Ken Peplowski

Ken Peplowski is one of those musicians I genuinely admire for staying loyal to swing when so much of jazz chased the next big thing. A clarinetist and tenor saxophonist out of Cleveland, he spent more than a decade recording for Concord, building a catalog that prizes warmth and craft over flash. What strikes me is how unfashionable his devotion to the old idiom was, and how little that seemed to bother him. Learning he passed in early 2026 hit me as the close of a quietly important chapter. I respect performers who keep a tradition alive simply because they love it, and he clearly did.

Name (English)

Ken Peplowski

Name (Japanese)

ケン・ペプロウスキー

Reading

けん・ぺぷろうすきー

Born

May 23, 1959 (age 67)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Gemini / Boar

Origin

Cleveland, Ohio, United States

Occupation

clarinetist / jazz musician / saxophonist / musician

Motto

Private

• Official sitehttps://www.kenpeplowski.com/
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B1%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9A%E3%83%97%E3%83%AD%E3%82%A6%E3%82%B9%E3%82%AD%E3%83%BC

Tags

• Ohio
• clarinetist
• jazz musician
• saxophonist

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.