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 music. 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.
