Don Vappie recently attended a conference that focused on the banjo’s journey from Africa to the western world and its role in American music. At that summit, he jammed with Cheik Hamala Diabate, a Malian descendent of a long line of storytelling griots, who bestowed the ultimate compliment on him. He said that playing with Vappie was like playing with family. That magical experience served as the impetus for Banjo A La Creole, a recording that’s essentially an expression of Vappie as a New Orleans Creole musician.

 

Sonic aspects of his heritage are prominent throughout the proceedings, the most notable being the hip-swaying tropical concoctions (“St. Lucia Nights,” “Festival”) that symbolize the Caribbean-Louisiana Creole connection. Several more selections explore this theme, such as the Martinique trad number “Ba Mouin En Ti Bo” and Vappie’s “Flying Horses,” which blends calypso-tinged scatting with modern jazz piano lines. Two horn-strutting, funky banjo numbers underscore the African side of the equation while Vappie’s indigenous jazz man identity is represented by a sauntering rendition of “Buddy Bolden Blues” and the sentimentally numbing “Careless Love.” From start to finish, Vappie brims with technique — witness the lightning-quick staccato runs on banjo pioneer Harry Reser’s “Crackerjack” and the waves of clipping rolls on “The World is Waiting For the Sunrise.” The world, it seems, has been waiting for Vappie for some time.