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RON KAPLAN
Lounging Around

(C) 1999 Kapland Records
11 tks/ 57 mins

(R. Kaplan - voc; Larry Scala - g; Giuseppe Merolla - dr; Perry Thoorsell - b; Donny McCaslin ts; Steve Czarnecki - Hammond B3 organ; Dmitri Matheny - flg)

To be perfectly honest, having become familiar with Ron Kaplan's background, I was somewhat apprehensive about listening to his second album. My thinking, understandably, was that here's the owner of a successful insurance agency spending his free time indulging his vanity by recording his vocal exercises under his own label.

My apprehension began to dissipate during the very first track and had completely disappeared somewhere during the third or fourth number. Kaplan's "vocal exercises" were wholly professional and quite stylish jazz singing.

Although they fit entirely within the realm of traditional jazz, the album's selections are quite diverse. There are blues numbers ("Blues in the Night" and "No One Ever Tells You"), a Brazilian melody by Jobirn called "How Insensitive," several ballads, and jazz perennials such as "Caravan." Nor is Kaplan afraid to perform songs which are strongly associated with certain performers. "Papa, how is it that Armstrong is singing in a different way?" shouted my nine-year-old son from the next room during the opening strains of "What a Wonderful World." Truly, in a different way. While not having a particularly strong voice, Ron has superb command of a warm and flexible baritone that literally cocoons the listener within the cozy atmosphere of images it creates. The charts are arranged so that in almost every song his voice is backed up by a brief, yet expressive, solo, either by guitar, organ, or tenor sax.

When I removed the CD from the player, I re-read the biographical notes, but this time more attentively and in a completely different frame of mind. Kaplan, who holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Santa Cruz, is a native Californian and currently resides in the city of Santa Cruz. He grew up in a family that loved and understood jazz and, from early childhood, demonstrated a pronounced affinity towards both jazz and the visual arts. Despite the heavy demands placed on his time by his business commitments during the past 15 years, he is still passionate about jazz, sings with the group "Warmth," and is a familiar performer to concert-goers in San Francisco and Monterey.

His first jazz album received favorable reviews in publications such as "Jazz Times Magazine."

Kaplan places "In Jazz We Trust" - a play on the motto which appears on American currency - alongside the logo of his recording company. Alright then, in his sincerity we trust.

(The listener might be interested to note that Kaplan is accompanied on the sax by Donny McCaslin, who is not completely unknown to Russian audiences. - Ed.)

Leonid Auskern
02000 jazz-quad

English translation by Mike Gillen