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 that literally cocoons the listener within the cozy atmosphere of images it creates.

“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”

In addition to his career as a concert performer and recording artist, Kaplan also is the founder and executive director of 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 to the public at home and abroad as Ambassadors of Song.”

Dear Friends and Music Lovers! As some of you may know, I am a singer and a great fan of America’s Classical music...Jazz and the Great American Songbook, known and loved around the world.

Will you help me to endow a Foundation dedicated to continuing this legacy for future generations?

Our Mission: To preserve our cultural treasure known as the Great American Songbook by presenting this music to the public at home and abroad as Ambassadors of Song. Our purpose is to build an Organization to stand the test of time and continue this body of work for the next 100 years and beyond for public benefit.

“In a hundred to a hundred and fifty years from now, I believe that people will recognize the music of Gershwin and Ellington as the classical music of our time.” Tony Bennett

You can help me achieve this mission with your generous donation! We are looking for Donors who believe in this American Cultural Legacy and want their name or business associated with the American Songbook Preservation Society Foundation as we fulfill our mission.

Our Goal is $25 million, which will underwrite our Foundation in perpetuity. We are asking that concerned individuals help us make this happen with their support.

The American Songbook Preservation Society is a California Charitable Corporation, exempt from taxation under section 501 (C) 3 of the Internal Revenue Code. As such, your donations are fully tax-deductible as allowed by law Tax ID #56-241033

Please mail your donation to American Songbook Preservation Society 9051-A Soquel Drive, Aptos, California 95003 Email us at: info@greatamericansongbook.org or call us at (831) 687-0278.

Thank you for your support! Ronald Kaplan, Executive Director www.GreatAmericanSongbook.org

What is the Great American Songbook, also known as the “Popular Standards”?

It is largely composed of songs written between 1920 and 1960 from the Tin Pan Alley era through the Broadway stages and sets of Hollywood musicals. This era represented a unique period in the history of American popular music.

It was a period that saw the advent of a new type of songwriting,utterly original in some respects, but grounded in the simple structureof the Tin Pan Alley era that preceded it, and strongly influenced by the musical form known as Jazz (and by the precursors of Jazz: Ragtime and Blues).

The Great American Songbook is a distinct body of works, which collectively represent one of America’s true cultural treasures, and exemplify popular songwriting at its best, with vivid, literate lyrics set to haunting elusive harmonies and gorgeous melodies that have come to hold an exalted place in American culture and around the world.

Of the American Songbook Popular Standards, most were written for specific spots in shows, films, specialty acts, or revues.They were the product of professional songwriters and lyricists working at their craft. In the hands of a capable singer like Ella Fitzgerald or Frank Sinatra, the Standards serve as a sort of musical thesaurus of the spectrum of human emotions. Maybe that’s the reason these songs and this body of work continue to engender such a deep response to this day.

The purpose of the American Songbook Preservation Society is to keep these songs in the public consciousness, by performing them in venues around the country and around the world with the highest musical integrity and interpretation from a cast of highly capable Singers and Musicians as Ambassadors of American Song.

Future Projects: include archiving and organizing historical documentation about the composers and lyricists, the personalities, and their works, as an educational resource for future generations for use in the classroom and the university. In addition, we will record and develop new material for presentation to the public as representative of this body of work. Finally, we will work on a permanent display using modern technology to bring the Great American Songbook and it’s inhabitants to life.

Some of the Great American Songbook Composers and Lyricists

Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington • Billy Strayhorn • Ted Koehler • James Van Huesen • Jules Styne • Rodgers and Hammerstein • Lerner and Loewe • Meredith Wilson and Frank Loesser • Harold Arlen • Irving Berlin • Lew Brown • Johnny Burke •Irving Caeser • Sammy Cahn • Hoagy Carmichael • B.G. DeSylva • Howard Dietz • Walter Donaldson • Al Dubin • Vernon Duke • Dorothy Fields • George Gershwin • Ira Gershwin • Mack Gordon • Johnny Green •Oscar Hammerstein II• Otto Harbach • E.Y. Harburg • Johnny Mercer • Ray Noble • Mitchell Parish • Cole Porter •Ralph Rainger • Andy Razaf • Leo Robin • Richard Rodgers • Harry Ruby •Arthur Schwartz • Mac Gordon • Lorenz Hart • Ray Henderson • Jerome Kern • Burton Lane • Frank Loesser • Jimmy McHugh • Gus Kahn • Bert Kalmar • Thomas Wright “Fats” Waller • Harry Warren • Richard Whiting • Spenser Williams • Victor Young • Vincent Youmans • Irving Mills, and many others.

American Songbook Preservation Society... Singing the Great American Songbook