VERY sad to see this (I fell asleep at the computer while typing this last night around 4am...finishing it up)
I met Mr. Chapin in 2000, I think...It was the IAJE convention in NYC - I was with my college on a "field trip" for the whole festival - we stayed at a shady hotel on the upper west side, and it was one of the best times in my life - I hooked up with Nasheet Waits for some lessons - got to hang with Elvin at his apartment - and met at least 20 legendary drummers and just hang/chill with musicians I absolutely loved/worshipped. And if there weren't any decent performances going on, me and my buddy would hop in a cab and find something good around the city (I think I spent more time at Tonic than I did the convention)
So one day, I'm at the building/hotel (what was the venue again?) and I see a crowd gathered in a non-crowd-gathering spot and decide to see what's up.
I come upon an older gentleman explaining the Moeller technique to a bunch of eager drummers and giving inciteful critiques and sharing tips on increasing speed and the such. I say to myself "That's gotta be Jim Chapin" (I'd heard the stories)
My classmates decided to ditch me as I waited at least 30 minutes to get to approach the man (the legend!) and when I did, we hit it off immediately. I told him my teacher (now deceased) was a student of his WAAAAAAAY back in the day - and he says, without even needing to think for a second - "I love Ron! How's he doing?" (Dowd - amazing musician - studied with Chapin, Moeller, George L Stone, Morello, Billy Gladstone - the who's who of modern drumming technique fathers). At some point here, I called him "Mr. Chapin" and he yells back "Call me Jim!"
He then says "Okay - let's see what you got - just play for me a bit" and I proceed to play some singles, and some one-handed stuff with both the right and left hand. He says "Ron did a good job on you"
While most people were getting a quick 2-3 minute evaluation, maybe up to 5 minutes - Jim/Mr.Chapin spent a good 30 minutes with me, asking me about Ron (who wasn't doing well at the time. Alzheimers...), talking technique, and playing and I felt like I was playing for a dear sweet grandfather that I didn't want to let down.
Jim/Mr.Chapin went on to explain that, despite my being right-handed, my left hand had a better Moeller than my right - the reason being that my right hand was using a French grip whilst my left is more traditionally "Matched" (actually has a slight quarter turn towards French)
End-of-the-lesson-evaluation-time comes up (there was quite a crowd of eager drummers waiting their turn, some working on pads to get warmed up) Jim/Mr.Chapin tells me that my hands were faster than 95% of the drummers he's seen (which blew my head up pretty good at the time), and that if I listen to his advice in turning my right hand over to a more "matched" grip there's "no stopping [me]" - So I'm doing cartwheels in my head AND I gotta say: I felt pretty cool at the time hogging up all of Jim's attention.
We set up two more lessons/chats, away from the hoopla of the IAJE crowds, and he kept trying to get me to turn my hand over till I could "see the butt of the stick coming out of the bottom" of my hand.
And finally he signed my cymbal (I always bring it with me - especially when I think I might run into someone. "You'll be even greater, Erik! Thanks! - Jim Chapin"
(Ack! It's telling me the file is too big...how do I make it smaller? Do I need to download photoshop or something? 1200x1600...I put it as my avatar picture)
Mr. Chapin was a fantastic educator and a fantastically enthusiastic drummer who loved sharing his knowledge with people. From stories I've heard from others, he was like some sort of Johnny Appleseed for drumming technique - going around to festivals and talking and teaching to any and all comers.
Writing this got me thinking a lot about my old teacher, Ron. I - and I don't feel good saying this - probably hadn't thought about Ron in-depth honestly in a long long while, and I've been replaying old lessons in my head and it's been great. It just bums me out [now] that it took a loss like this in the drumming community to make me think about him...
RIP, Mr. Chapin
Miss you, Ron.