Biography
Traditional pop singer Ron Kaplan entered the world in Hollywood, California, as the child of a professional trumpeter who performed regularly with jazz ensembles. During his formative years the vocalists of the 1950s—among them Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald—shaped his musical outlook. Drums served as his initial instrument, though he subsequently took up piano and guitar. Following enrollment in an acting workshop he completed coursework at Valley College in Los Angeles and received an associate in arts degree in 1976. Upon finishing college he shifted his focus to songwriting and live performance. He next pursued higher education at the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he earned a B.A. in psychology. After devoting ten years to attentive listening of instrumental jazz, Kaplan began interpreting Great American Songbook standards in 1995. Throughout this period he sustained a separate livelihood as an agent with the Allstate Insurance Company while appearing alongside numerous jazz musicians across Southern California as well as in Las Vegas, London, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. His first recording, the 1997 album High Standards, appeared on his own Kapland Records imprint. Two years later he captured Lounging Around, which reached the public in an initial edition in 2000 before undergoing revision and re-release on July 15, 2006. Dedicated, issued May 1, 2003, constituted his third album; Jazz Ambassadors followed on June 15, 2004, and Saloon—featuring only pianist Weber Iago—arrived August 31, 2005. New York, whose repertoire consisted of songs written about the city, came out in 2007. Beyond performing and recording, Kaplan established the nonprofit American Songbook Preservation Society and serves as its executive director.
Albums
