Ken Peplowski obituary

Jazz musician whose virtuosic abilities with the clarinet and tenor saxophone straddled traditional and modern jazz

The principal claim to jazz fame of Ken Peplowski, who has died suddenly aged 66, came from his mastery of the clarinet, an instrument that seemed to struggle for a role once bebop became the lingua franca of the genre. Clarinettists who could cope with both the harmonic and technical demands of this more advanced genre were rare, as were opportunities, so much so that Peplowski seemed destined to follow a more traditonal route in Dixieland jazz, where good clarinet players were still in demand.

Having arrived in New York as a 21-year-old from Cleveland, Ohio, and with a considerable reputation, he threw off these restrictions and flourished. His solo career blossomed, nationally and internationally, so much so that the BBC’s Russell Davies described him as “arguably the greatest living jazz clarinettist”, the evidence captured on over 70 “name” albums, and many more on which Peplowski appeared as a sideman.

He was born in Garfield Heights, a suburb of Cleveland with a strong Polish affiliation, where his father, Norbert, was a police officer and an amateur accordion player, and his mother, Estelle, was a homemaker. Ken’s older brother Ted played the trumpet and their father created a family polka band called the Harmony Kings, with Ken assigned to the clarinet. “It wasn’t my choice. I was just given the instrument but I liked it straight away,” he said.

Hired around Cleveland to play for Polish weddings and the like, the band gave 10-year-old Ken his start as a professional musician. “I just fell in love with music and playing for people and entertaining,” he told the US writer Chip Deffaa.

Increasingly interested in jazz and inspired by Benny Goodman’s recordings, he made sure to hear all the visiting big bands that came to Cleveland, as well as Goodman himself, the great man usually fronting a small group. Having acquired a tenor saxophone and finding that much of his clarinet technique could transfer to the larger instrument, Peplowski immersed himself in the entire lexicon of jazz, from ancient to modern, practised the classical repertoire and made sure later to study with the bebop saxophonist Sonny Stitt.

He formed a quartet while studying at Cleveland State College, and was offered the chance to appear at the city’s jazz festival. This pitched the quartet opposite the trio led by the ex-Goodman pianist Teddy Wilson, and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, a legacy swing band directed by the trombonist Buddy Morrow. Peplowski clearly impressed Morrow, who called him to join the Dorsey band, and he stayed on the road between 1978 and 1980 playing lead alto saxophone.

Morrow gave him room to play clarinet features and later talked up Peplowski’s skills to his New York contacts. Once there, Peplowski hoovered up gigs, often subbing at Eddie Condon’s Dixieland club or sitting in with rehearsal big bands, and gained recognition as a neo-mainstreamer rather than a strict traditionalist. This aligned him with other like-minded players such as the cornettist Warren Vaché, the tenor saxophonist Scott Hamilton and a fellow clarinettist, Kenny Davern, with all of whom he went on to forge a strong connection on record and on tour or, increasingly, in weekend jazz-party line-ups.

In 1984, the saxophonist Loren Schoenberg recruited Peplowski for his all-star big band, which was taken over by Goodman a year later for the King of Swing’s final hurrah. Goodman, who was always encouraging to Peplowski, evidently concurred with Schoenberg’s assessment of his clarinet playing.

“He had that rare combination of virtuosity and velocity and outright swing that made him unique,” Schoenberg said, while also praising his Zoot Sims-style saxophone playing and his propensity for bandstand humour, calling Peplowski a natural showman. “I take the music very seriously, but I have fun doing it,” Peplowski explained.

The 1980s and 90s were a period of extraordinary success for Peplowski. His contract with Concord Records yielded more than 40 albums and there were tours to Japan with Mel Tormé (1988 and 1992) and with the pianist Hank Jones (1992), and an ongoing association with the eccentric singer-songwriter Leon Redbone.

Recordings burgeoned, including an album with Peggy Lee, and a series of friendly encounters with British players with whom he often toured, including the pianist Brian Lemon (1996) and two albums (in 2009 and 2010) with the saxophonist Alan Barnes. He was regularly in the UK for Swinging Jazz Party in Blackpool and festival engagements, including a memorable clarinet pairing with Davern at the Brecon festival, and there was also an acclaimed collaboration with the clarinettist Julian Marc Stringle, which led to two albums (2015 and 2016).

All seemed well until he suffered a severe case of Covid in 2020 and was diagnosed in 2021 with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, whose debilitating effects sidelined him for three years. He had only recently begun to play again in public, the cancer in remission; his comeback album, Live at Mezzrow, was recorded at the New York club in 2023 and released the following year, followed by Unheard Bird, based on the celebrated recording Charlie Parker With Strings.

At the time of his death, Peplowski had been playing on board a week-long jazz cruise in the Gulf of Mexico, and had just completed a set on its final day with two other world-renowned jazz clarinettists, Anat Cohen and Paquito D’Rivera, to considerable acclaim and at full tilt.

Three marriages ended in divorce. Peplowski is survived by his companion, Pam Stark, a son, Marty, and daughter, Juliana, and his brother, Ted.

• Kenneth Joseph Peplowski, jazz musician, born 23 May 1959; died 2 February 2026