by Bob D’Aprile, Hartford Advocate, July 9, 1990
"Tom Chapin sits in his Queens apartment, surrounded by the music and art that shape his life. Instruments and recordings fill the room where this eclectic musician originates his ever-changing and ever-growing musical persona.
Since his formative days as a musician, Chapin’s artistic eyes have opened wider and wider with each passing day. And he fulfills his yearning for expansion of his sonic consciousness with a variety of projects in jazz, Latino and improvisational music.
""Even though I’m involved with a lot of projects, you try and give yourself to each one,"" says Chapin, 33, who was born in Manchester. ""I don’t know if I’ll ever arrive at a point where I’ll stop growing.""
Chapin, who will be playing in Hartford at both the Real Art Ways jazz fest and the 880 Club this summer, spent more than five years touring the world as musical director and lead saxophonist/flutist with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. He’s currently involved with five other projects, ranging from the pure improvisation of his part time group Machine Gun (Which has released two ""live"" albums) to his own Thomas Chapin Trio and the five-piece Motation, both of which perform combined melodies and improvised composition. He also plays along with the Latin influenced sounds of Alborada Latina, a chamber music ensemble for Latin American music, and Flamenco Latina, a vocal and acoustic group which blends flamenco and Latin rhythms.
His latest solo album, Spirits Rebellious, recorded in 1989 and released on Alacra Records, ventures into the area of World music with a compliment of both traditional and improvised material.
Chapin has been developing musically since graduating from college 10 years ago. During the past three or four years, he’s been highly visible, with concert appearances at notable New York venues such as the Blue Note, the Knitting Factory and the Gas Station, and abroad as a featured artist in Venezuela and Panama.
Though he has been playing and writing music since he was a young boy in Manchester, Chapin began by playing the piano in imitation of an older brother. He soon dropped that instrument for the flute, and while away at Andover Academy picked up the saxophone as well. ""One of the guys was a saxophone player, so he let me borrow his soprano,"" he says.
Chapin remembers it was easy to transfer what he knew from the flute to the saxophone, and he concentrated on both instruments in college. Initially enchanted by the sound of the instruments, he was later introduced to the exhilarating creativity of jazz.
Chapin said he didn’t even hear the music of the great saxophonist Charles Parker until he was in college. Back in high school, he was listening to a sampling of rock music of the ‘70s – mainly groups such as Traffic, King Crimson and Jethro Tull, all with very strong jazz influences.
""All of those bands had saxophone and flute players,"" he says. ""I didn’t care about any of the rest of it that didn’t have the saxophone or flute. That was my attraction. I think my first jazz records: Roland Kirk; Sun Ra, the older recordings; Charles Lloyd; the old Chick Corea group, the Brazilian thing that they were doing; and I suppose I’d have to include Herbie Mann in there, plus the infamous Kind O’Blue album.""
At Hartt College (with Jackie McLean), Chapin says he was given essential training in the modern jazz masters, ""which is extremely beautiful and powerful music.""
After graduating, Chapin met Mario Pavone, later recording his first album, The Bell of the Heart in ‘81 for Pavone’s label.
The two have continued their musical collaboration. Currently, the Thomas Chapin Trio includes Chapin on tenor sax, with Pavone on bass and either Pheeroan ak Laff or Steve Johns on drums. The Trio’s only recording to date is included on Live at the Knitting Factory, Vol. 3, released in May ’90 on A&M Records.
""We’re working towards a real strong trio album,"" Chapin says. ""I like the openness of this kind of trio."" The group recently performed at the Newport Jazz Festival in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and also taped a program for a Public Television series in Spain.
Chapin’s approach with the trio blends written and spontaneously composed music. The members use a sparse instrumental combination, exploring the tonal and timbral possibilities of saxophone, bass and drum combinations.
Improvisation, instead, is used to a maximum with Chapin’s other group, Machine Gun. The group, with two albums on the Manhattan-based MU record label, gets together once or twice a year for a live appearance. Chapin says he values that element of improvisation in his music.
""If I look at my life, it’s improvised in a way,"" he says. ""All my art is improvised so I try to find a less deliberate way of doing things. I do a certain amount of work. When I play, I want to play. I don’t want to play anything contrived.""
Reprinted with permission from the Hartford Advocate
%(small)All albums previously released on Knitting Factory Records are now the sole property of and available through Akasha, Inc.%"