William Hooker & Thomas Chapin - Crossing Points [NoBusiness]

William Hooker - drums
Thomas Chapin - sax

NoBusiness Records 2011

Thomas Chapin's death from leukemia at the age of 40 is one of the most tragic twists in jazz history (and jazz history has its share of those - where would Coltrane be or Clifford Brown if they were to live longer?). This post-mortem release comes as unexpected but tremendously welcomed surprise for all the fans of this musician and presents him outside the common setting of his trio as he features on one concert of a series of duos played by William Hooker in NYC in 1992.

"Subway" is a 28mins long marathon, Hooker's colossal, muscular drumming keeps the charge, relentless and restless, while Chapin tries to keep up with fresh ideas and harden the tone. It is bit exhausting in the middle but they surge back with great energy in the end, although I feel that Hooker is overpowering the music a little bit.

"Addiction to Sound" (just 23 mins) starts with William playing hand drums and gets kicking off out of this tribal premise, powerfull yet light, with Thomas dancing and jumping all over the beats and drumrolls as they gather speed and energy. I feel Thomas is much more at home when allowed a more playfull and joyfull approach and this piece is for me the moment when they truly find the common language.

"The Underground Dead" clocks 19 minutes to fill nicely the cd's space capacity (for lp afficionados NoBusiness prepared also a double LP version) . It starts with a lightly syncopated pattern on plates, joined early by colourfull saxophone scale flights and then goes freewheelingly in all directions expanding on the "Addiction to Sound"'s approach, passionate and joyfull ride, humorous even (with Roland Kirk-like whistles, saxophone cries and shouts of excitement all over) with just a right amount of power and screaming madness till somewhere in the middle Thomas breaks into this peacefull, uplifting song, with delicate, elevated melody, with William building the momento up on toms, until the final breakdown and purifying explosion.

While I find the first track bit mono-dimensional, the latter two present music that is incredibly rich, driven by a common passion for freedom and adventure. Not necessarily a best point of introduction to Thomas Chapin's legacy, but a great gift for all of his fans, the fans of William Hooker, fans of sax-drums duos (count me in) and free and uninhibited musical immagination and creativity. Many thanks to NoBusiness records for finding this hidden registration and putting it out there for all of us.