Noon Hour Concert: Steelpan Jazz

The Joy Lapps Project is a steelpan led ensemble exploring Afro and Latin-Caribbean Jazz, with a hint of R&B and soul.  Joy will share repertoire from her most recent release Girl In The Yard and also explore new arrangements of a few covers we know and love.

Bio -Joy Lapps
Award-winning instrumentalist of Antiguan and Barbudan descent, Joy Lapps treats the steelpan as a tool for community engagement. Her work aims to amplify women’s contributions, particularly in the steelband movement. The Toronto native has collaborated with Stewart Goodyear, Roberto Occhipinti, Larnell Lewis, Gramps Morgan — whose 2022 release Positive Vibration received a GRAMMY nod — Elmer Ferrer, Jeremy Ledbetter, Johnny Reid and mentor Andy Narell. As a leader, Joy has appeared at Lula Lounge, Toronto Jazz Festival, The Rex, The Jazz Room, Mutahdi’s International Drumming Festival, Island Soul Festival, AfroFest, The Women in Jazz Performance Series, McMaster University Concert Series and Autumn Leaves on Steel; as part of steelbands, she’s performed at the Queen’s Park Savannah for Panorama Semi-Finals with Birdsong Steel Orchestra, Lamport Stadium for Pan Alive with Pan Masters and Pan Fantasy, Le Petit Journal Jazz Lounge with Calypsociation and at the Brooklyn Museum with Pan Fantasy. Joy has issued five independent albums: How Great Thou Art (2004), Make a Joyful Noise (2006), It’s Christmas Time (2007), Morning Sunrise (2014) and Girl In The Yard (2022). Her repertoire teems with Afro-Caribbean- and Afro-Brazilian-inspired rhythmic and harmonic patterns, and plenty of space for improvisation; a fondness for funk and pop song forms emerges frequently in her compositions. She received her MA from York University, and has earned the 2014 Dr. Alice E. Wilson Award; the 2015 Caribbean Music and Entertainment Award; and the 2016 HUTTers Phenomenal Woman Award for Leadership in Community Arts. 

For more info visit www.joylapps.com ,  follow @joylappsmusic on Instagram and Facebook and subcribe to Joy Lapps Music on Youtube.