Name: Noir Blue
Brand: City Hall Records
SKU: 265025
Price: 14.04 USD
Availability: InStock

Noir Blue

Rating

Album: Noir Blue
#	Song Title		Time
1)	The Best Thing for You	More Info...
2)	Home With You	More Info...
3)	Bourbon Street Jingling Jollies	More Info...
4)	Riverboat Shuffle	More Info...
5)	Love Locked Out	More Info...
6)	If Not for You	More Info...
7)	Multi-coloured Blue	More Info...
8)	Noir Blue	More Info...
9)	Nobody Else But Me	More Info...
10)	Little Dogs	More Info...

Performer Notes

Personnel: Ken Peplowski (clarinet, tenor saxophone); Shelly Berg (piano); Joe La Barbera (drums).
Audio Mixers: Scott Friess; Thomas C. Burns.
Liner Note Author: Ken Peplowski.
Recording information: Umbrella Studios, Chatsworth, CA (03/27/2009).
Photographer: Thomas C. Burns.
Ken Peplowski is one of the most accomplished musicians in the second half-century of jazz. His lithe clarinet or literate tenor saxophone playing earmarks a curiosity for many facets within mainstream jazz that he employs. On Noir Blue -- his first CD for the Capri label -- Peplowski explores that variety in a swinging framework with original material, standards, and interpretations of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's music. With the exceptional pianist Shelly Berg, bassist Jay Leonhart, and drummer Joe La Barbera, the reedman can scarcely do anything wrong in playing enjoyable, populist jazz that is as consistent as anyone could wish for. The title selection is an obscure but beautiful Strayhorn ballad that Peplowski plays expertly on clarinet, while the light Latin Berg composition "Home with You" is warm and fuzzy as can be. A contemporary beat … la Ahmad Jamal is employed on Ellington's lesser-known "Bourbon Street Jingling Jollies," with "The Best Thing for You" done in a brisk bop. Reminiscent of Lester Young, Peplowski's tenor sax is in vintage form for the upbeat swinger penned by La Barbera "If Not For You," and pays homage to Thelonious Monk and Ornette Coleman, inspired in angular and quirky tones during Peplowski's original "Little Dogs." Of many excellent albums he has produced in his three-decade career, this is one of the most complete and satisfying efforts the top-drawer figure has ever produced, and deserves a most high recommendation. ~ Michael G. Nastos

Professional Reviews

JazzTimes (p.66) - "[I]t's with the clarinet in hand, on ballads like the title track, that he scores emotional bull's-eyes."