Larnell Lewis & Joy Lapps present an 8-piece group that brings together contemporary jazz with Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Brazilian influences. While the repertoire draws from different projects—Lewis’s Slice of Life and Relive the Moment, and Lapps’s Girl in the Yard and upcoming Faith, Patience, Gratitude—the performance unfolds as a unified musical statement. The cohesion comes from a shared rhythmic language, a circle of musicians who have long supported both artists, and a collective commitment to both serving the music and uplifting the audience.

Lapps’s compositions often lean into pop song-like forms and reimagined instrumental choirs, allowing the steelpan to shift fluidly between melodic lead and rhythmic voice. Joy’s compositions also aim to use the steelpan to build new textures as she shares her melodic and harmonic lines with other instruments. Lewis’s contributions, particularly from Slice of Life, bring an introspective quality to the set. His drumming is intentional and measured, prioritizing patience, restraint, and service to the composition. Rather than spotlighting individual virtuosity, the focus remains on collective groove. Together, the ensemble offers a fresh interpretation of Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Brazilian–rooted music and contemporary jazz, presenting familiar influences in a new light. Supported by electric bass, guitar, keyboard, trumpet, saxophone/flute, and hand percussion, the performance moves between reflective moments and high-energy passages.

SETLIST WITH SOLOS
– Rejoice (Sax, Guitar, Drums)
– Coconuts (Piano, Bass, Flute)
– Hiding Place or just and Open Drum Solo (Open solo out of Coconuts vamp)
– In The Moment (Solo performance)
– Lulu’s Dream (Steelpan, Guitar, Sax)
– Serena (Steelpan, Piano, Trumpet/Steelpan trades)
– Slice of Life (Piano, Trumpet, Flute)
– Hide and Seek (Steelpan, Trumpet, Bass)
– Josie’s Smile (Piano, Steelpan/Sax/Trumpet trade)
– Sharifa the Great ( Flute, Steelpan, Drums)