Jim Chapin
{{short description|American jazz drummer (1919–2009)}}
{{for|the American Olympic speed skater|Jim Chapin (speed skater)}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Jim Chapin
| image = Jim_chapin_2.jpg
| image_upright =
| image_size = 200
| caption = Chapin in 2006
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1919|07|23}}
| birth_place = New York City, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2009|07|04|1919|07|23}}
| death_place = Fort Myers, Florida, U.S.
| genre = Jazz
| occupation = {{hlist|Musician|educator}}
| instrument = Drums
| module = {{Infobox person
| child = yes
| father = James Ormsbee Chapin
| mother = Abigail Forbes
| children = 10, including Harry, Tom, and Steve
| family = Kenneth Burke (father-in-law)
Jen Chapin, Chapin Sisters (granddaughters)
Samuel Chapin (descendant)
}}
}}
James Forbes Chapin ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|tʃ|eɪ|p|ɪ|n}} {{respell|CHAY|pin}}) (July 23, 1919 – July 4, 2009) was an American jazz drummer and the author of books about jazz drumming. He is in the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame and was posthumously inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2011.{{cite web|url=http://www.moderndrummer.com/modern-drummers-readers-poll-archive/#_ |title= Modern Drummer's Readers Poll Archive, 1979–2014|work=Modern Drummer|accessdate=August 10, 2015}}
Early life
Chapin was born in Manhattan, New York, the son of Abigail Forbes and painter James Ormsbee Chapin.{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/news-press/obituary.aspx?n=james-forbes-chapin&pid=129501063|title=James Forbes Chapin Obiturary|last=|first=|date=10 July 2009|website=Legacy.com|access-date=13 October 2017}} Chapin first played piano and clarinet, and left college at the age of 18,{{cite web |last=Wynn |first=Ron |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jim-chapin-mn0001589602 |title=Jim Chapin Biography |website=AllMusic |access-date=April 26, 2025}} when he started to play the drums, studying with Sanford Moeller.
Later life and career
After stints in an assortment of bands, Chapin played with Red Norvo in 1943.
Chapin coined the term "coordinated independence" to describe the skill of a drummer where "both hands and feet are performing parts which are rhythmically independent from one another".{{cite book |last=Brennan |first=Matt |title=Kick It: A Social History of the Drum Kit |year=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-068386-3 |page=172 }} His Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer textbook was published in 1948. At the time, it was perhaps the only such book targeted only at drummers.{{cite book |last=Packman |first=Jeff |chapter=Way Beyond Wood and Skin |editor-last=Hartenberger |editor-first=Russell |title=The Cambridge Companion to Percussion |year=2016 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-09345-4 |page=218 }} In 2009, a writer for Drum! magazine wrote that it was "arguably the most important drum set text ever written".
In 1954, Chapin led a band that played weekly at Birdland in New York City;{{cite magazine |last=Panken |first=Ted |date=December 2016 |title=Phil Woods: 'A Soldier for Jazz' |magazine=DownBeat |volume=83 |issue=12 |page=36}} this continued into 1956. His sextet of Don Stratton (trumpet), Billy Byers (trombone), Phil Woods (alto sax), Sonny Truitt (piano), and Chuck Andrus (bass) recorded the album Jim Chapin Ensemble in 1954;{{cite web |title=Jim Chapin: Jim Chapin Sextet & Octet Featuring Phil Woods (3 LP on 1 CD) |url=https://www.freshsoundrecords.com/jim-chapin-albums/6361-jim-chapin-sextet-octet-featuring-phil-woods-2-lps-on-1-cd.html |website=freshsoundrecords |access-date=April 26, 2025}} it was reissued in expanded form as The Jim Chapin Sextet around 1960.{{cite magazine |date=January 18, 1960 |title=Reviews and Ratings of New Albums |magazine=The Billboard |volume=72 |issue=3 |page=56 }} The following year, he led an octet of Jimmy Nottingham (trumpet), Urbie Green (trombone), Bob Wilber (tenor sax), Phil Woods and George Dorsey (alto sax), Hank Jones (piano), and Wilbur Ware (bass) that recorded Profile of a Jazz Drummer. Chapin played with bassist Marshall Grant between 1958 and 1960.
For eight months from October 1968, Chapin taught drummer Gene Krupa weekly, helping Krupa in his recovery following emphysema.{{cite book |last=Korall |first=Burt |title=Drummin' Men: The Heartbeat of Jazz, the Swing Years |year=2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-515762-8 |page=87 }} In 1971, Chapin's Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer, Volume II was published.
Chapin traveled around the world teaching and presenting seminars, including teaching Peter Criss, after he left the group Kiss in the early 1980s.{{cite web|url=http://www.petercriss.net/the-cats-meow/jim-chapin.htm|title=The Legendary Jim Chapin|last=Criss|first=Peter|date=|website=petercriss.net|access-date=20 February 2020}} A Chapin instructional video, Speed, Power, Control, Endurance, was released in 1992. Chapin died in Florida on July 4, 2009.{{cite magazine |last=Birenbaum |first=Rob |date=July 6, 2009 |title=Legendary Drum Instructor Jim Chapin Dies |url=https://drummagazine.com/legendary-drum-instructor-jim-chapin-dies/ |magazine=Drum! |access-date=April 26, 2025}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Jim_Chapin.html Article on Jim Chapin at Drummerworld]
- [https://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/jim-chapin 2004 oral history interview for the National Association of Music Merchants]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chapin, Jim}}
Category:20th-century American drummers
Category:American male drummers
Category:American jazz drummers
Category:American jazz musicians
Category:Jazz musicians from New York City
Category:20th-century American male musicians
Category:American male jazz musicians