RonKaplan.com
Title
Kapland Records Presents Jazz Singer Ron Kaplan
Description
Los Angeles native Ron Kaplan's musical style is reminiscent of the great jazz vocalists of the 1950's. Critics note his sophisticated phrasing, tone and diction and his ability to get to the heart of the song with his own mark of musicianship.
Additional Information
Artist Information
Instrumentation Ron Kaplan, a singers singer works well with others! His 6 recordings on Indie Label Kapland Records feature a variety of highly competent musicians in differing musical landscapes, while maintaining a consistant thread of the repertoire of the Great American Songbook and Jazz Standards. Ron Kaplan performs in various combo configurations from a duo to a quintet setting.
Biography RON KAPLAN Singer Ron Kaplan keeps the flame burning brightly to illuminate jazz standards, the Great American Songbook and the classic sound of singers of the Fifties. The epitome of a "saloon singer," Kaplan has a rich, warm voice.
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'. The Velvet Crooner and the elegant power of his seemingly casual phrasing is in fact, ultra-tight and perfectly seductive_ Jean Szlamowicz, Jazz Hot.
Ron Kaplan's CD’s are available at online sites such as cdbaby.com, towerrecords.com and Kaplan's own Kapland Records, ronkaplan.com, celebrating it's 10th anniversary as well as digital download locations including iTunes.com, rhapsody.com.
In addition to his career as a concert performer and recording artist, Kaplan also is the founder and executive director of The American Songbook Preservation Society, a non-profit organization whose mission statement is: "To preserve our cultural treasure known as the Great American Songbook by performing this music at home and abroad as Ambassadors of Song." For more information, go to greatamericansongbook.org. "The Great American Songbook is full of what is known as popular standards -- great songs written generally between 1920 and 1960, most often for Broadway shows or Hollywood musical films, but sometimes simply in the Tin Pan Alley tradition of pianists and lyricists working together to create quality material for the big bands or the pop singers of the day."
From his toddler-days onward, Kaplan's parents indoctrinated him with the great singers of 1950s. His earliest influences were Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Mel Torme, Dean Martin, Sarah Vaughn, Sammy Davis Jr., and Louis Armstrong among others. Although Kaplan went through his folk, rock and instrumental-jazz stages, he returned about a decade ago to his first love, those songbook standards, and began his recording career with a style reminiscent of those great jazz vocalists he first heard as a child. "When you are working within any musical genre, the most difficult thing is to find your own voice," explains Kaplan. "I have had to purposely avoid Sinatra's phrasing, for example, to force myself to develop my own style. The other key is that I choose material that moves me, that means something special to me, that I can relate to. That way I can get to the heart of the song and truly inhabit it."
In the past ten years Kaplan has performed in Las Vegas, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington DC. He has made television appearances on "Musician's Weekly" and "BETonJazz." He has played with musicians such as pianists Shelly Berg, Smith Dobson, Geoff Eales, Tom Garvin, Mark Levine and Jessica Williams; guitarist Larry Scala; bassists Art Davis, Stan Poplin and Tom Warrington; horn-players Paul Contos, Ted Curson, Kenny Stahl, Dmitri Matheny and Donny McCaslin Jr.; and drummers Dan Brubeck, Donald Dean, Tootie Heath, Peppe Merolla and Matt Wilson. Critics have praised Kaplan's sophisticated phrasing, tone and diction.
Kaplan was born in Hollywood and was immediately surrounded by music. His father played trumpet in jazz-bands in the Fifties and his mother had the radio or record player on constantly. Ron played drums and percussion at school. In junior and senior high schools he sang in musical stage productions, did standup comedy at talent shows and his uncle's bar, and competed in speech tournaments ("sometimes it was extemporaneous speaking which is sort of like jazz soloing"). Ron studied in an actor's workshop in Hollywood, and then went to Los Angeles' Valley College where he got his Associate in Arts degree. He taught himself to play guitar and piano, and started writing songs influenced by Bob Dylan, The Beatles and Cat Stevens. Ron also performed original material professionally accompanied by a viola player.
In addition, Kaplan learned to play congas at Venice Beach and later played in drum circles every Sunday for a number of years in Griffith Park. Kaplan moved north to attend the University of California at Santa Cruz where he majored in psychology and received his Bachelor of Arts degree.
From 1985 to 1995, Kaplan decided to immerse himself in instrumental jazz and began listening to classic material from 1950 to 1964. Miles Davis John Coltrane, Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley, Wayne Shorter and countless others. "One of my psychology classes delved into life's regrets, ambitions and possibilities. It struck me that what I wanted to do most in life was to sing. So when I was 41-years-old I started singing professionally again." Kaplan was mentored by pianist Smith Dobson and performed every Tuesday night for several years with him. Kaplan also has frequently sung for the past 10 years with Don McCaslin, Sr. and his two groups, Warmth and The Jazz Geezers.
As to the future, Kaplan says, "I am deeply committed to performing these great standards and doing what I can to keep this music alive and viable for new generations of listeners."
PUBLICITY AGENCY: THE CREATIVE SERVICE COMPANY (CreatServ9@aol.com) 4360 Emerald Dr., Colorado Springs, CO 80918 * 719-548-9872 * fax 719-599-9607
Kapland Records...in jazz we trust (
)
pobox 742 Aptos, Ca. 95001
831-687-0278 phone 831- 685-2609 fax 831-295-3672 cell
www.ronkaplan.com
www.myspace.com/kaplandrecords
American Songbook Preservation Society…singing the Great American Songbook
(
) www.greatamericansongbook.org
9051-A Soquel Drive Aptos, Ca. 95003 * 831 687-0278 * fax 831-685-2609
Related Domains
- American Performers
- American Singers
- American Songbook
- American Vocalists
- Arts
- Bands And Artists
- Bebop Jazz
- Billy Strayhorn
- Blues Singers
- Caberet Singers
- California Artists
- Capland Records
- Celebrity Websites
- Cole Porter
- Cool Jazz
- Duke Ellington
- Entertainers
- Frank Sinatra
- George Gershwin
- Harold Arlen
- High Standards
- Jazz
- Jazz Festivals
- Jazz Music
- Jazz Musicians
- Jazz Singers
- Jazz Standards
- Johnny Mercer
- Kapland Records
- Lounge Singers
- Love Songs
- Modern Jazz
- Modern Singers
- Monterey Bay Artists
- Music
- Music Festivals
- Performing Arts
- Pop Singers
- Popular Music
- Popular Song
- Record Labels
- Recording Artists
- Ron Capland
- Ron Caplin
- Ron Kaplan
- Ron Kapland
- Ron Kaplin
- Saloon Singers
- Santa Cruz Artists
- Singer Websites
- Singers
- Smooth Jazz
- Smooth Jazz Singers
- Straightahead Jazz
- Swing Mucic
- Torch Singers
- Torch Songs
- Vocal
- Vocalists
- West Coast Artists
- Bands and Artists