SINGER RON KAPLAN DELVES INTO THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK ON HIS LOUNGING AROUND ALBUM
August 1, 2006

Reviewer: Sandi Porter (Colorado)

For the past 50 years, a lot of people have loved the sound of a guy singing classic jazz standards - singers like Nat King Cole, Mel Torme, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr., Perry Como and, of course, Sinatra. There are a few modern-day singers carrying the torch forward and one of them is Ron Kaplan.

One of his best albums is LOUNGING AROUND with backing by a hot jazz combo -- guitar, bass, saxophone, drums, Hammond B3 organ and flugelhorn - the perfect backdrop for Ron's rich, warm vocals.

The recording, as the title implies, captures the mood and ambience of a small jazz group as if they were mesmerizing a martini-sipping crowd at an intimate lounge. Although recorded in the studio, the feeling of the album is as if they were performing in your living room for you and a few friends.

LOUNGING AROUND is full of tunes reflecting lost love and relationships that don't work, but with an undercurrent of redemption and hope always present, which is especially reflected in the closing piece, "What a Wonderful World." There are several ballads, blues numbers ("Blues in the Night" and "No One Ever Tells You"), a Brazilian melody by Antonio Carlos Jobim ("How Insensitive"), Cole Porter's uptempo "Just One of Those Things," the Lambert Hendricks & Ross self-pity wallow "Moanin'," and jazz perennials such as Duke Ellington's "Caravan."

Kaplan has superb command of his flexible baritone that lets the listener immediately know Ron believes in what he is singing about. If you want to set the mood of a band and singer on stage at a dark, quiet downtown lounge where the crowd gathers to sip a few drinks and hear some mellow and tasteful sounds, put on Ron Kaplan's LOUNGING AROUND.