Ken Peplowski Transcription
"China Boy"

I'll never forget the first time I heard this solo. I was sitting in front of an open window in my air-conditioner-less apartment on a hot afternoon in Los Angeles. I can't remember what led me to the original video, but my jaw dropped once I head Ken start to solo. I watched this solo at least a dozen times that afternoon, and I knew from that first solo chorus that I had no choice but to begin my maiden voyage into the dark world of clarinet transcriptions. I later performed this transcription on my Master of Music recital. A couples years after that Bob Mintzer and I dug into some of Ken's language in this solo during my private one of my lesson with him as a DMA student.

Then, in 2017, Steven Christ emailed me and asked if he could play this transcription on his Doctoral Candidacy recital at the University of South Carolina. Of course I said "yes" -- and he did a great job! There's a video of it on facebook that only his friends can view, but he is a snapshot of the promgram.