The Bossa Nova Wave


Featuring guitar master Diego Figueiredo and clarinetist Ken Peplowski

Diego Figueiredo (pronounced fig-a-reed-o) is considered one of the most talented guitar players in the world today. He is the winner of several important competitions including the Montreux Jazz Competition and the VISA Prize. Diego has released over nineteen albums to date, three DVD’s, and several instructional books. His music is a fusion between Jazz, Bossa Nova and Classical. Diego’s unique interpretations, along with his phenomenal technique and emotion, has created an explosion of adoring fans and concert goers.  Diego has performed in over forty countries around the world.

Diego Figueiredo was born in Franca, Brazil in 1980. At the age of four he used to strike poses carrying his small guitar. At six, he received a mandolin, which was kept in a very special place in his house. Diego played many instruments before choosing the electric guitar when he was twelve. By the age of fifteen, he was playing theaters and nightclubs throughout Brazil, playing both solo and with many renowned Brazilian musicians.

For a number of years he played in several different groups including Banda Gênese and Squema Seis from Brasília.  He has studied classical guitar, Brazilian popular music and jazz in several different conservatories including Franca, Ribeirão Preto, Tatuí, and Berklee College of Music.

Most recently he accompanies the singer and songwriter Belchior in tours around Brazil and abroad, as well as with the French phenom Cyrille Aimée.  He has played and shared the stage with Hermeto Pascoal, Larry Coryell, Geraldo Azevedo, Sebastião Tapajós, Demônios da Garoa, Vanusa, Renato Borghetti, Osvaldo Montenegro, Jair Rodrigues, Elomar, Toquinho, Tunai, Paulinho da Viola, Nando Cordel, Moraes Moreira, Fafá de Belém, Amelinha, Los Hermanos, Zeca Baleiro, Miyazawa and others.

Besides being a guitar player, Diego is a producer, arranger, orchestrator, multi-instrumentalist and has recently produced and arranged the double album “As várias caras de Drummond” for which Belchior wrote the music for Drummond´s poems, and which was released in CARAS magazine.

With a variety of works already released, Diego is doing shows on the most important stages around the world enchanting and charming the public wherever he goes with his unique touch.

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“Ken Peplowski is arguably the greatest living jazz clarinetist” Russell Davies, BBC2 August 2013

“When you grow up in Cleveland, Ohio, playing in a Polish polka band, you learn to think fast on your feet”, says Ken Peplowski, who played his first pro 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, Ken 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 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.

Peplowski  signed with Concord Records, under the tutelage of Carl Jefferson, the founder and president, and recorded close to 20 albums as a leader, including “The Natural Touch” in 1992 which won Best Jazz Record of the Year by the Prises Deutschen Schallplatten Kritiken, and “The Other Portrait”, recorded in Sophia Bulgaria with the symphony orchestra and highlighting Ken’s classical side. He also recorded two records on the Nagel Heyer label,”Lost In The Stars” and “Easy To Remember”, the latter of which features Bobby Short on his last recording. “I loved Bobby Short’s approach to the American songbook, and we’d talked about doing a record together for a while – I’m glad we got this one ‘in the can.’

“What’s in the future? “Who knows? I love all kinds of music, andI’d like to find more oppurtunities to bridge the gaps between different musical styles – I consider myself an interpreter of material – if something interests me, I try to put my own spin on it, without thinking or worrying about playing in any particular style. Basically, I like a challenge, I’m a sucker for a good melody, and I love playing for audiences, big or small.”

And he has certainly achieved these goals, be it in small clubs, the Hollywood Bowl (where he played a sold-out concert), headlining in Las Vegas, the Newport Jazz Festival, pops concerts, European festivals and clubs, or at home in NYC, doing everything from playing on the soundtracks to Woody Allen movies, guest soloing on records (his more interesting recent ones were Marianne Faithfull and Cuban vocalist Isaac Delgado) to taking on the role of music director for interactive French and Italian cookbooks (“Menus And Music”)

Diego Figueiredo Trio Live in Concert in São Paulo Brazil
Diego Figueiredo Duo (hold onto your seat)

Diego solo performing "Stella by Starlight"

Diego Figueiredo wins the Festa Nacional da Música Award in Brazil

Diego solo performing "India"

Diego solo performing "Potpourri do Diego"

Diego solo pereforming "Valsa"

Diego solo performing Asa Branca

Diego Duo performing "Take Five"

Diego Trio performing Aquarela do Brasil