Landing a show with two of the best jazz musicians in the world is a reason for celebration, but when that show falls within a day of my birthday, well, there’s even more celebrating to do.
Pianist Ted Rosenthal and the sax and clarinet master, Ken Peplowski, are touring with their duo show and they’ll be in the Side Door on Saturday, March 29. That’s a great reason for us to celebrate Palladium Paul’s birthday that same night. (My actual birthday is March 30).
Along with the great music, we’re ordering up a very special birthday cake. We will be cutting slices for everyone at intermission. I hope you can join us for this very special night. For tickets and more information please follow this link.
Enough about me, let’s talk about the two talented gentlemen providing the music. Both have appeared on our stage before. Ted appeared with the Statesmen of Jazz and Ken has been a guest at Nate Najar’s Jazz Holiday.
Ted Rosenthal, piano (bottom)
This will be their first pairing at the Palladium, but they’ve shared a lot of stages over the years.
“Ken and I have known each other for 40 years,” Ted told me. “We met in the ‘80s when we were two guys breaking into the jazz scene in New York City. In those days we did a lot of gigs, good, bad, and otherwise.”
I caught up with Ted by phone from his home in the Berkshires. He was off to Europe and Israel the next day for a series of concerts. Ken couldn’t join us for our tribute to Arbors Records in January because he was in Europe as the special guest of a symphony orchestra. (He told me but can’t remember which symphony. I just remember it was a MAJOR ONE!)
Both men are at the top of their game, traveling the world, playing with star performers, and headlining jazz festivals. They’ve done a lot of collaborations, including recording projects for the Japanese jazz label, Venus Records.
“Venus was known for their racy album covers featuring scantily clad women.” Ted said.
The two are at home with jazz and classical music and like all top jazz players, they move easily through many styles and genres.
“We share a view that there is good music from many periods. And the duo shows display a lot of those things. We’ll be playing some standards, some swing-style tunes and some classical arrangements of mine,” Ted told me by phone from his home in the Berkshires.
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