When Hollywood came calling, this Newport musician was ready with his conch shell

Zane Wolfang, Newport Daily News
·4 min read
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NEWPORT — While it was his trusty trumpet most frequently featured during his 2½ decades performing with the U.S. Navy Band, it's his passion for playing seashells that launched Don Chilton’s Hollywood career.

Chilton knew he wanted to be a professional trumpet player from early in his childhood and joined the Navy Band straight out of high school. Though he never could have guessed that after retiring from the Navy — in between his day job leading the Thompson Middle School music program and his side gig fronting the 19-piece Larry Brown Swinglane Orchestra — he would find himself playing freeform jazz on conch shells.

And he certainly didn't expect to hear from any Hollywood composers. Chilton has been passionate about playing the shells since being inspired eight years ago by a video of jazz trombonist and musical seashell pioneer Steve Turre, but he has never actively marketed himself to the film industry.

Don Chilton records himself playing the conch shells in his home studio. Chilton's music can be found on the final score of the film "Where the Crawdads Sing."
Don Chilton records himself playing the conch shells in his home studio. Chilton's music can be found on the final score of the film "Where the Crawdads Sing."

He now has 19 conch shells from around the world, all of them cut at the tip, sanded smooth and custom-fitted with brass mouthpieces, and all of them producing different tones and tunes.

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Twice in the past year, Hollywood composers have reached out to Chilton out of the blue. They found his YouTube account in the course of active searches for “a seashell guy.”  He met with each of the composers on Zoom, where he played them the surprising variety of sounds and melodies his collection of shells is capable of making, then recorded the music for each of the scores remotely out of his Newport home studio.

First, he received a call last October to play his shells for Mychael Danna, the composer for “Where the Crawdads Sing,” a film that will debut July 15. For the backing music to the drama adapted from a 2018 Delia Owens novel of the same name, Danna gave Chilton a general sense of the mood he was looking for, then let him interpret the concept on his shells and play freely in his home recording studio.

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Danna took some of the parts he liked and worked them into the film’s final score.

Chilton was excited about the prospect of having his seashell music included in the score of a feature film, but thought it was a one-off thing until he received an unrelated call this past March to play his shells for Aiko Fukushima, composer for “Samurai Rabbit,” a Netflix animated series based on a comic book by Stan Sakai.

In the course of discussing the instruments she used in the “Samurai Rabbit” score, which included a variety of traditional Japanese instruments but also incorporated modern electronic and hip-hop sounds, Fukushima said in a YouTube interview, “I found a guy who played the conch shell like really (a) madman. He was so good.”

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Chilton, the musical madman in question, explained Fukushima had first called him on Zoom and asked him to play every shell he had, showcasing his various notes, melodies and techniques.

She then wrote sheet music specifically for his conch shells. He still has the seashell sheet music she sent him and expects to hear his music in one of the episodes of the show’s upcoming second season.

When he's not playing the conch shells, Don Chilton can be found leading the Thompson Middle School music program.
When he's not playing the conch shells, Don Chilton can be found leading the Thompson Middle School music program.

Chilton is a very accomplished trumpet player, and he does still play the trumpet regularly with a variety of local acts. However, he has also begun to incorporate the seashells into every arena of his musical life, doing one or two shell songs during Larry Brown Swinglane Orchestra performances and collaborating in his role as a music educator with Crocodile River Music, an organization that visits schools and other organizations to teach about traditional West African music and art.

As much as Chilton loves the trumpet, which brought him to 42 different countries performing with the Navy Band and paved the way for his second career running a robust music, band and marching band program at Thompson middle school, his biggest creative outlet at the moment is definitely his collection of conch shells.

They can be heard on his website and YouTube account, at his local performances on Aquidneck Island, and after July 15, when “Where the Crawdads Sing” is released in theaters.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: 'Where the Crawdads Sing' film features music of Newport's Don Chilton