito and Ken so for me I'm I'm in heaven already. was a happy uh night for him and for all of us enjoying him as a as a player and as a guy. He was fantastic to be around. So, and that told me that he had a conversation with him uh the following morning. They called the the uh the cafe morning or something like that. And then he was supposed to play at 4 4:30 in the afternoon. He never showed up. So being that the last time that he played the coronet was with us and uh it looked like it was very uh very happy playing with us. It was shocking for all of us. I mean because he was really getting stronger and getting better and he was playing nonstop on the cruise and he sounded amazing. He sounded as as as as good as ever and and and and powerful and and inspired and inspiring and and um and then he just uh he just left us on the cruise and like and as as properly as a clarinetist should on a high note. I don't know if a knot was talking about literally on a high note or metaphorically on a high note, but either way, what a beautiful way to characterize Ken's uh last time playing the clarinet. But before we get deeply into Ken's clarinet playing, let's talk about Ken as a person. And when I put this together, I realized the beautiful thing about this is that these aren't eulogies to Ken. These aren't people trying to frame Ken in a particular way. These are people talking honestly and uh authentically about Ken and what he was like and what he was like to be around. It was started off uh because Ken was one of the dearest person, you know, musician that I ever ever knew because everybody like him, you know, admire him as a player and as a a very smart person too, very weak, you know, and and we we had a clinet night at the at the uh at the jazz cruise. hearing live music, hearing a person that plays the clarinet in such a beautiful way and I'm standing next to him and and you know also very very funny person but very serious also and you know always very knowledgeable and and and you know forgiving and unforgiving at the same time but also with always with a with a smiling kindness didn't mean his standards it didn't mean he relaxed about his standards. It just means you know he just wasn't that aggressive about or that vocal about it. But uh you know if you if you just pay attention to the standards that he clearly set for themselves, you'll walk away with a lot more than um than cats who just like to make a lot of noise about what they think things, you know, should be and how people should play. He was doing what he thought was the right thing and was not trying to sell that as the right thing for everybody. He wasn't trying to sell anything. Yeah. He was trying he was just trying to deliver. Now let's think about the way that Pikito and Anat and Evan talk about Ken's playing. It's not vague. It's very specific. His playing is very even organic like a classical player. Mellow but warm. Like these are clarinet players talking about a clarinet player. and the observations about how he went about it really uh go a lot into really thinking about what do clarinet players think about when they hear other clarinet players and even more than that what do they hear when they hear a clarinet player that they admire in the way that they admired Ken there I see Kenlowski who I've never met before and I hear him play the clarinet. And I'm thinking, man, clarinet is such a great instrument. This guy makes the clarinet. Like the sound, the classical sound. I mean, later on, I talked, we we had conversation. I mean, I know his dedication to the instrument and and and to classical attudes and to study the instrument. So, the guy is swinging his ass off. There's no question about it. but also playing the clarinet in a way that made me rethink about this whole thing about leaving the clarinet in the case for jazz and being focusing on the saxophone like uh I hear I hear a real clarinetist for starters uh in the sense that uh you know he he was he paid a lot of attention to uh how he wanted the instrument to sound pretty much um you know AC uh from from top to bottom. And uh unlike me, I think he actually wanted it to sound, you know, his way. He wanted his sound from top to bottom, right? As opposed to my way, which would be actually treating it as three different instruments with three different voices depending on the register. So, but his thing was his thing was a little bit different. He had a um a much more a more focused approach uh to how he wanted the evenness of color throughout the range uh throughout the whole range of the instrument. It's almost intimidating playing with him. Without even trying without even trying every note that he plays sound so tasteful and right in the pocket well and the you know in hearing him play the clarinet he plays the clarinet it's very even the way he plays the clarinet. The tone is very even from to be very even. It's sometime like a classical player. Being having been on the band stand with him, I'll tell you that I I'll tell you that it's not. Um, I mean, when you say jazz mouthpiece, usually what that means in geeky clarinet land is that we have basically uh we want a uh we want a wider uh uh uh we want a dynamic ceiling that'll that'll get us there when there's when there's drums um you know, piano bass and drums or uh and his uh his go-to, if I recall, I think it was maybe a Portoi um you not even their most open porto. might have been a BP2 uh which probably comes in closer to maybe 1.2 as opposed to, you know, my nonsense which comes in around 1.59. And I think he I I think what he wanted was uh like I say, he wanted consistency with the sound across the registers. Um and he wasn't really interested in overblowing the horn past that point of resonance that that that he uh that he wanted to hear. Uh whereas in the New Orleans tradition, you know, pretty much the and and in a lot of other ethnic music traditions, I wouldn't call jazz an ethnic music tradition, but in most other ethnic traditions of clarinet, I think it's more it is more accepted to uh to come up with a uh a sound that's largely more fundamental um and less of the overtones that we'd associate with classical music. Ken was somewhere in between, you know, he he uh he the richness that he wanted was still just say more uh with more breath and more space around it than than a classical clarinet sound. But the evenness is what he wanted. And I don't think I don't think he was interested in saying having a more open setup. um even if it would allow him to project more or play louder more uh I think he preferred to use microphones and make sure that he had that consistency across registers and um he wasn't really going for uh to being able to you know set the clarinet to to to stun no that type of technique and the control of the instrument and the beauty of the sound you you have to be uh the student of the of the classical first all right so we've established what Ken sounded like, the evenness, the classical discipline underneath all of that swing. The way he chose to play for consistency rather than volume, for precision rather than flash. Well, the next question naturally seems like where does that put him in the long history of jazz clarinet? That history is pretty long and within it pretty specific. Ken had a position that all three of these clar players described in a way that's genuinely unusual. very few players among them went on Marsalis. I will tell you something. Jazz people these days and this is nothing wrong with this but most most of or jazz player they concentrate their style their language in the B in the BBOP line all of them are concentrating in people like Charlie Parker Franco people this language but Ken was a player who use from the be from the very traditional uh style of Yeah. To the more advanced including also element of pop music and music in classic and classical music too. And I mention it uh Winto Marali because Winon say a phrase that I I like it very much. He say all jazz is contemporary music since the creation at the beginning of of the 20th century until today. So the same thing that is a very uh classical music way to see jazz music because you don't play modern jazz you know you play jazz and you can use all those element very few people do that one of them was Ken Peplowski a person who use elements of all all the epochs in jazz music I I I think the main focus for him um in terms of having a relationship with tradition was the was the uh was his relationship to the songs. Yeah. Even more than his relationship to whatever we would think of as a as a lineage or a family of of jazz clarinet. Um I I think uh I think we we had probably more conversations about songwriters and songs we liked. And I mean half the time because it was like, "Hey, what are we going to play together?" We'd have to come up with songs and hey, do you know this one? Do you know this one? Oh, I love that one. I love this one. Um, hey, do you play it this way? Do you play it that way? So, it was it was always it was always kind of more about the um uh the the the song the the meat of the of the songs. Um the the little uh the little nuances that people miss about certain melodies or even about certain harmonies. Uh um and that was that was kind of um I I would say that we talked more about that than we ended up talking about the about the actual clarinet because I I I am in the same boat. I like to use elements of different type of music and especially in different epochs of jazz music but very few he he uses in a very elegant way. He we work a few year with Benny Goodman swing orchestra. Benny never played BBop and he adapt himself to to that style and he's perfect. like did did he have a way of talking about or thinking about like the legacy of the clarinet and how he fit into it and then what how he would he always had great anecdotes um about about the cats and and uh and things and we always uh he always spoke passionately about people he liked um uh I don't you know I don't I I don't think uh he thought of it as much in terms of um of lineage on the instrument u he's a Midwest guy so He uh you know, you you'll you'll you'll learn that he came up with his brother with with like uh Midwest Poker bands and things like that. Um that's where he got some of that uh the vertical the vertical knowledge. Um and that's where he got some of his early you know professional experience and uh so he you know he reminisced about some of those those times and always always you know funny stories because it's a funny business right he announced I am going to play this piece because Pito is here and I want him to listen to this piece I am going to play now but in the entire week I am not going to repeat no one single standard he played 12 different different sets in that in that week. That's amazing. That is amazing that the the the amount of the the archive that he got in his man. Beautiful. Let's be real. 12 sets, no repeated tunes while battling cancer. That's somebody who not only knows music and the clarinet, but loves music and the clarinet. One of the things that stood out when I talked to these three people was that there there there was no eulogy. There was no talking about it as if it was over. And I think that's one of the things about being in a small group of people that do a very specific thing. Yeah, the history is living and continues to live and your contributions to it stay alive in the people that are still alive within that community. I think Pikito said it best. We are like a little mafia. Don't do many of us around. They're fantastic clarinet players and yet we are all very different and we all bring different humor the p personality into the music into the clarinet and and they make it sound so yummy but so different from each other and from me and it was so uh you know supportive you know like three the three of us will always be like standing there and be like wa oh wa oh cool like really such a you know there a lot of great clarinet players um out there but you know in jazz clarinet you know it's it's it's just such a hard instrument you know it's funny claret players anybody on the same instrument doesn't really get to play with each other very very much very often right I mean drummers hang out and see each other gigs but they don't play music together um trumpet players right but clar players for some reason it's an instrument It sounds good when there's more than one clarinet or at least people think it does. And so, uh, really, I mean, I would see him at his gigs just as, you know, uh, just as often as we'd end up on a gig together because somebody wanted clarinets. So, um, so over the years, uh, over the years, um, even going all the way back to like 92nd Street Y, um, in the '9s, I mean, we would, we would, uh, we would find ourselves on stage together, festivals, jazz festivals or jazz parties where they'd have, you know, three of every instrument and it just kind of mix and match. And, um, so there was always always seemed like every time we would cross paths, there'd be a duet set we would do together. And you know even even some things with uh three clarinets or four clarinets just just depending on the whim of the presenter. Ken and Pakita are the reason when I said wow you know clarinet is a freaking awesome instrument and I'm going to go back and play it. All three of them keep circling back to that. The joy of being in the room together of standing on a band stand with somebody who makes you play better just by being there. Ken had been sick for a while. multiple myyoma, years of treatment. There were periods when the clarinet was physically difficult, where the body he'd spent a lifetime teaching to play the instrument wasn't cooperating the way it used to. But by the time he got on that boat in February, by all accounts, he was fighting his way back. But al also he it made me play better because maybe I I am a little afraid of him you know and it's and it's not only a technical problem it the entire package he plays very beautifully with so much good taste and uh it's almost intimidating playing with him and he managed to get stronger and he came back to it. Um, but there was a minute where you, you know, I think he was a little bit frustrated with, uh, just physically how difficult it was to play the clarinet the way he wanted to. Well, I mean, because he he'd been struggling with with a health problem for a number of years, right? It was three or four years. It was even longer than that, I think. Yeah. Yeah. U, the the the problem was that uh, you know, there's a lot of different uh, routes of treatment for um, for this particular uh, uh, this particular cancer. um um multiple myoma. Uh and unfortunately his route of treatment involves some radiation and that and that just that just that just screws the body up in all sorts of other different ways. He just wanted to be out there and play playing and he was planning all these like you know after after you know battling cancer for a while I mean he was getting stronger and you know the only thing he told me is like oh my back hurts and and uh you know but I don't want to do any surgery right now and and he was like all planning with all the people I talked to about how he's going to line up his shows again and and be out there and he just wanted to be on stage and you know he lived for the stage. He was a touring musician. I mean when I saw him play I I went to see him at at the Berland. All right. And in that in that occasion he sounds a little weak especially in the tenor. He you know that he was very ill. He was cancer or something like that. Yeah. And and for me it soundority wise a little weaker than he used to but not on the boat for some reason in the boat he sound more solid. I I didn't see him playing the tenner too much. He played Joseph. It it looked like in those days he was not fitting very well by you know paying attention to the the to the details in those in those uh in their in their songs. um that really give the identity to uh the the American song book um to find things that that actually resonate with us. That's you know instead of choosing hey I want to do this song because so and so recorded it. I mean you know Ken wanted to play these songs because he developed a relationship with him. So there's that and then developing a relationship with the instrument. I think uh you know Ken leaves us that legacy of well here's if you really if you really pay attention and you don't let the you don't let the instrument play you you know but you decide to play the instrument um this is this is how it's going to come up with and I think he was uh he was meticulous and I I I think there's a certain humility because of his Midwestern kind of uh um uh you know he's very polite and everything like that but that didn't that didn't that didn't mean his standards it didn't mean he was relaxed about his standards. It just means you know he just wasn't that aggressive about it or that vocal about it. But uh you know if you if you just pay attention to the standards that he clearly set for himself, you'll walk away with a lot more. Wonderful talking about somebody who deserve to be remembered as a great colleague and a great guy and a great player. We we loved him very much and he was a huge inspiration for me and for so many. And we're going to miss his humor. We're going to miss his his sound and his kindness. So, we love you, Kenny. He wasn't selling. He was he he wasn't he wasn't a sales person. He was a delivery person. Well put, man. The world today of personal branding, showing yourself to the world in a very curated way. This all came about within Ken's lifetime. And to my understanding, he never fell victim to changing what was at his core, which is delivering music, making music central to what he's doing, not himself, and not even so much the clarinet, even though the clarinet is amazing. Play some for us. And again, I want to thank some people that made this podcast episode possible. Number one, Kemplowski, thanks for playing the clarinet the way you did. Thanks for playing music the way that you did. Pikito, Anad, Evan, I want you to know this meant a lot to me that you would do this, that you would take the time out of your lives to celebrate Ken with me. Uh, I certainly would have been able to do none of this without you. I want to thank again Lee Mner, John Abbott, and Cory Weeds who really allowed the finishing touches to make this into what it was. One more time, my name is Jay Hassler. This is the clarinet ninja podcast. Hope you enjoyed it. If you knew Ken, please put something in the comments, a nice memory, uh something that meant something to you. Uh and I'll see you next time on the clarinet ninja podcast.
