Toronto Star
Lapps is one of the few women to specialize in steel pan or steel drum. She will share her passion with the Toronto Jazz Festival
Toronto, Canada - ....“For me, it’s about — in whatever work that I do — seeing how I can centre women’s voices,” said Lapps, who will appear with her seven-piece Joy Lapps Project at the Toronto Jazz Festival on June 30 (the festival began Friday).
“In the earliest steel band days, women were not allowed to play. They were not allowed to even date a pan man,” Lapps said. “Parents didn’t want their daughters associated with people who played in steel bands.
“So for me to be able to be a woman who is composing, consulting and teaching any instrument where the tool is a steel pan is such a big deal. Because, even now, there aren’t many pan players who are operating in the space that I’m operating in.”
....For the record, Lapps’ husband is Larnell Lewis, drummer for popular U.S. jazz fusion band Snarky Puppy.
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