{"id":616,"date":"2013-03-22T20:24:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-22T20:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/?p=616"},"modified":"2013-03-24T11:49:39","modified_gmt":"2013-03-24T11:49:39","slug":"a-second-helping-of-thomas-chapin-with-some-speculative-fiction-on-the-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/?p=616","title":{"rendered":"A Second Helping of Thomas Chapin — With Some Speculative Fiction on the Side"},"content":{"rendered":"

A big shout out to those of you who responded to the previous post on Thomas Chapin’s newest CD set,\u00a0Never Let Me Go.\u00a0<\/em><\/a>Lots of love out there for Tom, who deserves all that & more. Among the many who responded: Stephanie J. Castillo, who is trying to pull together enough funds for a full-length documentary about Tom. Here is the site<\/a> — with all the information on the Kickstarter campaign & every important link related to Tom Chapin’s life & legacy.
\nWhatever you can do, patrons. The Home Office will be grateful. The campaign has roughly a week to go & they’re still not near the goal of $50,000. So she’s asking people to take part in the “100 X $100 Group Give.” Do the math. If 100 people give $100 over the next five days, $10,000 from the Group Give will help meet the $50,000. Of course, all amounts – small and large — will be accepted.<\/p>\n

The previous post said mostly everything I needed to say about Tom…except, maybe….<\/p>\n

OK, bear with me. In February, 2008, a memorial concert for Tom was staged at the Bowery Poetry Club. There was more than enough words & music to share that night. But I felt somewhat bereft, being only a spectator & knowing Tom as I did. It wasn’t until a couple days afterwards that the following fantasia rolled out of me. I wish it had rolled out that evening, but I guess it wasn’t ready.<\/p>\n

So with your kind indulgence, here’s that side-dish of speculation mentioned on the marquee, a meeting that never happened, but should have. It’s a little wig-bubble The Home Office is labeling:<\/p>\n

\"Thomas<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Miles<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

WHEN MILES MET TOM or THE FINAL FRONT LINE\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s September of 1991 and a gravely ill Miles Davis is, as Lord Buckley would put it, not merely \u201con the razor\u2019s edge\u201d, but on the \u201chone of the scone,\u201d whatever that is, if that is what it is.
\nAnyway, Miles is in his Malibu manse, semi-conscious, hooked up to all manner of wires and tubes. Deep down, he knows that this is all pointless. It definitely feels like Checkout Time\u2019s arriving at any minute and all he can do is drift in and out of reality, trying to take in as much as he can before the lights go completely dark.
\nHe can dimly hear a radio piping in music from another room. Some dumbass has it tuned to a jazz station. Fuck that, Miles thinks. Anything but that! And it\u2019s not just plain old jazz, but that squealing and squawking shit that Trane helped spread like a virus. I do not need that shit taking me out. I\u2019ll take Manto-fuckin-vani over this!
\nJust like that, his espresso eyes, which were starting to cloud over mere seconds ago, sharpen into hard, clear points as he hears this gorgeous, passionate alto sax solo soaring and slicing its way through the miasma. He\u2019d love to sit up so he can hear better and, to his astonishment, he almost feels as though he could. The keening, probing sound continues to jab its way into his consciousness. He digs the raw aggression, the rippling arpeggios and, more than anything else, a tone that sounds the way light would sound if light could make sound. Mothafucka can play his ass off!!
\nAt that moment, a male nurse walks by his bed. Miles emits soft murmurs, which is the best he can do. The nurse doesn\u2019t hear anything. Drastic measures are called for, so Miles attempts to simulate some sort of spasm. It\u2019s lame, but it works. The nurse walks over.
\n\u201cMiles?,\u201d the nurse whispers.
\n\u201cHmmrefffrrr,\u201d Miles says.
\n\u201cI\u2019m sorry. Do you need anything?”
\nThe music\u2019s almost over. If only someone would take these tubes out of his goddam nose\u2026
\n\u201cMwhegfffrrgggrdr.\u201d
\n\u201cMister Davis,\u201d the nurse leans close to the parched, scarred lips. \u201cI still can\u2019t\u2026\u201d
\nA raspy bullet, whatever\u2019s left deep inside him, is violently pumped through his ravaged larynx into the idiot\u2019s ear<\/p>\n

\u201cI SAID, who\u2019s that on the mothafuckin radio, goddammit!\u201d
\nAfter a series of confusing exchanges, someone else in the house, presumably whoever had the radio on, finally figures out what Miles wants to know. He tells him that there was this bootleg tape of a young reed player out of New York, used to play with Lionel Hampton, but he\u2019s just starting to make a name for himself in the downtown scene. Album\u2019s not even out yet\u2026
\nMiles can sense the steam rising within him. It feels good, almost human, but he still sounds exasperated and weak at the same time. \u201cWho\u2026is\u2026that\u2026motha…fucka<\/em>?\u201d Serious coughing, maybe a trickle of blood\u2026
\nThe name, the fool says, is Chapin. Was that his first or last name? Oh, right. Yeah, Tom. Thomas Chapin\u2026
\nOrders are rasped. Call that station! Get a copy of that tape! Find out where that mothafucka lives! Now, goddamit! And so on\u2026
\nSooner than it\u2019s possible to imagine, given the circumstances, Miles is on a long-distance call with Tom, who thinks at first that someone\u2019s fucking with him. When he realizes, it\u2019s not a joke, he thinks: Oh, my God! I\u2019m on the phone with Miles Davis! And he sounds TERRIBLE\u2026
\n\u201cLissen, man,\u201d Miles says weakly, gasping for air, \u201chow soon can you get your ass out here? With\u2026that\u2026sax\u2026\u201d
\n\u201cUm,\u201d Chapin says, not sure he heard correctly, but he answers anyway. \u201cI dunno, Mister Davis, when do you\u2026\u201d
\n\u201cNow! Yesterday! Last week, goddammit! I\u2019m dyin\u2019 out here, man! I want\u2026(wheeze)\u2026I want to record with you\u2026Just for one time\u2026\u201d
\nChapin is now certain someone\u2019s messing with his head, big-time. He observes, tentatively, delicately that Miles may not\u2026make it\u2026by the time he flies to L.A. even if he leaves that second\u2026
\n\u201cWell, then you better hurry your ass up\u201d Click<\/em>.
\nFrom here, it\u2019s too quick and hazy to keep track, but Thomas Chapin has somehow made the next flight from JFK to LAX. Miles, or someone close to him, takes care of traveling expenses and studio time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Time movies fast. Here\u2019s the studio, but where am I, Chapin wonders. Is it dawn or dusk? Where did this rhythm section come from and how many of them are there?
\nMiles is wheeled into the room, connected to a respirator. There\u2019s no way, Chapin thinks. But the horn is in Miles lap, poised for action. Miles, forgoing amenities, croaks out the only three words he will say to Tom Chapin all day:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cFollow\u2026my\u2026lead.\u201d
\nWhat follows is the kind of music that wills itself forward without stopping for thought or breath. It free-associates itself into something that\u2019s neither funk nor free, neither \u201cinside\u201d nor \u201coutside\u201d, neither modern nor post-modern, neither swing nor rock; more to the point, it\u2019s none of these things exclusively but a dense, yet buoyant amalgam of mid-to-late-20th century music\u2019s varied precincts, high, low and in-between. It is, in other words, music that only Miles Davis could have set in motion \u2013 and that only Thomas Chapin\u2019s luminous tone and inquisitive chops could help him finish.
\nTen hours and six tracks later, the last testament of Miles Dewey Davis is in the can. He returns to Malibu to await the final call, which comes as Tom is in mid-air somewhere over western Pennsylvania on his way back to the city\u2026
\nThe session? Well, you know what happened with that session. By now, everybody knows what happened with that session and how it helped make jazz\u2019s next century a \u2026But that\u2019s another fantasy, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A big shout out to those of you who responded to the previous post on Thomas Chapin’s newest CD set,\u00a0Never Let Me Go.\u00a0Lots of love out there for Tom, who deserves all that & more. Among the many who responded: Stephanie J. Castillo, who is trying to pull together enough funds for a full-length documentary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[209,207,208,210,190],"class_list":["post-616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jazz-reviews","tag-bowery-poetry-club","tag-documentary","tag-miles-davis","tag-stephanie-castillo","tag-thomas-chapin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=616"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":681,"href":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions\/681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}