Jazz Room Presents: Valentine’s Edition with Don Vappie

Legendary, award-winning New Orleans Creole banjoist and vocalist Don Vappie brings his ensemble Jazz Creole to the JAZZ ROOM for a special Valentine’s weekend celebration. Inspired by the legacy of Danny Barker and the rich traditions of Caribbean Creole culture, Vappie delivers an enchanting program rooted in classic New Orleans style. Expect a soulful evening of rhythm, romance, and timeless Creole jazz.

Don Vappie, musician / composer / educator, is the 2021 Steve Martin Banjo Prize Winner and was inducted into the Banjo Hall of Fame in September 2022. In addition, he has received awards for his contributions to the preservation of New Orleans Creole Culture through music and film. He has produced 7 of his own albums, co-produced and starred in a PBS documentary, performed as a featured artist with orchestras on movie and television soundtracks, and at concerts and festivals around the world. Vappie's highly regarded unique and original tenor banjo style is equal only to his love of his Creole heritage and tradition.

Vappie was born into an extended family of musicians, some of whom are quite prominent. He began piano lessons at 6 years of age and played trumpet in school bands starting in fifth grade. By high school his desire was to play bass. It was 1 year later when the band they'd formed lost the guitar player that Don started guitar. “I'd watched those guys play and remembered some of the shapes. So, I sat down at the piano and figured out the notes in the chords and then looked at how I could play those notes within the reach of the fingers of my left hand on the fret board of the guitar.” That's how Vappie explained it to the great Dr, John during a recording session for Disney's remake of their classic movie, Jungle Book.

After 2 years of college as a music major studying bass, Don left to become a full-time musician.

By the end of the 1970s he had lost interest in participating in a democratically formed top 40 band and quit playing music for three months only to start back by waking up every morning and playing along with a Kenny Burrell record. It was during this break that he was introduced to the banjo, a sound that reminded him of the muted guitar lines he'd played in the Soul/Funk style bands. This was the beginning of a period of working with some of the most well-known jazz musicians in New Orleans including trumpeter Teddy Riley, drummer Bob French, bassist Lloyd Lambert, trumpeter Wallace Davenport, banjo/guitarist Danny Barker, saxophonist Clarence Ford, drummer/ bassist Placide Adams and his brothers, guitarist Justin Adams and bassist Gerald Adams. There are more names to mention but the important point is that these New Orleans musicians, who lives exemplified the Creole cultural traditions, became the important mentors for Vappie.