Thomas Chapin Night Bird Songby David Dupont – Cadence Magazine, December 1999

This 1992 recording of the Thomas Chapin Trio serves as a memorial to the leader who died in early 1998. It even includes a version of “Aeolus,” the last tune he played in public. Still, this is no maudlin exercise; it is very much a celebration. And how could it be otherwise when the recording captures Chapin at his exuberant best. The laughter that introduces the closing track “Changes Two Tires” says as much about the tone of the session as the lovely, elegiac flute strains of “Aeolus.”

Chapin loved to pen catchy, playful tunes with wide open improvisational possibilities, and then he made the most of those possibilities. “Alphaville” has all the energy of bop, with greater options for blowing. Chapin was a master of texture. I first encountered him on a session by guitarist Michael Musillami and I was struck by the richness of his flute tone. Well, his flute tone on this session was just as rich, and his alto saxophone was as rubbery as ever, and even his sopranino (an instrument with the potential to be the mosquito of the music world) is full-bodied. On “The Roaring S” he achieves a muffled brass sound by blowing into his mouthpiece without a reed using what looks like a trumpet player’s embrochure. On “Sky Piece” he evokes one of his heroes by blowing two saxes at once. For all his adventurousness, he never loses the compositional thread.

Neither do bassist Pavone and drummer Sarin. Pavone – Chapin’s frequent collaborator – provides a strong groundbeat, that for all its flexibility, never loses its dancing feet. Sarin stomps and sashays. Together they imply grooves, whether Latin, swing or even funk on “Little Tweeter,” without losing their flexibility and getting locked into cliché. Both Pavone’s and Sarin’s solos emerge naturally from the texture as elaborations on their figures behind Chapin.
This is a welcome addition to Chapin’s legacy.

© Cadence Magazine 2005. Published by CADNOR Ltd. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Cadence: www.cadencebuilding.com ph: 315-287-2852

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