In the News

New Orleans barrelhouse piano, the Impressionism of Ravel and Duke Ellington’s jaggy solo-piano sound form the bedrock of Lafayette Gilchrist’s style at the keyboard. But if there’s one big influence on the way he thinks about rhythm, it’s the deeply swinging 'pocket' of a classic go-go beat... On 'Dark Matter’…the hypnosis of the pocket comes through.”

Lafayette Gilchrist has dug deep into jazz piano history… he's tapping into jazz's spiritual, historical and cultural roots. He's an old soul at ease in the modern world.

Lafayette Gilchrist delivered fascinating kaleidoscopes of the vigorous, the delicately preoccupied and the harmonically ambiguous…exquisite.

★★★★ Gilchrist mounts his melodic statement over a beautiful groove, which also sounds like a march. It is both opening and passing through in one fell swoop. … Undaunted continues to reflect a meditative relationship to hip-hop, go-go, and other rhythmic influences. … Whatever else ‘Undaunted’ provides, there is an insistence on taking care of the rhythm. And keeping our pulses moving.

The incredible pianist Lafayette Gilchrist. … outstanding.… that huge sound.

...some of the most explosive jazz-funk around, combining hard bop, hip-hop, rock, and go-go into a high-energy swirl that aims to get you up out of your seat and keep you there…. a beautiful, vibrant 52-minute suite of music, recorded in front of an excited crowd with an eight-member version of the band….Get up with it, as Miles Davis would say.

Speaking of important figures in Baltimore music history, Lafayette Gilchrist is high up on that list. The piano master is well-known for his iconic compositions as heard as the score of David Simon’s HBO series The Wire, Treme, and The Deuce, but those in the know are also keenly aware that his music runs far deeper in a lively fusion of jazz, blues, and funk with a touch of go-go acting. – Lydia Woolever, Baltimore Magazine

The powerful pianist is a master of many grooves, surprisingly shifting gears with finesse and fire from stride to swing to funk and beyond.

One of the top jazz recordings of the year.

★★★★ Gilchrist treads a very personal path, combining the stride and blues styles of the old school with the hip-hop and go-go funk rhythms of his youth. It’s a powerful blend, especially on this densely arranged sextet album of originals. Solid grooves dissolve into romantic elegies and horns unite dramatically before splitting into solos that slide into postbop abandon….This is urgent music, impossible to ignore.

Lafayette Gilchrist is a keyboardist with serious range — from David Murray to David Simon, and now the Sun Ra Arkestra. He formed New Volcanoes more than 30 years ago, in a spirit of resilience and uplift inherent in the go-go scene of Washington, D.C., Gilchrist’s hometown. This concert…will draw from a pointedly titled new album, Move with Love.

A captivating blend of rousing dance music, powerful grooves, and passionate solos. What at first glance appears to be pure party music reveals astonishing depth upon closer listening. … This album invites you to dance, but also to pause—and is simply a great pleasure to listen to.

★★★★ Best of 2023… Barn-burning, barrel-housing pianist... Abundant with cajones and plenty of rhythm, Undaunted captures the imagination and attention immediately. … A powerhouse album.

★★★★ On ‘Undaunted’ Washington D.C.-raised and Baltimore-educated pianist Lafayette Gilchrist continues his idiosyncratically swinging trajectory with deep grooves, memorable lines and the gritty, unapologetic type of interplay that first brought him international acclaim on the 2004 recording ‘The Music According To Lafayette Gilchrist.’

Powerfully emotional music.

A longtime renegade … music made more triumphant with the confidence that will be accepted on its own terms. … The spacious acoustics and instrumental separation between the three musicians underscore the urgency that makes Gilchrist’s music so essential.

Although he delivers at a very high level, he doesn’t take himself as seriously as other players might; he has a born entertainer’s lightness of spirit. … Mixing stride and blues with romantic flourishes, he rolls out seemingly endless perfectly logical variations on straightforward pumping melodies, never going so far out that a listener couldn’t trace them back to where he’d begun. … A powerful pianist whose creative well seems bottomless.

★★★★ Gilchrist's prominence has grown at a slow burn for decades, beginning with his initial, heavy-groove, go-go influenced early releases of the 1990s. His Baltimore funky-rhythm roots have never been excised and continue to form Gilchrist's musical foundation. Yet his national presence has expanded, as has the refinement of his touch, allowing even greater expressive precision to accompany his consistently rock-solid left hand.

A powerhouse pianist … he can go from seriously free improvisation to deep stride, blues and funk styles, and synthesize them into something all his own.

Powerful.

Whether he’s playing up tempo or ballad, bluesy or lyrical, melodic or edgy, the unmistakability of pianist and composer Lafayette Gilchrist’s sound always sets him apart… five absorbing originals that superbly showcase his trademark brand of modern jazz: a commingling of barrelhouse blues, stride piano, post hard-bop, hip-hop, R&B, and go-go. Undaunted is a glorious album, full of the hypnotic, edge-of-your-seat, soul-touching music only Gilchrist can make.

I’ve been trying to sort out what makes composer Lafayette Gilchrist’s music so appealing. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s his humanity and his urgent need to communicate…. always delivered with a warmth and immediacy that is impossible, for me at least, to resist…. Gilchrist’s melodies are fresh and original, and his improvisational lines discover new and surprising channels that run through the changes…. Gilchrist has a lot to say, and he says it distinctively, thoughtfully, and entertainingly.

His angular style makes him a descendant of Monk but his connection both to the blues and more abstract forms evokes pianists such as Andrew Hill and even Sun Ra. Yet, there is an infectious, contemporary quality to Gilchrist’s music that will make you smile and maybe even dance. ... This blistering tour-de-force should earn him even more attention.

So tasty and so tasteful, Undaunted arrives as a five-song wonder from pianist Lafayette Gilchrist and his hip band that follows his catchy melodic lead. … He swings, he swirls, he converses in tune, he turns on the heat, then simmers it to open up a window of expression for tenor saxophonist Brian Settles to solo in support. The sextet works so well as a unit without begging for a spotlight. … A pure delight throughout.

…elements of barrelhouse, blues, stride piano, post-hardbop, hip-hop and elements of rhythm'n'blues … modern jazz straight from New Orleans pubs….five riveting compositions that demonstrate why Lafayette Gilchrist is one of the most iconoclastic jazz musicians of his generation.

Top pick of the week. Gilchrist is a master of combining a multitude of styles to make it all fresh and alive. It is modern jazz that fully understands the long history that preceded him from New Orleans to Duke Ellington to hard bop.

Unorthodox hard bop made, as the title suggests, without fear ... Undaunted is an album that reminds us that genius is finding one's own voice with which to express oneself.