Santa Cruz Metro

Disc and Dat

Lounging Around

Singer Ron Kaplan has a facile voice with a warm, breezy tone like an autumn Santa Ana blowing to sea from Southern California deserts--a sound well suited to the jazz standards ("Cry Me a River," "Just One of Those Things," "Caravan," "Moanin'," etc.) that comprise the core of his repertoire. Though he rarely improvises, Kaplan makes very tasteful interpretative choices on melodic lines, adding a note of surprise here, a subtle commentary of articulation there. Also greatly to his credit, Kaplan works with the finest players around--Hammond B-3 player Steve Czarnecki and flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny--and those not so around but who still have local ties, like Aptos High grad and now New York scene saxman Donny McCaslin. Lounging Around is all-in-all a sure-footed second step from one of the area's top jazz singers.

--Rob Pratt