by Rudie Kagie, Vrij Nederland, translated by Ineke van Doorn
"Who is familiar with the context is inclined to hear the call of death in the sizeable audio-monument in memory of sax and flute player Thomas Chapin. In his case the combination of talent, originality and an unbridled drive led to the best result of the scene surrounding the New York music lab 'The Knitting Factory.' This club acted as a starting point for an international career, but when Chapin, 40 years old, in February 1998 died from leukemia, only a relatively small group was convinced of his magnificence. He was not yet finished at all.
His fame stuck in the shadow of two jazz hero's whom he named as his most important influences. They didn't grew old either: Eric Dolphy turned thirty six, Rashaan Ronald Kirk died when he was forty-one. The three multi-instrumentalists who died too young, had more in common than an interest in different kinds of saxes and flutes. They chose free improvisation, but at the same time they stayed aware of the jazz tradition. The abstractions never became so diffuse that the listener quit in confusion. Wild outbursts usually were followed by a happy note which kept seriousness and humor in balance. This sense of perspective was typical for the contrastful character of the compositions. Musical intelligence never turned into dry intellectualism. Even when ecstasy shoot up like a missile out of the heart, the head stayed with it.
Chapin learned how music can excite an audience one year after he had finished conservatory, when he was in the big band of Lionel Hampton for six years as first alto player, flute player and musical director. ""Looking back to Hampton I see that his point is mainly the pleasure with which he communicates,"" Chapin would declare afterwards. When he left Hampton in 1989, he translated the stamping excitement which a big orchestra is able to cause into the minimal line-up of a his own trio. And he succeeded! Bassplayer Mario Pavone turned out to be a creative pal who fully understood what Chapin was after. Steven John on drums was replaced by Michael Sarin.
The group worked already well from the debut Third Force in 1992, but would gradually develop into an exceptional tight formation. The development til 1996 is easy to follow on the seven cd's which were released by the Knitting Factory. The reissue of the whole collection is completed by an eighth cd with two bonus tracks with a previous unreleased live performance from 1992 (at UC Davis, CA.)and a video of a performance at the JVC festival in 1995.
Sometimes he enriched the trio with strings, horns, the poet Vernon Frazer, or alto player John Zorn who played an important role in the history of the Knitting Factory. ""I want to give you the opposite of what you expect--maybe,"" Chapin wrote as liner notes for the compositions on the cd Haywire, some of which were influenced by cartoon music.
Widow Terri Castillo-Chapin points out in the cd booklet that few people truly knew her husband. ""He had many faces and held many contradictions in himself.... Restless, always searching."" Besides the work with the trio he developed other activities, like two conventional mainstream cds for the Arabesque label. One of those was ""You Don't Know Me,"" a title which could be interpreted as a message from Chapin to his audience.
After his death in 1998, a notice in 'De Volkskrant' showed that he had also friends in The Netherlands. Guitarist Marc van Vugt and singer Ineke van Doorn recalled the sax player who in 1996 only needed one phone call to spontaneously take a plane. He gladly wanted to cooperate in the recordings of their cd ""President for Life."" Later he came back for a tour with the quartet of van Vugt and van Doorn. ""He was more appreciated in Europe than in the U.S. where modern jazz is hard to sell,"" Ineke van Doorn says. ""Just when he was about to break through, he became ill.... When he heard that I write my own lyrics he sent me some of his compositions. Maybe I could do something with it, I had to decide for myself he said. On our newest cd his piece Hush-a-Bird is performed with a string quartet. Shortly before he died, he read my lyrics. As to his judgement about our interpretation, I will always guess."""