Rhode Island jazzman launches CD

Accomplished local jazz musician Mitch Kaplan is releasing a collaborative album at a launch party on Jan. 15. The album, titled “Mitch’s Brew,” is an exciting step for Kaplan, who has worked in music education all his life.

“I’ve always wanted to make a CD with some family and [friends], but it became more than that. It was with my family and my friends that I’ve had for, like, 30 years,” Kaplan said. “It became something fantastic that just turned my whole life around, so it’s been exciting.”

Among those working with Kaplan on the album are several established jazz musicians, including Dino Gavoni, head instructor for woodwinds at Berklee College of Music, in Boston, and Mark Early, main saxophonist in the blues band “Roomful of Blues.”

“You just don’t get better [than] these guys. They’re powerhouses behind these instruments,” says Kaplan, who lives in Providence.

Kaplan’s jazz cred is impressive. Since obtaining a master’s degree in music education from the University of Rhode Island, he has given lessons on a range of instruments, served as an adjudicator for the prestigious All-State jazz ensemble, and on the boards of the Music Educators National Conference and the National Association of Jazz Educators, and played in numerous festivals, including the Newport Jazz Festival. He plays the sax, flute and clarinet.

In addition, he has provided rehabilitation through music to patients with memory problems. He still remembers his first day working in rehabilitation: his boss asked a client to play the piano for him, but the client didn’t remember that he played the piano.

After the client tried to explain that he didn’t play piano, “[the boss] says, ‘touch this key right here.’ And he did. Before you know it, he’s playing Beethoven and Schubert and just … playing these amazing pieces. She said he was a Brown music professor, but he totally didn’t remember that he played the piano.”

Kaplan said there is a neurological connection between playing music and reigniting memory. “It’s an incredible experience,” he said.

Kaplan said creating “Mitch’s Brew” has given him opportunities to work at the college level.

“It’s the only thing on my bucket list left to do,” he laughs.

Kaplan will be performing with his collaborators at the launch party, at the Court House Center for the Arts, in South Kingstown, at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 15. Tickets are $15. “Mitch’s Brew” can be purchased on Amazon and CD Baby, and will be on sale at the party for a one-day price of $5. 

ARIEL BROTHMAN is a freelance writer who lives in Wrentham, Mass.