Alive (8-CD Boxed Set)

We are working directly with Thomas Chapin's widow to make this amazing set available once again in limited quantities.  Eight CD box set, encompassing Chapin's seven titles on Knitting Factory plus an extra disc enhanced CD of previously unreleased video and audio recordings. This set also features extensive liner notes by Bob Blumenthal.

Listening to Thomas Chapin's seven trio CDs in the wake of his untimely death only drives home further the loss the jazz world suffered when he succumbed to cancer in 1998. Chapin's discography extends beyond the seven albums he and his trio released in the 1990s, but he never sounded more complete and rounded than when with his trio mates--bassist Mario Pavone and drummers Steve Johns and, for most sessions, Michael Sarin. Chapin's searing, rapid-fire solos and intricate melodies begged for a bassist that could match his stair-climb sprints and steep descents, and Pavone did so at all times. With Alive, you get the best tribute imaginable: a complete set of Chapin's Knitting Factory CDs along with a previously unreleased 1995 live session. From his trio debut, Anima, to the last studio album, Sky Piece, the band seems aimed at a group concept that's well defined and intensely creative. Chapin plays with a formal sense and tunefulness that owes tons to Sonny Rollins. Riffs build into minisolos, and rhythmic breaks become melodies, almost without the ear noticing. Chapin's group concept was expandable, too, which shows on Insomnia--with its five added brass players--and Haywire--with its three added string players. Where Insomnia milks the brass for thick funk, Haywire spins waltzes and string textures that emphasize a completely different realm of sonic nuance. The final CD of the set catches the trio live at the 1995 JVC-Newport Jazz Festival, and they play the complex tunes letter perfectly, with Sarin drumming especially hard and Chapin roughing up his tone far more than usual. At different times, he plays with the bittersweet bite of Eric Dolphy and the drive of Hank Crawford. He made it all an amazingly fluid continuum. --Andrew Bartlett