JAZZ - Key Persons
Allan Vaché, born December 16, 1953, grew up in Rahway, New Jersey where he attended school and graduated Rahway High School in 1971. He grew up in a musical family, with a father (Warren Vaché Sr.), a renowned bass player and with a brother (Warren Vaché, Jr.) who is well known for his expertise on cornet and flugelhorn. Allan not surprisingly took to music early and while at Jersey City State College from 1971-1975, studied with David Dworkin of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra as well as independently studying with the famous jazz artist, Kenny Davern.
During that same period Allan also performed many professional engagements with such jazz greats as: Bobby Hackett, Wild Bill Davison, Pee Wee Erwin, Gene Krupa, Dick Hyman, Max Kaminsky, Clark Terry, Dick Wellstood, Ed Hubble, Cliff Leeman, Bob Haggart, Jack Lesberg, Lionel Hampton, Bob Wilber and many others. He also made numerous appearances with his brother Warren Vaché, Jr.
Today, Banu (bah'new) Gibson stands virtually at the top of her field. A superior and swinging jazz singer, Banu is one of the few vocalists of her generation to maintain exclusive loyalty to songs of the 1920s, '30s, and '40s. Rather than mimic singers of the past, she mixes fresh renditions of Tin Pan Alley standards and jazz classics by Gershwin, Ellington, Berlin, Carmichael, Waller, Porter, et al. A powerful force on stage as well as on her CDs on the Swing Out label, her enthusiasm and showmanship are highlighted by her wide range and versatility.
Banu and her band have appeared on Garrison Keillor's award-winning NPR series, A Prairie Home Companion, and brought in the millennium as the only guest artist of the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall. They headline nationwide at concerts, jazz festivals, clubs and jazz parties, on television's Entertainment Tonight; PBS's Jazz From New Orleans; Joan Lunden's Everyday, four times as American Public Radio's featured vocalist on Riverwalk, Live From The Landing, and at the 2001 Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl.
Banu toured Europe with the legendary, fiery cornetist Wild Bill Davison, and has continuously performed abroad with the New Orleans Hot Jazz in Germany, England, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and with a contingent of her band in Australia. Other highlights include Dick Hyman's Jazz in July series New York City. Banu traveled with her pianist/musical director David Boeddinghaus for a week of performances in Vienna including a gala appearance at the Palais Auersperg, and toured Japan as the featured vocalist with The World's Greatest Jazz Band. Banu is also highlighted in the first chapter of Charles Kuralt's book Charles Kuralt's America.
Banu and her band have taken their music to an expanded audience by including performances with symphony orchestras. To date they have performed more than 60 concerts with orchestras, including symphony orchestras in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Phoenix, Tucson, San Diego, the Boston Pops, and New Orleans, and a three-night concert at the Hollywood Bowl with John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra.
With an extensive repertoire of songs, Banu's performances cover many high points of America's golden age of popular music. Not content to copy the past, Banu Gibson is creative within the boundaries of the genre, consistently inventing fresh and imaginative variations giving new life to timeless, unforgettable music. Michael Steinman of Jazz Lives says, "Banu Gibson is someone I admire greatly - not only for her expressive, swinging singing, but for her quick-witted stage presence and her deep affectionate knowledge of the songs and their composers."
It all started in New Orleans, Bill's grandmother was born near New Orleans in the town of Franklin. His Father, John, was a jazz pianist and banjoist on many of the steamboats of the great "Strickfus Line" playing in and around New Orleans as well as up and down the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.
Bill Allred was also born near the Mississippi River in the town of Rock Island. He played trombone at Rock Island High School, in the U.S.Navy Band and at St. Ambrose College.
"Terry Myers is undoubtedly one of the best all-around reed players in the country today." So said Buddy Morrow, former leader of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and one of the great musicians and band leaders who was there for the early stages of the "Big Band Era." "His versatility and expertise on the clarinet and saxophone are a treat to the ears. Buried in the various nooks and crannies of the country is unheard-of jazz talent equal to those who bear the most familiar names. Such is the case of saxophonist Terry Myers....The man has certainly got it going on."
An Iowa native, Terry was a member of the US Marine Corps Reserves for five years. After college, where he majored in music and education, Terry honed his musical talent and soon developed a successful career in Nashville and New York City. When Terry decided to move to Florida, he quickly became one of the most in-demand musicians in the state. He was a band leader at Disney World's Epcot Center for four years and, for a time, led the band at Rosie O'Grady's, which was part of the popular Church Street Station entertainment complex in downtown Orlando.
In 1990, he became one of the original members of Bill Allred's Classic Jazz Band, performing at jazz festivals all over the United States, Europe, and Asia. He has appeared at the North Sea Festival in Holland, the Birmingham, England, Festival, the Cork Festival in Ireland, the Bern Festival in Switzerland and many others. He, himself, has also toured the world as a guest artist on both clarinet and saxophone to rave reviews.
Dalton Ridenhour, a native of St. James, Missouri, began musical training at the age of eight. He quickly developed an interest in Ragtime and first performed at the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival at the age of nine. For the next eight years, he was a featured performer at many Ragtime festivals around the country. By the age of sixteen, exposure to traditional jazz and ragtime styles had led Dalton to the music of Charlie Parker. He attended the Interlochen Arts Camp, where he decided to make music a lifelong study.
Upon graduating high school in 2000, Dalton began furthering his education at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, where he studied privately with Joanne Brackeen, Danilo Perez, and David Azarian. At Berklee, Dalton was exposed to an abundance of new music, and he was given the opportunity to play on numerous recording sessions, concerts, and gigs that involved styles of music ranging from country and pop, to jazz. In 2003, he graduated from Berklee with a B.M. in Piano Performance.Following studies at Berklee, Dalton completed a Master's Degree in Jazz and Contemporary Media at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where he studied privately with Harold Danko. He was the recipient of a graduate assistantship award that gave him the responsibility of teaching undergraduate courses at the Eastman School and the University of Rochester. While at Eastman, Dalton was also awarded a Downbeat Student Music Award for Oustanding Soloist in the college division, and Eastman's Shirmer Prize award for jazz performance.
Currently, Dalton resides in New York City where he performs regularly with numerous jazz, indie rock and funk bands. He has played at various clubs throughout the city, including Rockwood Music Hall, Spike Hill, The Bitter End, Fat Cat and Ars Nova. In addition, he has toured the US with the indie rock group, Goodbye Picasso.
The late Mel Tormé said, "Since the advent of Benny Goodman, there have been too few clarinetists to fill the void that Goodman left. Ken Peplowski is most certainly one of those few. The man is magic." The New York Times pronounced a concert of Ken's "Goodman Straight Up,With A Twist Of Lightning." These quotes only hint at Ken Peplowski's virtuosity - not only is he an outstanding clarinetist and saxophone player, but he's also a charismatic entertainer who has been delighting audiences for over 30 years with his warmth,wit, and musicianship.
"When you grow up in Cleveland, Ohio, playing in a Polish polka band, you learn to think fast on your feet," says Peplowski, who played his first professional engagement when he was still in elementary school. "From my first time performing in public, I knew I wanted to play music for a living." Ken and his trumpet-playing brother, Ted, made many local radio and TV appearances and played for Polish dances and weddings virtually every weekend all through high school. "That's where I learned to improvise, 'fake' songs, learn about chord changes, etc. - it's exactly like learning to swim by being thrown into the water!"
By the time Ken was in his early teens, he was experimenting with jazz by playing in the school "stage" bands, and also by jamming with many of the local jazz musicians. "By the time I hit high school, I was teaching at the local music store, playing in our family band, and playing jazz gigs around town while still getting up early every day for school."
After a year of college, he joined the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra under the direction of Buddy Morrow. "Buddy heard me with my quartet at a Cleveland jazz festival along with Teddy Wilson's trio and the Dorsey band, and made an offer right then and there for me to not only play lead alto, but to have a feature spot on the clarinet with the rhythm section. It was a great 'road-school' - we learned the discipline that goes with playing one-nighters every day for 48 weeks out of the year, and Buddy was a great, very generous bandleader."
Peplowski met Sonny Stitt while on the road with the Dorsey band, and studied with him. "He was, and is, an inspiration to all of us who make a living 'on the road' - I've never heard anybody play with such amazing consistency as Sonny, through all kinds of settings." In 1980, Ken moved to New York City, and was soon playing in all kinds of settings, from Dixieland to avant-garde jazz. "Everything's a learning experience in jazz music - there's always an element of the unpredictable." In 1984, Benny Goodman came out of retirement and put together a new band, hiring Ken on tenor saxophone. "I think Benny was as great a figure to the clarinet as Louis Armstrong was to the trumpet. He was an extremely tough bandleader, but he was as demanding on himself as he was on us - if you showed him respect and were there to play his music for him, he respected you back, and I have yet to work with anyone else that could get such great results out of a band. Part of the key to unlocking the enigma of Benny was that he thought about music pretty much 24 hours a day, and sometimes that was to the exclusion of personal relationships. I liked him a lot, though, and he actually tried to get me signed to a record deal (with him as producer!) before I'd signed with anyone else."
Job Titles:
- Member of Trumpeter Marcus Belgrave 's Salute to Louis Armstrong
Paul Matthew Keller was born March 11, 1962. He began studying the string bass at age 12. By age 16 Paul had played his first jazz gigs in his hometown of Grand Rapids, MI. He continued his classical music education at the University of Michigan and moved to Ann Arbor permanently in 1986.
Today, Paul is one of the busiest bassists in the Detroit area. He has earned the nick-name "The House Bass Player For The State Of Michigan" as each year, he logs so many miles traveling across the state to perform at various music venues. At his home-base, the Firefly Club in Ann Arbor, MI, Paul leads the 15-piece Paul Keller Orchestra, which plays original, obscure and classic big band material from all periods of jazz history. Under Paul's expert leadership, the PKO (formerly known as the Bird of Paradise Orchestra) has garnered critical and popular acclaim, accepting Washtenaw Council for the Arts "Annie Awards" and Detroit Music Awards for excellence in performing arts. Their CDs are: Hallelujah Train, Project X, BINGO!, Paris Blues, A Tribute To Count Basie and A Tribute To Benny Goodman. These recordings spotlight Paul's fine compositions and arrangements. The Paul Keller Orchestra has enjoyed two tours of Europe. The PKO performs every Monday night from 8:00 PM till 11:00 PM at the Firefly Club in Ann Arbor. PKO big band Monday nights at the Firefly Club are a beloved Ann Arbor tradition!
Paul is co-leader of the popular Keller/Kocher Quartet. Together since 1987, they recorded Midnight Sun and Pipe and Slippers. This group features the vibraphone wizardry of Cary Kocher. The KKQ tips it's hat to George Shearing, Nat King Cole and Lionel Hampton.
The Paul Keller Ensemble is a three-horn sextet that features creative arrangements by Keller and his bandmates. The PKE's 2005 CD Steady Gig features their vocalist Susan Chastain singing 11 of her favorite standards with memorable arrangements by Keller. The PKE's 2003 CD Christmas Songs For Jazz Lovers contains 12 joyful performances of Holiday classics. The PKE's 1997 CD, Tall Corn, includes seven original Keller compositions and showcases the band's extraordinary improvising skills. Tall Corn celebrates through jazz the season of harvest and the beauty of autumn. The PKE performs every Wednesday night from 8:00 till midnight at the Firefly Club in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Keller's groups are well known and highly regarded throughout Michigan. His jazz groups have appeared at many regional music festivals, including the Detroit International Jazz Festival, the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, the Ann Arbor Jazz and Blues Festival, The Michigan Jazz Festival and the Flint Jazz Festival. They have presented successful concerts for the Thunder Bay Arts Council, the Crooked Tree Arts Center, the West Michigan Jazz Society, The Dennos Museum Center at NWMU, the Windsor/Detroit Jazz Club, Bay City's State Theatre, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Keller is a member of trumpeter Marcus Belgrave's Salute to Louis Armstrong. This group plays about 30 dates a year in concert venues across the US.
Keller tours with his long-time bandmates drummer Pete Siers and vibraphonist Cary Kocher as members of clarinetist Dave Bennett's Benny Goodman Tribute band. This band travels to all parts of the US and performs about 30 dates a year as a sextet as well as with various symphony orchestras. Keller wrote 13 original arrangements for full orchestra for Bennett's 75-minute Benny Goodman Symphony Pops Show. Together they have performed this spectacle with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Kingston Symphony, the Windsor Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the San Antonio Symphony.
Ricky Malichi was born in Riverside, California and grew up in El Paso, Texas. His love of music was evident very early. The journey of a lifetime commenced when he began private percussion studies at eight years of age.
Achieving multiple music honors in both High School and College, he studied Special Education at the University of Texas at El Paso while continuing his musical studies and activities in the Fine Arts Department. He fueled his thirst for musical knowledge outside the classroom as well to travel back East to study privately with legendary drum great Alan Dawson and others.
Ricky's early jazz performing began in college when he joined a Quartet alongside the Jazz great and mentor Trumpeter Gerald Hunter. During that period and after, he worked with many jazz greats, including Jack Sheldon, Joe Newman, Tommy Newsome, and Charlie Rouse. One of Ricky's highlights was when he subbed a night for the legendary Shelly Mann with Herb Ellis and Monty Budwig, after that performance he worked with them several times. His career has progressed since then throughout the United States and Europe, performing places such as the A - Trane International Jazz Club in Berlin, Germany and The Philharmonic Concert Hall in Lviv, Ukraine, and the International Jazz Festival in Sydney, Australia. In 2016 he toured with The Juarez/Chihuahua Symphony, performing pieces arranged for Jazz Quartet and Orchestra and many Jazz Festivals through out Mexico. Ricky has shared the stage or recorded with David "Fathead" Newman, Herbie Mann, Mose Allison, Chris Calloway (Cab's Daughter), Richie Cole, Anita O' Day, Ernie Watts, Bobby Shew, Bud Shank, Bobby Hutcherson, Regina Carter, Tia Fuller, Majic Fontuna (Trpt.) from Poland, Chuck Berry and the list goes on.
This year Ricky will be performing across the country and abroad. He has been invited back to play the 13th Annual Roswell Jazz Festival where in 2015 he was named the Guest of Honor (www.roswelljazzfestival.org). For years he has performed many prestigious Jazz Festivals and Parties with Internationally known musicians such as, Dan Barrett, Chuck Redd, Houston Person, Eddie Erickson, Frank Tate, Allen Vache, Scott Robinson, Randy Sandke, Rebecca Kilgore, Harry Allen, Nicki Parrott, Rossano Sportiello, Howard Alden, Howard, Elkins, Dr. Roger Dickerson, Ehud Asherie, Randy Reinhart and more.
There are two musical groups Ricky is always excited about. He helped established "New Impressions" and "EP Jazz Quartet." Recording and touring across the country, Mexico, and Europe has been a joy. Working with Erik Unsworth (Bass), Curt Warren (Guitar), Mack Goldsbury (Sax), Shaun Mahoney (Guitar), and the late great Vince Genova has been a wonderful journey. Keeping the Art form of Latin music alive he was co-founder of the award winning Latin Jazz Quartet (Yoboso) appearing on B.E.T. program "Jazz Central". Ricky has been a part of a rhythm section with a great Latin Jazz/ Salsa Ensemble "Spice of Life" under the direction of pianist and longtime friend Michael Francis.
With such richly musical experience and commitment to being a "team player", Ricky is equipped to consistently contribute outstanding, stylistically authentic performances to any ensemble, regardless of the genre.
Malichi's accomplishments are substantial in the field of music education. He takes his talents into public schools and universities as a clinician, and as an adjudicator in and out of the country. Ricky has had the privilege to perform at the Chautauqua Jazz Party but, was one of the clinicians at the (Traditional Jazz Workshop). In Poznan, Poland he was honored to teach at The I. J. Paderewski Academy of Music (International Jazz Workshop), La Universidad Automa De Aguascalientes in Mexico, and workshops and performances in Australia to name a few places abroad. He is the President for Southwest Arts Alliance, Inc. and is on staff (Percussion Instructor) with the El Paso Music Conservatory.