Tom Chapin
Although Tom died young and did not gain the fame of others in this missive, he was unique in his achievements. He recorded some of the only sax trios I have heard, bass, drums, and Alto Sax. He recorded one project where he arranged for a full horn section. He was also a great flute player. We played together every Friday at the most famous small venue at Rutgers College called The Ledge. This venue used to be the main showcase for acoustic acts and hosted all the most famous singer songwriters such as John Prine, Janis Ian, etc when they were starting out in the early 1970’s. The venue then tried bands but the joint was too small. This is the venue where my friends and I hurled flotsam from the banks of the Raritan River at a young Bruce Springsteen when we were waiting for the full band to start and tired of his mopey ballads. You can read about that in my chapter on my East Coast adventures.
In around 1979 a new owner came in and started booking jazz on Friday nights. His name was Drew Militano and was a good jazz singer. The house band was called The McGill Sisters. This name was originated as a scheme to get more gigs by one of the top drummers of the area: Bil Bryant, who was getting his degree at the Livingston College jazz program. He figured that if the frat houses thought it was an all-girl band they would get hired more. He was right but there were a lot of disappointed bookers. But jazz fans are more interested in the music than other styles, so we were quickly forgiven; we had the top players in New Brunswick. Tom was known as the best example of the new school of avant-garde saxophonists in the style of the last years of John Coltrane.
Tom had already done tours with Lionel Hampton. Tom was afflicted with some disease since childhood and was a skinny guy. He always wore one of those knitted caps that African Muslims wore, that look ridiculous on a white dude, but Tom got away with it. He also might show up in a Dashiki! We had to razz on that, by this time the brothers rarely wore them! I sat right next to Tom every Friday for about a year. I used to get worried about him since I knew he had health issues and he would go off on these extended tortured solos. The veins on his forehead and side of neck would be popping out and I thought he might drop at any moment LOL. He never did though. He could play very beautifully as well and had mastered the “inside” playing of the Bebop masters. But he was enthralled with the experimental “outside” style and most solos included some very abstract passages to say the least.
Tom was never going to be hired for a straight jazz gig. Check out his playing on the Saxophone trio sessions to get an idea. Since the owner was a great jazz singer in the mode of Tony Bennet when he came up to sing it was quite a change for the audience to say the least. Tom was hanging in NYC and the Knitting Factory soon adopted him so he stopped playing with us. He went on to record many projects but his health issues caught up with him and he died in his 30’s. A documentary was made about him that can be found on the internet.
He was an upbeat funny guy who never complained or exhibited any negativity. He always took our teasing about his “out” playing and Dashikis with good humor.
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