RON KAPLAN
Lounging Around Redux 2006 (Kapland)
The Velvet Crooner

The velvet crooner has reedited a good album and reconfirmed what we thought: it's soft but not boring, and the elegant power of his seemingly casual phrasing is in fact, ultra-tight. In a varied orchestral setting (compared to his duo with pianist Weber Iago, Saloon), he lets the excellent soloists speak, notably Donny McCaslin. The repertoire would be banal if not for the arrangements and interpretation; one often forgets that the quality of interpretation is the key to the standards. Easygoing swing and a sensibility without artifice are the hallmarks of what Kaplan holds dear with a special fervor. Ron Kaplan is an original personality in the world of jazz vocalists and he has managed to put his name into that previously closed inner circle. He has breathed new life into it by the sheer force of his style, for as you know, 'the style is the man himself'. A warm and sincere album, perfectly seductive.

October 2006
Jean Szlamowicz, Jazz Hot
Translation by Cheri Kaplan