FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE
1. JEN CHAPIN INTRODUCES URBAN FOLK TO ASBURY PARK
2. CALENDAR OF EVENTS
New on The Stone Pony Calendar: La Bamba's Big Band, Gary U.S. Bonds and John Eddie! (May 26th)
The Stone Pony is pleased to announce a special concert event August 16th at the 12,000-seat Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton. The 'Sounds of Asbury Park' concert will feature some of the artists who have made the Jersey Shore sound an integral part of the rock music scene. Stay tuned for more details and make sure to mark Friday, August 16th on your calendar -- it will truly be a wild summer night!
Jen Chapin has seen the world. Born on Long Island, she has studied in Zimbabwe and Mexico, performed throughout the United States, and collaborated on projects as far away as Germany and Switzerland while exploring genres across soul, jazz, funk, blues and folk - all based in a solid foundation of melody and groove. Her wealth of insight, ironically, allows her to write intimate and personal songs which speak on a personal level. She'll present all of these qualities, as well as her full band, when she shares the bill with Line Drive at "A Memorial for Mary Kate", presented by The Stone Pony to benefit Jason's Dreams for Kids on Saturday, April 27th. Her latest CD is Open Wide (Purple Chair Music), which presents her music in a "naked" format, her voice accompanied only by stand-up bass performed by long-time collaborator Stephan Crump. Area fans shouldn't miss the opportunity to hear this popular performer on the New York music circuit, and who was gracious enough to spend time answering questions for the newsletter about her latest CD, her work with World Hunger Year, the evolution of her career thus far and the state of the world, and music, today.
The Stone Pony: Prior to your decision to pursue music as your life’s work, you attended Brown University, furthered your studies outside of the country in Zimbabwe and Mexico, and eventually earned your degree in International Relations. How was your view of the world shaped during these years, and do you feel having this range of experience before devoting yourself full-time to writing and performing has shaped your creative process?
Jen Chapin: In hindsight, it would have been nice if I were a little more focused on music during my time in college, but I can also respect it for what it was. It's all part of who I am, I suppose.
I have a lot of random ideas and details and theories in my head -- too many interests... too many newspapers... It's a mess! But I guess that's how my head works in life and music -- I like to make connections between disparate things.
So my creative process - if it can be referred to as such - is pretty scattered. It also involves a lot of procrastination, which I can sometimes refer to more kindly as "fermentation" -- sitting on a musical or lyrical idea for a while to see how it matures.
The Stone Pony: Once you did make a decision to develop your skills and expand on your knowledge of music theory, you attended the Berklee College of Music. How have you managed to use a formal education in music, and combine it with the real-life experiences which are essential to capturing the emotional and creative aspects of songwriting? Do you feel that a formal musical education has better prepared you for your career, or can it make it more difficult for you to create your own voice and identity as a musician and artist?
JC: Berklee is not a classical conservatory, but a jazz and contemporary music laboratory with a big emphasis on improvisation. In addition, because of where my head was at when I was there, my education at Berklee was actually pretty informal, for better or worse -- I don’t know if I am what you would call a trained musician! Because I didn't really need to get another bachelors degree, I pretty much took what classes I wanted and needed, as opposed to following any curriculum requirements. Learning a little about music theory (and that's really all I know - a little) just expands ones musical vocabulary, and provides tools to get out of traps and clichés in writing. So in that way it can be helpful in carving out an individual voice. Not having a stunning diva voice or great technique was helpful in this respect as well -- I knew early on that I had no choice but to sound like myself -- couldn't pull off trying to sound like anyone else! Limitations can be helpful sometimes.
In any case, much of the real education at Berklee comes from meeting and playing with people. I met so many wonderful musicians and friends there. It can be a real community.
The Stone Pony: Strictly from a professional standpoint, how has having a famous last name affected the development of your musical career? Are there preconceptions about how you’re supposed to sound, or the type of music you’re supposed to write that you’ve needed to overcome while building your audience?
JC: In most cases, especially in NYC, most people don't know or associate me with my dad or my uncles, that I know of. When I go on the road it comes up more. In general, the legacy of my dad has left me with this small but significant group of potential listeners out there who might be curious about what I do. A lot of his fans have been very supportive, and seem to appreciate that I do my own thing. I am grateful to have their support. Although one man did suggest that I do a Natalie Cole style duet with my dad's vocal track on one of his songs, which I thought was a really bad, if well-meaning, idea!
The Stone Pony: Your musical style has been described as “urban folk”. Can you give our readers a description of your musical and vocal style? Since moving to New York City in 1995, has your music evolved to emphasize the “urban” over the “folk” and what have been some of the most recent influences you’ve had that have shaped the direction of your songwriting?
JC: A drummer I played with came up with the urban folk label for me and I like it because it's ambiguous. For me, folk means that the lyrics are important, and that the music comes from informal musical traditions. "Urban" for me evokes the groove of the city. I actually don't know much about American folk music aside from blues, but have spent a lot more time listening to jazz, classic rock, soul, funk and music from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia. I listen to very few of the contemporary folky female singer-songwriters that I might be grouped with. I think my writing and singing style reflects an interest in rhythmic phrasing, in the blues, in the just-a-little-bit strange. I also tend to write songs that are just a little too hard for me to sing at first -- it usually takes me a while to grow into them. That's part of the fun.
The Stone Pony: You were recently elected as Chair of the Board of Directors for World Hunger Year (WHY), the not-for-profit organization founded by Harry Chapin and Bill Ayres to find solutions to hunger and poverty at a grassroots level. Can you explain some of your goals for the organization over the next few years?
JC: WHY has a great foundation of programs right now, we just need more resources to expand our reach. For the past decade or so, the bulk of our work has been focused on domestic hunger and poverty, though we tie this in with our international work. Our main program "Reinvesting in America" or RIA, is a national network of over 4500 of the most innovative and effective community groups that attack hunger and poverty by building self-reliance in individuals and communities. These groups range anywhere from job training, life-skills classes, community gardens, after-school programs, entrepreneurial training, etc. We work with these groups to connect them to funding sources, media, government, and each other. We help them to replicate in other communities, and we look for other opportunities to help them thrive. Through our "Artists Against Hunger and Poverty" program, we also forge relationships between the groups and performing artists that can support their work while on tour. Bruce Springsteen has been a huge part of this effort in the past when we hooked him up with excellent grassroots groups on each stop in recent tour schedules. He raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the groups, and for WHY. We are looking to get many more artists involved, for which we will in turn need more staff and resources!
My job, as I understand it, is essentially to serve as cheerleader, fundraiser, and general ambassador. I am working on increasing our base of supporters and in general boosting our public profile. I couldn't do this if I weren't so enthusiastic about the work of WHY's programs and staff. It's a very dynamic and creative organization.
Please check out our website at www.worldhungeryear.org. There is a wealth of great information there, it's a very friendly site, and you can make secure donations right online. There's also a message from me as new chair up on the site.
The Stone Pony: Are there lessons you learned during your time studying outside of the United States that have given you a different perspective on how to achieve the goals of the organization in its third decade?
JC: Is this the kind of stuff you usually publish in the Stone Pony newsletter? One big lesson, that informs the way I look at the world in general, as well as my work with WHY: The legacy of colonialism is huge and terrifying. The economic, cultural, political and psychological impact of colonial practices is a big part of most of the serious issues we are dealing with today, from the middle east conflict to the environment to racism to globalization. We all need to gain a greater historical understanding of this legacy to make sense of things.
Another fundamental lesson: People love the idea of simple solutions to complex problems, but it takes all parties working together to make change — there is no one magic wand. WHY has always known this, so it works with government, grassroots groups, media, educators, artists, business, etc. etc.
The Stone Pony: Another of your projects is a workshop you have developed titled “Music & Social Action: Can Music Make a Difference?” It focuses on the question: Can music affect social change? As you’ve put this program together, and presented it to audiences, what opinions have you developed on the topic? Have those opinions changed over the course of presenting these workshops?
JC: This class in a lot of fun. I've done it a few times as a single session with adults, but mostly as a 10-session class for urban middle and high schoolers in NYC. It's been interesting to see how many of the social protest songs of the last century continue to resonate strongly with people, young and old. What's harder to know is how these songs have affected people's actions. It's a continuous process of discovery for me, and one that I'm sure has an impact on my own writing.
The Stone Pony: Since you are so involved with social causes, and have an awareness of the interaction between music and social action, how you do react to the current state of mainstream music, which seems devoid of any deeper meaning or message? Is there still a role for political or social messages in music that is played on the radio, or via video, or has technology and “TRL” permanently relegated such artists to coffee houses and smaller groups or like-minded fans?
JC: Wow, meaty questions! I think it's natural and perhaps accurate to bemoan the current majority of pop music as being meaningless, but I think it's more a statement on the industry than of music in general. The 60s and 70s, which we regard as the utopian period of music with a message, was not only a time of major social change but also in some ways the early adolescence of music as an industry. Things hadn't gotten so focused on the bottom line of profits because they were still growing and figuring things out, and record companies and radio stations were more financially independent and run by people who actually loved music. But everyone knows the deal now -- mainstream radio play is essentially paid for more than ever, record companies are terrified to take chances and follow through on developing an artist that is not a cookie cutter, and listeners overwhelmed by all the choices of artists and technology tend to follow the advertising like sheep. I don't think most people have time to seek out all the cool and interesting stuff out there. But so many people do, to their credit.
You can edit this diatribe down to: There is tons of music with deeper meanings and messages out there in every genre, you just have to look for it, because it's not generally being supported by the mainstream industry. The biggest tragedy is hip-hop, where a whole musical form is being maligned as being violent/racist/sexist/materialist and so on, when lots of deeper stuff is being produced but not supported by the cynical record companies who go for the poser gangster stuff.
The Stone Pony: Your current album, “Open Wide”, presents a unique, “naked”, format for your music. You sing each song, accompanied solely by Stephan Crump on stand-up bass. Can you share some insight into how the idea for this project developed? Was this how you envisioned these songs to be performed when they were originally written and how you feel about the result?
JC: Our duo started out as a trio with the amazing saxophonist Chris Cheek, who has been in my band for many years. One time we were doing the soundcheck for a trio gig and Chris wasn't there yet. Stephan and I started to get into the sound and the intimacy and the space -- which we think can be as important as the sound! -- of the bass/voice combination. Having just the two of us gives a chance to really explore the interplay between two "voices" and it really highlights the lyrics and the structure of the songs. In the duo, there's nowhere to hide, so it's an ass-kicker. I've learned a lot about singing from doing it, as Stephan has about his instrument.
All of the songs on the record were written for a full band with the exception of "Open Wide," which I wrote several years ago for the duo. They didn't make it on the record, but I have one other song "Indispensable" that is just a piano accompaniment, and another "She's Gone", that I wrote as a drums/voice duo -- it's on my "Live at the Bitter End" record. Stephan and I do both at gigs -- for the latter, Stephan plays it by using the wood surface of the bass as a drum.
I love being able to do the songs both ways, and my listeners seem to appreciate hearing them both ways as well. We've been getting great response to the duo record so far -- it's been out for less than a month. I am hoping the record can be something that fits into the shape of people's lives -- that they have places and times in their days (most likely evenings!) when it can be the soundtrack — this seems to be the case so far.
The Stone Pony: Describe the collaborative process for the tracks on “Open Wide”. Were the bass lines prepared and rehearsed prior to entering the studio and how much, if any, of it was improvised? Was there a certain vibe you were looking to accomplish with the music on the album, and were there any steps taken to achieve that feeling? Were the tracks recorded live, with vocals and the bass in the same room, or were the tracks mixed together later? Will you be performing any “naked” versions of your songs at your Stone Pony performance?
JC: We wanted the sound of the record to be honest and natural and intimate, and we also knew the individual sounds had to be rich and pretty to keep the listener's interest. We had been developing the duo for a while, and the bass lines were the product of an evolution of - in some cases - several years. The bass parts are Stephan's response to my chord progressions and concepts for what each song's vibe is. He uses a lot of different creative approaches that go beyond traditional bass playing. There is also a fair amount of improvisation from both of us, in some songs more than others. We recorded the music together in our home studio, in one room, into our ProTools program on a Mac via two tube mics. There was no sound isolation between us, so we could not fix things individually, but each song represents a compilation of several performances cut and pasted together. The guy in LA who mastered the record said we should send it in to the audiophile magazines because it sounds so good! Shows what a mellow vibe and some low-budget equipment can do.
We are planning to do a few duo tunes at the Pony if the audience isn't too hectic. It's a nice way to break up a set. I'm also going to see if we might do a whole show of the duo at the Pony sometime in the future.
The Stone Pony: Your performance at The Stone Pony will include your full band, which includes Stephan Crump on bass, as well as Jamie Fox on guitar and Dan Rieser on drums. What are the current plans for recording new material with the full band and when do you expect that fans will be able to get a hold of that recording?
JC: Actually, we are working on a band record right now, but it'll be a few months before we'll have time to finish it. As with the duo record, there is mixture of songs I wrote at different times, most of which have not been recorded -- at least not definitively, in my book. There also a few songs that overlap with the duo record, so it's been fun for us to approach them very differently with the full band thing. We're really excited! The band sounds great so far, but we have a ton of work to do. I will keep people updated on our progress via my email list.
Jen Chapin's official web site, www.jenchapin.com, includes additional biographical information, news about upcoming gigs and other projects, details on purchasing her albums and lyrics. She currently has three CDs available, which can be purchased via Purple Chair Music, or online at CD Baby: Open Wide (www.cdbaby.com/cd/chapinandcrump), Live At The Bitter End (www.cdbaby.com/cd/chapin) and "Jen Chapin" 3-song EP (www.cdbaby.com/cd/chapin2). Don't miss the Jen Chapin Band, along with Line Drive, at "A Memorial for Mary Kate", presented by The Stone Pony to benefit Jason's Dreams for Kids, on Saturday, April 27th.
Now at
asburypark.net: Meeting to focus on music tourism
The manager of the "birthplace"
of the Beatles and the curator of a Bruce Springsteen multimedia exhibition
will take part in a meeting next week aimed at creating a music tourism industry at the Jersey Shore.
Thursday Nights. Bounce Thursday: The Ultimate Dance Party with DJ Matrix and MC BJ, 20-oz. $1 drafts and $1 tube shots all night long, ladies free until 11, $5 with Monmouth University ID, 18 & up for everyone with two forms of ID, doors at 9:30.
