Clarinet and saxophone virtuoso Ken Peplowksi was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1959. He joined the Tommy Dorsey Band under the direction of Buddy Morrow in 1978, as lead alto saxophonist and clarinet soloist. After a move to New York in 1980, Ken was hired by Benny Goodman on tenor in 1984.

In 1988, Concord Records tapped Ken to record his first solo album entitled Double Exposure. The title calls attention to his proficiency on both a clarinet and tenor saxophone. Fifteen albums followed, including The Natural Touch in 1992, for which he won Best Jazz Record of the Year at the Prises Der Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik, the German equivalent of the Grammy.

The noted New York Times music critic John S. Wilson called him "a clarinetist with a Benny Goodman tone and a Buddy DeFranco style."