FILMWORKS FORUM PRESENTS THE THOMAS CHAPIN STORY: NIGHT BIRD SONG SPONSORED BY THE SALISBURY SCHOOL

 

FILMWORKS FORUM PRESENTS

THE THOMAS CHAPIN STORY: NIGHT BIRD SONG

SPONSORED BY THE SALISBURY SCHOOL

Sunday, May 21, 11:00 a.m.

The Moviehouse, 48 Main Street, Millerton, NY 

MILLERTON, NY—On Sunday, May 21, at 11:00 a.m., The Moviehouse FilmWorks Forum series will present a free community screening of The Thomas Chapin Story: NIGHT BIRD SONG in Millerton. The event is free to the public and is sponsored by The Salisbury School.

Immediately following the film, two of the musicians featured – Peter McEachern and Mario Pavone, who both played with Chapin, will lead a community discussion and Q&A with the film’s Writer, Producer and Director – Stephanie Castillo.

The New York Times called Thomas Chapin, “a virtuoso, one of the more exuberant saxophonists and band leaders in jazz.”

Chapin and his talent were taken from the world too early. In 1998, at the age of 40 he died of leukemia. Critics at the time said Chapin’s career was soaring and “gaining altitude.”

A versatile multi-instrumentalist, bandleader and composer, Chapin was also an iconoclast who liked to push musical boundaries which he did with tremendous success. He was Lionel Hampton’s musical director and lead sax for seven years in the early 80’s. Bred on the old-fashioned big-band circuit, Chapin cut his teeth with Hampton and learned his lessons well.

In 1989, he formed his own group The Thomas Chapin Trio, which quickly became a fixture of New York City’s  thriving downtown jazz scene in addition to performing at festivals and clubs around the world.

Chapin called the spark that ignited the Trio’s music, “the Thomas Chapin thing,” and referred to the Trio as “a magical generator”. “I’m constantly amazed that we can play anything, with no restrictions, and people always seem to relate to it,” Chapin said.  Mario Pavone, the trio’s bassist for almost two decades said, “He felt we had happened onto something.”

The film was written, produced and directed by Stephanie Castillo, an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker with PBS credentials. She is also Chapin’s sister-in-law. Castillo’s documentaries have focused on biography, social and cultural history, and subjects as diverse as opera and cock fighting in America. As a former newspaper journalist, her storytelling is well-researched and compelling.  NIGHT BIRD SONG is her tenth film.

Admission: FREE – Tickets not required.

Doors open for seating at 10:30 a.m. the film starts promptly at 11:00.

Thomas Chapin

Stephanie Castillo

Image by Steven Sussman

Peter McEachern 

Peter McEachern, a Connecticut native, has toured and recorded three CDs for Polygram with Blues legend Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown; has worked and recorded with minimalist composer Lamonte Young, and is featured on several important CDs: “Insomnia” with the Thomas Chapin Trio on Knitting Factory Works and “Song for Septet” with the Mario Pavone Septet on the New World Countercurrents label. Song for Septet was chosen one of the “Top Ten Jazz CDs of 1995” by The New York Times. In addition, he recorded the Wendy Chambers piece, “A Mass for Mass Trombones” on the Centaur label. He received a fellowship for music composition from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts in 2001. He is a member of The Ct Composing Improvisers Project which includes Stephen Haynes, Mario Pavone, and 2010 Grammy winner David Darling. Currently he is the Chairman of the Music Department at Salisbury School, and is a busy freelance artist in the tri-state area.

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Mario Pavone

Bassist/composer Mario Pavone has collaborated with both legendary innovators and today’s most respected young musicians to consistently define the cutting edge of jazz for the past 40 years. He has anchored the trios of Paul Bley (1968-72), Bill Dixon (1980’s), and the late Thomas Chapin (1990-97), and co-led a variety of notable ensembles with Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith, and Marty Ehrlich. His list of sidemen past and present includes Steven Bernstein, Gerald Cleaver, Dave Douglas, Peter Madsen, Tony Malaby, Joshua Redman, George Schuller, Michael Sarin, Craig Taborn, Matt Wilson, and Peter McEachern among many others. And, unlike most artists whose careers span five decades, his most recent recordings are his most widely acclaimed, appearing on best-of-the-year lists from Slate.com, AllAboutJazz.com, AllAboutJazz-New York, Coda, the Village Voice , and the New York Times among others.

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Author: Harlem Valley News