Award-winning filmmaker and Kauai native Stephanie Castillo knew little about her late brother-in-law, Thomas Chapin. She knew he was a musician, but it wasn’t until she read his obituary that she realized he was someone special to the jazz community.
Award-winning filmmaker and Kauai native Stephanie Castillo knew little about her late brother-in-law, Thomas Chapin.
She knew he was a musician, but it wasn’t until she read his obituary that she realized he was someone special to the jazz community.
“I really didn’t know much about jazz or his world or what he was playing in until I read the obituary,” she said. “That’s when I was like, ‘Wow, he was somebody.’”
After two years away from the Garden Isle, Castillo returns to Kauai on Jan. 8 and will present clips of her documentary, “Thomas Chapin, Night Bird Song,” at the St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church Parish Hall.
“My experience of making this film felt very much like God was leading me to do it, and leading me as I was doing it,” she said.
The sneak peek will feature a Q&A with Castillo and the showing of selected segments of her 2 1/2 hour film. The documentary explores the life and music of Chapin, a master alto sax and flute player who performed in both the traditional and avant-garde worlds of jazz in New York City, Connecticut and Europe in the 1980s and 1990s.
Castillo flew to places Chapin performed and asked sources who knew about him one question: Does Thomas Chapin deserve a film?
“They all said absolutely, yes he does,” she said. “That’s what the film is based on: the answers of why Thomas Chapin deserve a film.”
In all, Castillo interviewed 47 people.
“No one had the whole pie. No one knew the full story,” she said. “Everybody had a piece of that pie and for me to get the full picture, I had to interview 47 people.”
Chapin was nearing the pinnacle of his career when leukemia took him in 1998 at the age of 40. He started his career as band manager and lead alto sax for big band leader Lionel Hampton, and later went on to form his own trio.
Today, Castillo said, his music is inspiring a new generation of artists and musicians.
“I think the people of Kauai should know who he is like everybody else in the world,” she said. “They have a special advantage knowing that he had ties to Kauai.”
One tie with Kauai, Castillo relates, involves Chapin hearing “clacking sounds” close to shore by the Russian Fort in Waimea.
“While he and (his wife) Terri were taking a walk by the Russian Fort, he heard this clacking,” she said. “What it was, was a group of kukui nuts. The ocean was pushing them against the rocks. He went in the water and he got a whole bunch of the kukui nuts, brought them to New York and made one of his instruments that he plays with. Kauai is in his music as well.”
“God-led Filmmaking: An Evening with Stephanie J. Castillo” begins 7 p.m. on Jan. 8 and is free. For more information, call 808-245-3796 or 808-647-4346.
