AMG Review of Pow-Wow

Ken Dryden
All Music Guide

Howard Alden and Ken Peplowski have previously appeared on a number of each other's CDs and this is hardly their first opportunity to play as a duo. Both Alden and Peplowski are equally at home in bop and swing with a vast shared repertoire between them. They are among the best on their respective instruments, with intuitive minds that work together in daring jointly improvised flights. Alden switched to playing seven-string electric guitar a number of years prior to these 2006 sessions after playing with fellow masters George Van Eps and Bucky Pizzarelli, gaining the ability to play a bassline with the extra string. Peplowski is a solid tenor saxophonist and a lyrical clarinetist. With Peplowski on clarinet, they come up with an extended, humorous rendition of "Did I Remember" and offer a creative interpretation of Bud Powell's still demanding "Tempus Fugit." Pianist Bill Evans' "Very Early" was often played by its composer at a brisk tempo during the latter part of his career, but the duo chose a relaxed setting to better showcase this lovely waltz. Peplowski switches to tenor sax for several songs, including a pair of Joe Puma compositions "Pow Wow" (a thinly disguised "Cherokee" and the exotic Brazilian/Latin flavored "Bossango"), a lush take of "The Things We Did Last Summer," and a swinging "Dream Dancing." Alden is heard unaccompanied for the forgotten Eastwood Lane chestnut "The Land of the Loon."