Jazz Improv Magazine 12/04

Jazz Ambassadors -Kapland Records, PO Box 742, Aptos, CA 95001; Email: kaplandisc@aol.com; Web Page: www.ronkaplan.com. It Don't Mean A Thing; Body and Soul; September Song; Stolen Moments/The Blues And The Abstract Truth; Stella By Starlight; 'Round Midnight; I Ain't Got Nothin' But The Blues; Green Dolphin Street; Don't Get Around Much Anymore/I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart.

PERSONNEL: Ron Kaplan, vocals; Eddie Mendenhall, Piano; Dan Robbins, bass; Steve Robertson, drums..

By Gregory J. Robb

What good is music if it ain't possessing something sweet?"

Ron Kaplan cherishes the bygone domain when "sweet" meant hot;
hot meant swing; swing meant fun. With Jazz Ambassadors, it still does as Kaplan shares his love of the genre in a vocal quartet format. The music has all the do-wop that makes swing brim with optimism.

The music carries the integrity of its practitioners. Eddie Mendenhall, Dan Robbins and Steve Robertson provide excellent support for their singer while improving in the turn of swing structure. "It Don't Mean A Thing" starts us off with the penultimate facsimile: verse, chorus, vocal improv, solos for each instrumentalist - all part of the imperative that defines this music.

Anderson and Weill's "September Song" exudes the nostalgia for the metaphorical seasons of life. Ron Kaplan's quartet plays in reverence to the social values that originally inspired this music. Kaplan vocalizes about girls turning him down while Eddie Mendenhall sizzles over the keys in a combustible chord progression. Clearly, yesteryear is the impetus for the listener's immersion.

Ron Kaplan's vocal style blends jazz, blues and a minor degree of old-time rap. He skillfully employs his vocal cords for instrumental improvisation, but he is equally happy to spice his singing with great respect for the traditions that thrived decades ago. In this respect, Jazz Ambassadors can be considered strictly as a time capsule.

If this album proves one truth, it is the universal wish for this group to perpetuate swing jazz tradition. It can be blues; it can be abstract truth. Kaplan and Co. simply want the sounds to live on.

To that end, one questions if the group would have been wise to record this chronicle in a club. The band plays as if its comfort level has been transferred to the cleaner, less spontaneous containment of the recording studio. Kaplan's vocal style so suits live venue and, sometimes, the live performance overwhelms aural imperfections with spontaneity. On Jazz Ambassadors, Kaplan and the group prove their abilities to revel in extended solo interplay - also a cherished feature of live jazz. It might have led to a longer, more immersed recording. Swing fans will cheer this effort, but It might have impacted listeners to hear those cheers on the record.

Well-played swing eases the mind. Its conventions and structures provide a sense of safety that is often shed in other, less rule-governed, areas of jazz. Ron Kaplan's Jazz Ambassadors secures its rightful place on the shelf when you want to relax and remember simpler times. "Let our love be safe and sound."