Accomplished guitarist/composer/producer, Saul Rubin played with Thomas Chapin's Spirits Rebellious group in the late 80's. Saul went to school with Thomas at the University of Hartford's Hartt School of Music in Connecticutt. Here he recalls the days of the Spirits Rebellious group.
"It was a very fruitful time. Thomas was, I guess, was trying to deal with sobriety at that time. He was going through a lot of stuff, a lot of changes in his life, you know, personal changes. And that's why he’s writing these beautiful songs, very heartfelt, kind of low, simple beautiful music. It wasn’t straight ahead jazz. It was much more related to Brazilian and Hermeto Pascoal and that kind of stuff.
"His flute playing was very reminiscing of Rahsaan Roland Kirk, but he could play very clearly like a classical tune as well. He had a depth of sound. He didn’t have one sound on flute; let’s say he had a lot of different sounds on flute. And also on the saxophone. I mean, he was very diverse and sonically, as well as a great, great composer.
"Thomas was always uncompromising. He always did the music he wanted to play, and I always admired that about him. He was in a position to be able to play art music, creative music. And I think part of the problem he had, ...I mean there was part of the success, but also part of the problem ...was his association with the Knitting Factory, because to the jazz world he kind of got labeled as a downtown player. He got put in that box of the avant-garde jazz world, but he was not an avant-garde jazz artist, he wasn’t. He was such a great musician. I mean he played all."
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