![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Peplowski-Gordon.jpg\" "\\"Peplowski,")
<\/a>Ms. Hofmann put Ken Peplowski at the helm of a quintet with trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, pianist Bill Mays, drummer Chuck Redd and bassist Dave Captein. Playing tenor saxophone, Peplowski kicked off the set with a fast \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Blue \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcn Boogie,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d delivering the Dizzy Gillespie line in unison with Gordon and giving all hands plenty of solo space. He followed it with a standup routine of wit that in its dryness and quickness was a match for his playing. Whenever he spoke during the party, he had musicians and the audience chuckling or, often, laughing out loud.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Chuck-Redd-drums.jpg\" "\\"Chuck")
<\/a> Peplowski reserved his seriousness for the music. He introduced Rodgers and Hart\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Ship Without a Sail\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (1929) as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a ballad that too few people know about.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He played it on clarinet with deep tones and phrasing that captured the song’s sense of longing. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Rhythm-a-ning\u00e2\u20ac\u009d brought out the vaudevillian in Gordon, whose trombone choruses incorporated an update of the early New Orleans jazz practice of imitating body and animal sounds. He did it with astonishing virtuosity. Following Mays\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 impressive choruses on the Monk tune, Gordon returned, equally startling playing his slide trumpet. Redd\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s crackling drum solo was his first statement of a weekend that saw the Washington, DC, veteran also playing vibes in a variety of settings.<\/p>\nPeplowski and company wrapped up with another Monk piece, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hackensack,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the leader on tenor and Gordon putting vaudeville tendencies aside. His solo on the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lady Be Good\u00e2\u20ac\u009d changes was serious, straight-ahead and stimulating, in keeping with the example Mays set in his choruses. The Clayton Brothers Quintet opened with alto saxophonist Jeff Clayton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Cha Cha Charleston,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which achieved the neat trick of combining those disparate rhythms. The piece\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s metric challenges underlined the crucial relationship among bassist John Clayton, his pianist son Gerald and drummer Obed Calvaire. In his solo Calvaire combined rhythmic looseness and total control as Jeff Clayton and Terell Stafford punctuated with unison horn stings. Other highlights of the Clayton segment:<\/p>\n ”\u00a0 ”\u00a0 ”\u00a0 ”\u00a0 ”\u00a0 John Clayton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impassioned bowing in Billie Holiday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Explain.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n ”\u00a0 ”\u00a0 ”\u00a0 ”\u00a0 ”\u00a0 Stafford\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s solo, lightning fast and full of complexities, on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Runway.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n Holly Hofmann and Jeff Clayton combining their flutes in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Touch the Fog\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from the Clayton Brothers CD The Gathering<\/em><\/a>, her solo exotic, his on bass flute colored with humming\/playing gruffness.<\/p>\n The impressionism of Gerald Clayton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s solo on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Touch the Fog\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and his soloing throughout; he has become one of the music\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s major young players.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In one of two late-night jam sessions at the Shilo Inn, vocalist Kenny Washington, captivated listeners most of whom were hearing him for the Bill Mays\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 History of Jazz Piano concert for a morning audience covered pianists from James P. Johnson to Herbie Hancock. Teddy Wilson, Bill Evans and Bud Powell were among the 13 whose styles Mays summoned without surrendering his individuality. Tommy Flanagan and Sonny Clark had to be Three Portlanders\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbassist Captein, drummer Gary Hobbs and pianist The Sunday Morning wrap session began with Mays updating and expanding the repertoire of his CD Mays at the Movies<\/em><\/a>. He, Wakeling (pictured) and Redd concentrated on music from films he admires, has written for, or on whose soundtracks he played. The admiration category
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<\/a>first time. In a typically perceptive OCJP mix-and-match, Hofmann teamed Washington with Calvaire, Captein, Gordon and guitarist Graham Dechter. By the time Washington and singer Denise Donatelli<\/a> shared leadership of a set the next night, Washington had accumulated new admirers of his swing, cheerfulness, vocal technique and<\/a> a range that equals Bobby McFerrin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. On another set, Donatelli headed a trio with Dechter and Portland bassist Tom Wakeling. Warmed up, minor intonation adjustments out of the way, she combined personal phrasing and time feeling with a smoky quality that melded into crystal clarity in the high register on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If You Never Come to Me\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Darn That Dream.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<\/a>set aside when time ran short. I had the privilege of providing narration leading into each of Bill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s segments. That put me in the second best seat in the house in the curve of the nine-foot Steinway as Mays poured himself into interpreting some of the pianists who influenced his development. It was a great experience, with a responsive audience, and so much fun that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re thinking of doing it again sometime, somewhere.<\/p>\n<\/a>Tony Pacini\u00e2\u20ac\u201dteamed with Chuck Redd on vibes for a set that included a superb Captein solo on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Come Fly With Me.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Listening backstage, Hofmann said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He is so solid.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d In Duke Ellington\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Main Stem,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hobbs<\/a> used brushes on cymbals and floated through a solo that incorporated air as an element. In the second jam session at the Shilo, the former Stan Kenton drummer showed another side of his talent as he propelled a sextet with Stafford, guitarist Dechter (pictured), Peplowski, Redd (vibes) and John Clayton. In a quintet session Saturday night, on Ellington\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Mean a Thing If It Ain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Got That Swing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Stafford and Gordon explored different degrees of rambunctiousness. Old pals John Clayton and <\/a>Jeff Hamilton followed, trading eight-bar phrases as they grinned at<\/a> one another. Other high points of the set were Gordon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trumpet and singing on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Black and Blue\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in tribute to Louis Armstrong, and Gerald Clayton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sensitive playing on the intriguing harmonies of his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sunny Day Go By.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<\/a>included the classics \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Laura,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Very Thought of You\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Smile.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d His own \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Cool Pool\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was a Miles Davis \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All Blues\u00e2\u20ac\u009d clone that he wrote for a producer who didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to pay a heavy licensing fee to use the Davis original. He played on the sound track of the Coen Brothers’ Fargo<\/em>, and gave the Newport audience a trio version of the film\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s theme by Carter Burwell, which Mays described as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153not a bad piece of music.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mays\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 composition \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Judy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d appeared in the appallingly violent Willem Dafoe psychological thriller Anamorph<\/em>. Accordingly, he, Wakeling and Redd played it as what Mays called a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153group grope,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d free jazz with simultaneous improvisation that ended with the trio wreathed in smiles.<\/p>\n