BY DAVID LENNAM
Famed fiddler Daniel Lapp leads the biggest kitchen party in town when Home for Christmas returns for its 21st year.
Every time he assembles one of his massive Home for Christmas concerts, Daniel Lapp evokes the spirit of Duke Ellington.
“Not to compare myself to Duke Ellington,” concedes Lapp, “but he’s probably the inspiration in some ways.”
Like the great Jazz Age bandleader, Lapp is a master arranger of musical parts. And for his annual Christmas concerts — this is his 21st year — that means sorting out notes, chords, harmonies and overall structure in adapting compositions for nearly 200 singers and musicians (many more than Ellington had in his big-band days).
Ellington, of course, was writing parts for players who were among the world’s best. Lapp does it for a mix of pros, kids learning the craft and a lot of what you might call weekend singers.
“I’m doing it for your average housewife and schoolteacher and amateur,” the local folk musician and fiddle icon says with a laugh. “I get to know my ensembles and what they’re capable of and kind of push them every year.
“We always have at least one or two songs that are epic.” (Like “Go Tell It On The Mountain,” with a swampy New Orleans vibe that gave way to double-time polka hoedown, or the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” with French horns and a Texas fiddle tune in the middle.)
Those unfamiliar with the Home for Christmas format can expect a colossal East-meets-West-Coast kitchen party featuring a feast of Lapp’s own ensembles: the Joy of Life Choir (which he started 25 years ago), Folkestra (an all-adult folk band orchestra now in its 17th year), the BC Fiddle Orchestra (in its 30th year), the relatively new Strings of Lights string section and a brand new dance band of seven- to 12-year-olds.
They’re held together with an ensemble of top professionals anchoring the Swingin’ Shepherds House Band and the Shiny H’ORNaments horn section.
And there’s always a special musical guest or two. Last year it was Valdy. Past shows have included the likes of Roy Forbes, 54-40’s Neil Osborne, Mae Moore, Shari Ulrich and Kendel Carson.
The Lapp method has always been that of the all-inclusive mentor with a bit of rah-rah and a lot of serious musicality. (The man seems to be able to play every instrument he picks up.) His big-heartedness in helping everyone succeed is the backbone of Home for Christmas.
“I feel like I know how to write an arrangement that really brings the best out in each performer,” he says. “For Folkestra I write three fiddle parts, so the 60-year-old that hasn’t played her violin since she was seven and only had lessons for one year, now she has a part to play and she can play the ass out of her part. I write it in a way she feels good about it and she can dig in and play hard by memory.”
“I feel like I know how to write an arrangement that really brings the best out in each performer.”
A seasonal spectacle that began small in the Fairfield United Church and grew through St. Andrew’s Presbyterian, Alix Goolden Hall and, last year for the first time, at the Royal Theatre, promises singalong fun and maybe some last-minute surprises — the Lapp way.
“Last year, literally a week before the show I threw together a whole arrangement of The Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York” because Shane McGowan had just died.”
Daniel Lapp’s Home for Christmas concert runs December 18 and 19 at the Royal Theatre.