‘I just loved it’: Joy Lapps on playing steelpan
Born in Toronto and of Antiguan and Barbadian descent, Joy Lapps is one of the few women to specialize in an instrument that until recently was largely reserved for men: the steel pan, also known as a steel drum.
It’s front and center Joy Laps’ first full album of original material called ‘Girl in the Yard’. It is also one of the reasons why she lists one of her professions on her web page as “creative womanist.”
“For me, it’s about – in whatever job I do – seeing how I can center women’s voices,” said Lapps, who will appear with her seven-member Joy Lapps Project at the Toronto Jazz Festival on June 30 (the festival started Friday).
“In the earliest days of the steel band, women were not allowed to play. They weren’t even allowed date a pan man,” Lapps said. “Parents didn’t want their daughters to be associated with people who played in steel bands.
“So for me it’s such a big deal to be a woman who composes, consults and teaches any instrument where the tool is a steel pan. Because even now there aren’t many pan players operating in the space I operate in.”
It’s certainly a fascinating instrument – one that is central to Afro-Caribbean and calypso music – and Lapps plays different variations of it depending on the situation.
An Afro-Caribbean church is where she first caught the microbe.
“They offered classes,” Lapps recalled on the phone a few weeks ago. “And my godmother came running with her checkbook to pay for my first four lessons.
“So after church, when other kids were running around or playing, I wanted to go to the steel-pan room and practice more because I just loved it. And that’s how it has been for me.”
Her second and third albums – “Praise on Pan: How Great Thou Art” and “Make a Joyful Noise” – paid homage to her spiritual roots, and Lapps finally included her own Latin American and Afro-Caribbean fused compositions on her five track album. 2014 EP “Morning Sunrise.”
That evolving self-expression seems to have arrived in full on the uplifting “Girl in the Yard.” It’s a largely instrumental album with some wordless vocals, which Lapps says really puts the emphasis on the melody.
“Sometimes there are songs I’ve written that actually have words in them, but I don’t put a vocal part in the song, so you only hear the melody and only I know what it’s about, while the listener will never know.
“I also think about how my dad was a DJ growing up, so I listened to music a lot. I always think of a singable, catchy chorus or melody that someone can cling to.”
However, she’s not sure she agrees with her interviewer’s assessment that all steel band music produces a happy, upbeat sound.
“That’s just what people say, but there are some songs on ‘Girl in the Yard’ that are a little bit more intense,” Lapps countered. “I wouldn’t necessarily say they’re sad, but I wouldn’t describe them as happy either.
“I definitely feel that because the steel pan comes from Trinidad and Tobago and mainly from the Caribbean… a lot of people associate that sound of the steel pan with the beach, the sun, vacation and freedom, even though I think I connect it is more about carnival art and its expression: the joy that comes from that opportunity to really express yourself.”
The appearance of one of her mentors, Andy Narell, also caused excitement in the Joy Lapps Project camp. The legendary guest on “Josie’s Smile” and Lapps, who describes herself as a “perpetual student”, studied with the master on a scholarship from the Ontario Arts Council after falling in love with one of his albums while performing at a festival in Antigua.
“Andy is a really nice, approachable person and really has a heart for sharing the music he’s made, the people he’s made music with. He always gives,’ she said.
“But I think what I took from him that impressed me the most was how he worked with his wife. As a young black artist, I wanted to understand how he made that work, because as much as I want to have a fruitful career as an artist, I also want a very fruitful personal life.”
For the record, Lapps’ husband is Larnell Lewis, drummer for the popular American jazz fusion band Snarky Puppy. And the duo will combine their talents by hosting a late-night Afro-Caribbean jam at the Pilot (22 Cumberland St.) on June 30 at 10 p.m., following Lapps’ own jazz feast at the OLG Grove Stage (91 Charles St. W .) at 6:45 p.m
Lapps recently received a $10,000 award from the Toronto Arts Foundation, and is also a lecturer with an International Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Schulich School of Business at York University and a master of arts in history, development and composition for steel pan at the Jazz Ensemble in York.
She is currently working with the York Region District School Board, the Toronto District School Board, as well as Humber College and the University of Toronto at Scarborough, as well as numerous companies, to demonstrate the power of uniting the community through steel band music.
“What I love about the steel band and the steel pan is that we can get in there and play a song, achieve it, build it and make it sound like something really fast, which is really effective in a team building situation.
“It’s a community of people standing up for each other,” she said.
The Toronto Jazz Festival, which runs through July 2, features more than 1,500 musicians over 10 days.
Jully Black kicked off the TD Main Stage on Friday and is one of several headliners offering free concerts at the fest, now in its 36th year. To see torontojazz.com for information.
