Kenneth Joseph Peplowski was born on 23 May 1959 in Cleveland, Ohio, and developed early proficiency on clarinet and tenor saxophone while studying in local jazz ensembles. His professional breakthrough came with the 1988 Concord release Double Exposure, which established him as a swing specialist and led to collaborations with Howard Alden and Harry “Sweets” Edison. Over the next decades he issued a steady stream of albums-Grenadilla (1998), Last Swing of the Century (1999), Easy to Remember (2004), The Clarinet Maestros (2015), Sunrise: The Kenneth Joseph Peplowski Big Band (2018), Unheard Bird (2024), and the live At Mezzrow (2024)-while touring with the Oregon Festival of American Music and performing on the Celebrity Summit cruise. Ken Peplowski received the 2014 Satchmo Award, was named Best Jazz Record of the Year by the German Critics’ Prize, and died unexpectedly on 2 February 2026 at age 66.
