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7 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
Chris Napierala
Montclair resident co-directs music-promoting Seed Artists
16
MAY 2019 MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE
CHRIS NAPIERALA
had led a nearly defunct community
nonprofit called Seed Artists. In
2014, Napierala and akLaff used
Seed Artists to launch the festival,
a tribute to jazz legend Eric Dolphy
on the 50th anniversary of his death.
Napierala, who says Dolphy
was the musician who “com-
pletely changed the way I listen to
music,” memorialized the event with
a tattoo of Dolphy’s name on his
left arm.
Since then, he and akLaff, the
creative and executive directors of
Seed Artists, have sponsored free
library concerts, monthly jazz listen-
ing sessions, film screenings and
kids’ camps and programs, using the
town’s treasure trove of jazz talent.
Seed Artists’ next big thing, the
May percussion festival, will include
concerts and musical storytell-
ing; an audio-visual installation on
the school’s planetarium ceiling; a
painted panel that plays music when
tapped, and a “community build”
of the “world’s largest percussion
instrument,” says Napierala.
Napierala lives on Grove Street
with his wife, “smart shopping”
expert Trae Bodge, and their
12-year-old daughter Sadie, a
Glenfield Middle School student
who plays piano and is the lead sing-
er in the local band Inappropriate
Humor.
Here are seven things to know
about Napierala.
C
hris Napierala is not a
superstitious person, but
he does appreciate kis-
met, along with a great
jazz riff.
So when Napierala,
a criminal defense advocate, moved
to Montclair in 2008 and, not long
afterward, discovered renowned jazz
drummer Pheeroan akLaff sizing up
some old music equipment at his
yard sale, it seemed almost magical.
“We started talking about what
might be possible,” says Napierala,
who was blown away to learn that,
as a jazz phenom, akLaff has plenty
of illustrious company in Montclair.
The result of their chance meet-
ing? A nonprofit devoted to musical
education and performances, called
Seed Artists; The Freedom of Sound
festival, a two-day celebration at
Montclair State University in 2014
and its next iteration, a “percussive-
ness festival,” on May 3 and 4 at
Glenfield Middle School.
The nonprofit was a natural
for Montclair, Napierala thought,
because some of the most important
jazz musicians in the world live
there, including Oliver Lake, Steve
Turre, Cyro Baptista, Billy Hart and
of course, Christian McBride. “For a
town of 38,000, it’s mind boggling,”
he says.
The festival got its start two
weeks after the yard sale, when
Napierala saw akLaff on his bike,
coming up his driveway. “He’s like,
‘Let’s do something,” says Napierala.
When he lived in Queens, akLaff
WRITTEN BY JULIA MARTIN