Feb 3, 2026 12:10 AM
In Memoriam: Ken Peplowski, 1959–2026
Ken Peplowski, a clarinetist and tenor saxophonist who straddled the worlds of traditional and modern jazz, died Feb. 2…
This year’s honorees.
(Photo: Courtesy NEA Jazz Masters)The National Endowment for the Arts 2022 NEA Jazz Masters will be honored March 31 in collaboration with SFJAZZ at the SFJAZZ Center’s Robert N. Miner Auditorium. The concert, which is free and open to the public, will be available also through a live webcast and radio broadcast. In addition, the honorees will participate in a Meet the NEA Jazz Masters virtual conversation, available on demand the week before the concert.
This year’s honorees — Stanley Clarke, Billy Hart, Donald Harrison Jr. and Cassandra Wilson — will be featured in the 40th anniversary celebration of the awards, considered one of the highest honors in jazz.
Dianne Reeves, a 2018 NEA Jazz Master, will serve as host for the concert in tribute to this year’s inductees. Clarke, Hart and Harrison are all scheduled to play. Additional performers will include Jeremiah Collier, Joe Dyson, Ethan Iverson, Dan Kaufman, Salar Nader, Noriatsu Naraoka, Ruslan Sirota, Ben Street and Mark Turner, as well as the SFJAZZ Collective, which includes Matt Brewer, Etienne Charles, Martin Luther McCoy, Gretchen Parlato, Chris Potter, David Sánchez, Kendrick Scott, Edward Simon and Warren Wolf. Skylar Tang, a 16-year-old trumpeter and a member of the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars, is also scheduled to perform.
In-person tickets are available through sfjazz.org. The live webcast will be aired at arts.gov, sfjazz.org and through a variety of social media pages, including DownBeat’s Facebook page, beginning at at 7:30 p.m. Pacific/10:30 p.m. Eastern.
Radio broadcasts will be available through KCSM 91.1 FM (San Mateo, California), KKJZ (Los Angeles), SiriusXM Channel 67, Real Jazz, WBGO 88.3 FM (Newark, New Jersey), WDCB 90.9 FM (Chicago), WPFW 89.3 FM (Washington, D.C.) and WZUM 88.1 FM (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). DB
Peplowski first came to prominence in legacy swing bands, including the final iteration of the Benny Goodman Orchestra, before beginning a solo career in the late 1980s.
Feb 3, 2026 12:10 AM
Ken Peplowski, a clarinetist and tenor saxophonist who straddled the worlds of traditional and modern jazz, died Feb. 2…
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