Feb 3, 2026 12:10 AM
In Memoriam: Ken Peplowski, 1959–2026
Ken Peplowski, a clarinetist and tenor saxophonist who straddled the worlds of traditional and modern jazz, died Feb. 2…
Firehouse 12 will release Xenogenesis Suite: A Tribute To Octavia Butler on April 29, the new studio recording of Chicago-based flutist Nicole Mitchell’s extended composition of the same name. The piece, performed by her group Black Earth Ensemble, was commissioned by Chamber Music America’s New Works Presentation program. It premiered in June 2007 at the 12th annual Vision Festival in New York and was performed again at the Chicago Cultural Center in December. The composition is inspired by the work of Afrofuturist writer Octavia Butler.
“My compositional journey was stimulated by my emotional reaction to Butler’s novel Dawn, rather than the specific events of the story,” Mitchell wrote in the liner notes. “Dawn intimately deals with the condition of fear and our ability to adapt in inhumane circumstances. The process of writing this music allowed me to face the feeling of fear head-on, to enter and explore it.
“Xenogenesis Suite: A Tribute To Octavia Butler represents a new direction for my work as a composer. I purposefully rebelled from my natural attraction to certain compositional devices in an effort to discover new methods of stimulating human emotion. I created the instrumental music as the surrounding alien environment, and used the voice of Mankwe Ndosi to portray the human element. Ndosi represents a sole human, a woman, in the midst of a wondrous and perhaps frightening landscape.”
More info: nicolemitchell.com
Peplowski first came to prominence in legacy swing bands, including the final iteration of the Benny Goodman Orchestra, before beginning a solo career in the late 1980s.
Feb 3, 2026 12:10 AM
Ken Peplowski, a clarinetist and tenor saxophonist who straddled the worlds of traditional and modern jazz, died Feb. 2…
Hammond came to the blues through the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which he experienced firsthand in New York’s Greenwich Village.
Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
“I play what I want and what I like,” said Andrew Cyrille. “I use my knowledge artistically and professionally.”
Feb 3, 2026 12:15 AM
Midway through August, a few days after concluding a week at the Village Vanguard with the quartet that Andrew Cyrille…
Marsalis will, if he chooses to use it, have a strong voice in perpetuating his vision through a role in choosing his successors.
Feb 3, 2026 12:09 AM
For the better part of a year, rumors have been swirling that Wynton Marsalis was going to step down as artistic and…
Lettuce, from left: Eric Coomes, Adam Deitch, Ryan Zoidis, Eric Bloom, Adam Smirnoff and Nigel Hall
Feb 17, 2026 11:05 AM
They were Berklee misfits. Neither jazzy enough for the straightahead crowd at Boston’s highly prestigious College of…
