New York singer and songwriter Jen Chapin is currently putting the finishing touches on her new album Linger. The album is slated to be released in early 2004 by Hybrid Recordings, the record label founded by legendary concert Promoter John Scher (and run by former A&M head Al Cafaro) with whom she signed a multi-album deal this summer. Jen's earthy sound has been called "urban folk" -- an acknowledgement of both her family's fertile folk-rock legacy, and of her own background studying jazz and funk at Berklee College of Music. She writes songs of searching for both solitude and community; of the city and boys and guns; of love and loss.
Jen Chapin's songs reflect a diversity of experience in life and in music. She has been a student of International Relations in Mexico and Zimbabwe and a teacher of high school music in Brooklyn. She has performed at folk festivals in New England, on jazz-funk records in Switzerland, and most recently on Nile Rodgers' celebrity benefit remake of the dance classic "We are Family." All of these moments cohere together in her intelligent, honest, and beautifully crafted music.
In 2002, Jen released Open Wide on her own Purple Chair Music label. This album of 10 original songs, recorded as her voice/acoustic duo with her husband Stephan Crump, unclothes the jazz and folk tinged soulfulness of Jen's songs in a sexy yet substantive interplay of the two instruments. Relentless funk, swinging whimsicality and haunting lyricism are just a few of the moods conjured in this work, which has been hailed by critics as "exquisite" and "enormously potent."
In her home town of NYC, Jen has performed at Mercury Lounge, CB's Gallery, Joe's Pub, Fez, The Living Room, Town Hall, The Bottom Line; at the CMJ, Intel, and JVC Jazz Festivals; and most often at the historic Greenwich Village club where she recorded her 2000 release Jen Chapin Live at the Bitter End. In touring both with her band and as her unique duo with Stephan Crump on acoustic bass, she has traveled throughout the Northeast, the Midwest, and the West Coast, performing at the Sundance film Festival and at various respected venues across the country. She has been a supporting act for Aimee Mann and Bruce Hornsby. Her song "Simple Things (On the Other Side)" is featured in Simple Focus Films' Fresh Cut Grass, which premiered at the Hamptons Film Festival and is currently airing on Showtime.
 In August 2000, Jen was chosen as the winner of an emerging artist search by Oxygen Media, which earned her a demo deal with V2 Records. More recently she was honored by The USA Songwriting Competition for her song "Indispensable," with First Prize in the lyrics category and with the Third Prize Overall among over 30,000 entries. Jen also performs with the jazz group Free Country, whose non-traditional interpretations of traditional country and spiritual songs has been earning wide acclaim from critics worldwide.
As an educator, Jen combines her passion for music with her commitment to social change through her workshop "Music and Social Action." Originally conducted as a 10-session course for students, Jen now offers this workshop as a 1-2 hour exploration of songs that make a difference -- past and present.
Jen's dedication to the non-profit organization WHY (World Hunger Year) recently earned her election as the Chair of its Board of Directors. Jen is especially committed to WHY's "Artists Against Hunger and Poverty" program, which works to forge relationships between musicians and WHY's network of innovative grassroots groups fighting hunger and poverty across the country. She also serves on the board of Secret Smiles, Inc., and on the advisory board of "KIDS Can Make a Difference."
About Stephan Crump...
 Born to a French mother and American father, Stephan Crump's study of the bass has been steeped in both European classical traditions and the classic blues and soul of his native Memphis, Tennessee. Stephan brings to his playing with  Jen the limber intensity that shines through his own original compositions and through his work as a sideman with accomplished groups like Gregg Bendian's Mahavishnu Project and the Vijay Iyer Quartet. (Stephan's recent recording with Iyer, Panoptic Modes, was recognized as one of the best jazz records of 2001 by The Village Voice, The LA Times, Jazz Times, and The New Yorker.) Stephan's own 2001 release on Accurate Records, Tuckahoe, has been receiving enthusiastic reviews and heavy rotation on college radio.
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