by Robert Hicks - Jazziz - November 1993
Connecticut-bred Thomas Chapin did his time in Lionel Hampton's band before branching out on his own. Working mainly in trio and quartet settings, Chapin always projected a big band sound. With his new release Insomnia (Knitting Factory Works*) from The Thomas Chapin Trio Plus Brass, his canny sarcasm and circus humor jump out at you with the fun of a carnival ride.
Chapin's wide range of percussive energy and timbres swells with brass band antics, frayed blues, and a wide vibrato. His swirling ostinatos set an infectious groove while his various riffs run at break-neck speed, waltz slowly, or flutter intensely over a Latin beat.
""Built into my music is a lot of sarcasm, I like to have fun. I like to tease.""
The altoist draws on personal experiences for his compositional ideas on Insomnia. ""For me it's an image thing. I have an image in my head, and it gives me a feeling which produces a rhythm and a melody,"" said Chapin.
An episode from the TV show The Twilight Zone spawned Chapin's idea for Insomnia. ""There's a woman who has recurring nightmares. Nightmare images and ticking clocks are recurring themes. It has a lot to do with cutting our usual state of mind, which is sleep,"" said Chapin, referring also to the track ""coup détat.""
""I took the vocabulary of the trio and expended it into these broader pieces. I tried different approaches compositionally. I try to give the instruments a variety of roles,"" he explained. Sounding at times like a big band with solo space for the brass, and at others displaying color patterns more characteristic of a small ensemble, Chapin's group moves to a lot of different grooves. Ranging from funky march tempos to campy vaudeville humor, Chapin's band can sound both serene and rambunctious.
""Golgotham,"" with its Latin rhythms and funk grooves, places the tuba up front. There are a series of duets as well as big band unison lines. ""It's basically a romp. It's kinda like Halloween with a bunch of skeletons jumping around toward the end when I cry 'Golgotham' and the band yells 'Bone dance,'"" said Chapin.
""Different motives relate to things that I've heard in the past. They come up as dream fragments in a way. There's a chicken call in there. Different elements of things I've heard from Ray Charles, James Brown, and old time swing bands. The melody is very much like 'It Ain't Necessarily So'; it's just re-rhythmized and fooled around with a bit.""
Back from a trip to Cape Town, South Africa, Chapin was touched by the events in the equatorial province of Sudan where civil war has left many refugees, bombed villages, and youth kidnapped for training as guerillas. ""There's so much tragedy in Africa, and the world seems to turn its back on it,"" said Chapin.
""On 'Equatorial,' I wanted to move blocks of sound at different rates,"" he explains. By doing so, Chapin achieves a gradually developing sound without losing fluidity.
Apart from his expanded brass work on Insomnia, Chapin has been recording prolifically over the past two years not only with his trio Anima, but with pianist Borah Bergman on Inversions (Mu Works), with bassist Mario Pavone on Toulon Days (New World), and on saxist Ned Rothenberg's Overlays (Moers Music).
Chapin currently has in the can a new project led by Pavone which will feature Randy Brecker, Ray Drummond, Steve Johns, and pianist Kent Hewitt. He's on guitarist Michael Musillami's Glass Art (Evidence) and is working on a new recording with pianist David Lahm as a follow-up to the 1992 Music Memory Hoedown (Generation). Chapin's own quartet, with Drummond, Johns, and pianist Ronnie Matthews, as well as conga player Louis Bauzo on two cuts, plans a Christmas release for I've Got Your Number on Arabesque. ""Arabesque is a new label for me. They're recording some young forward-looking people,"" said Chapin.
%(small)*All albums previously released on Knitting Factory Records are now the sole property of and available through Akasha, Inc.%"