ALBUM REVIEWS

Brighter Days Ahead (Island Muzik)

Joy Lapps Girl in the Yard (Joy Lapps Music)

Steelpan music recordings are back. Toronto native of Antiguan descent, Joy Lapps is providing a new engagement with the steelpan that is welcomed after the seeming dearth of new material for the instrument in the last few years. On this new album, her fifth since her recording career began in 2006, one hears the development of a broader palette of musical environments in which the steelpan is placed. One hears rhythms and sounds on these originals that are part of the multi-cultural milieu of her Toronto situation: metropolitan

Leon Foster Thomas

Calasanitus (Krossover Jazz)

Bajan saxman Elan Trotman is a prolific musician who used the pandemic down time for live performances to continue his creation of an unrivalled oeuvre of contemporary jazz music for the discerning masses. Enhanced by a host of featured guest performers, this album presents a Caribbean smooth instrumental soundtrack to a hopeful future.

Available at iTunes motifs mimicking a Caribbean presence, latent Latin American vibes, searing electric guitars, and sterling musicianship. One hears Andy Narell’s melodic template on “Josie’s Smile”, including cuatro and bottle and spoon accommodated in a vintage Caribbean scene; as a bonus, he solos here. Lapps presence a female leader on a steelpan recording is rare, trendsetting and welcomed. Her story. Our joy.

The steelpan, as an instrument to translate emotion into sound does not get the high profile notice that, say, a violin or piano gets. With a history of not yet 100 years, that may be inevitable, but in the hands of a master, one can hear the expressive potential of the instrument. Foster’s rapid-fire touch dexterity takes a back seat to his improvisational elan on this, his fourth album, to let his compositions breathe and his guest soloists fly. The songs on this album — a tribute to his late mother and her imparted life lessons — follow a range of ideas and moods from heartache to joy, contemplation to memory. Steelpan, piano, saxophone and trumpet dramatically converse with each other to tell stories: a parent’s sacrifice, an immigrant’s dream, the migrant’s challenges, a happy evocation of childhood, a meditation on the end of Caribbean life, and more. This mature reflection, both good and sad, all well played, makes this album a keeper.

Available at Bandcamp

Available at Bandcamp