By Kurt Gottschalk
February 13 & 15, 2008
During his lifetime, saxophonist Thomas Chapin was regarded as a bridge between the uptown and downtown scenes, being a fixture in both Lionel Hampton's big band and the Knitting Factory's Houston Street stage. Ten years after his death, he was remembered at two concerts by many of the musicians with whom he worked.
At Saint Peter's Church on Feb. 13th and at the Bowery Poetry Club on the 15th, Steve Dalachinsky, Paul Jeffrey, Mario Pavone, Michael Sarin and Walter Thompson—along with WKCR DJ Charles Blass, Downtown Music Gallery proprietor Bruce Gallanter and Chapin's wife, Terri Castillo-Chapin—played Chapin's music, read his poetry, showed films and told stories.
Significantly, words from the stage were as much about world peace and ecological concerns as Chapin himself. At Bowery, Jeffrey and Thompson tag-team conducted the New Thomas Chapin Orchestra in arrangements of his compositions. But the happiest surprise of the night was hearing Sarin (who with Pavone made up Chapin's strongest band) play the tunes again; his tight syncopations and sharp snare snaps were a spur in the side of Pavone's quintet.
The strongest set of the night was by Michael Musillami's trio, a delicate intermingling of strings by the guitarist and bassist Joe Fonda. Chapin's teacher James Spaulding drew vast lines between Martin Luther King, Barack Obama and Kahlil Gibran, suggesting the spirit which, at least for the assembled, Chapin represented.
Photo: Terri Castillo-Chapin at St. Peter's Church concert held on Feb. 15, gives introduction to Thomas Chapin film tribute, welcomes guests and thanks musicians, ""the finest in the world."" Photo by Patricia Tortoricci"