Fri 3/20 @ 7:30PM
The Cleveland Jazz Orchestra’s next concert of its 2025-2026 season, called “Clubbin’ Unchained: Django and the Duke,” honors two of Cleveland’s many influential jazz figures: clarinetist Ken Peplowski and CJO co-founder/former executive director Gary Scott. It also pays tribute to the jazz of the 1930s.
Peplowski, considered one of his generation’s premiere clarinet players (he also played tenor sax), passed away last month at the age of 66 while on a jazz cruise. The versatile musician had performed in everything from Dixieland and swing bands to avant-garde ensembles and released more than three dozen albums as a band leader or co-leader since the late 80s with dozens more as a sideman or backing musician with artists ranging from Leon Redbone to Marianne Faithfull to Peggy Lee to John Pizzarelli. He had moved to New York after studying at Cleveland State University and later to Oregon where he led several music festivals.
The concert will include pieces by Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen, and Django Reinhardt, and conclude with Ellington’s “Single Petal of a Rose,” a favorite tune of Peplowski, who last played with CJO in 2022. Scott will be inducted into CJO’s Preservation Circle’s Arranger’s category. The concert will also feature violinist Reed Simon in its tribute to the ’30s sounds of the Hot Club of France.
The concert takes place at the Maltz Performing Arts Center. Get tickets here.
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