Biography
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Born
20 November 1950 (age 73)
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Born In
Kortrijk, West-Vlaanderen, Flanders, Belgium
Fapy Lafertin was born in 1950 in Courtraie in Belgium into the Gypsy community of Manouches. He started playing guitar at the tender age of five years. He was in a trio with his brother on guitar and his father on violin playing traditional Manouches music. Later he performed with the “Piotto” orchestra playing gypsy style and the “Hot Club de France” repetoire. In the late seventies he was a founder member of the group WASO with Koen de Cauter (reeds), Albert Vivi Limburger (rhythm) and Michel Verstraeten (acoustic bass).
Fapy is without doubt one of the finest exponents of the “Django” style. Not that he plays note for note versions of Django’s tunes, he takes the core of the music and brings to bare his own style upon them in such a way as to breath new life into them.
Our hero also plays the Portuguese style “Fado Music”, incorporating the difficult 12 string “guitarra” tuned BB-AA-EE-BB-AA-DD, also he plays the violin, mandolin and harp. Makes you want to puke doesn’t it.
Fapy has taken the deliberate display of technique (which a lot of us strive for) and thrown it out the window, it no longer matters. What comes across is the emotion of the piece. Which, I’m sure, is what makes his music so accessible to so many people. Many people who are new to the style are drawn in through Fapys playing
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