Album Review: Something Here Inside from Benji Kaplan

Album:  Something Here Inside
Artist:  Benji Kaplan
Label: Wise Cat Records
Website:  https://www.benjikaplan.com/home

A blending of soulful flamenco, ambient jazz, balmy meditations, and breezy torchlight musings, guitarist Benji Kaplan performs solo on his latest release Something Here Inside.  Inspired to be a painter by his mother, Kaplan applied his skills using the hues of the rainbow spectrum to the sounds of the music spectrum.  The pastoral textures, twirling patterns, and tranquil moods he projects convey a message to  listeners that he shares without inhibition.

Using a swing jazz palette fringed in swathes of Latin accents on "Anything Goes," Kaplan brings a freshness to Cole Porter's track, viewing the classic melody with a contemporary set of eyes.  The gliding strokes of his fingers have a lulling effect on listeners along "Easy To Love" and  rather uniquely, he pervades a soothing, Hawaiian-like caress along "But Not For Me."  The bluesy folkloric textures of Hawaiian, Brazilian, gypsy, and flamenco guitar come together on Kaplan's recording.  His phrasing is tailored with impromptu soars along "So In Love" while the glinting ripples of "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" accentuate the dulcet serenade.

Kaplan's penchant to be expressive and caressing is communicated in his performance.  Straddling the line between structured patterns and impromptu phrasing, Kaplan's playing is warm on the senses and seamless to the ears.  The pastoral scores, twirling patterns, and tranquil moods in his music transcend the barriers of culture and language, aligning the recording with world music stature.

Musicians:
Benji Kaplan - acoustic guitar