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Click here to read more... Weekend Edition Sunday, August 12, 2007 · The standard canon for up-and-coming jazz pianists has traditionally included Art Tatum, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans and maybe some early Herbie Hancock. But Lafayette Gilchrist did not start playing the piano until college after a childhood listening to much more funk, hip hop and go-go than jazz. Gilchrist's new album, 3, on Hyena Records is a product of his upbringing: beat-driven compositions with special attention to improvisation. He follows a similar line of other jazz pianists' hip-hop experiments like Matthew Shipp and Jason Moran, but loses the drum machine and instead focuses on the percussive aspects of hip hop. Click here to read more...
Lafayette Gilchrist is on the cover of the Baltimore City Paper:
Read it here...
NPR:Fresh Air from WHYY, MAY 8, 2007
The new album 3 showcases Lafayette Gilchrist's maximalist jazz piano in a trio setting rather than with his seven-piece New Volcanoes band. Even in the more intimate arrangement, Gilchrist isn't afraid to make the box shout; this is jazz from artists influenced by everything from hip-hop to the D.C. area's distinctive go-go sound.
"Imagine pianist Billy Preston in the FBI witness protection program; he hides out in the Washington, D.C., go-go scene and then the jazz underground; he invents an unlikely pseudonym to go with his new style: a sort of twisted, funky, neo-juke-joint avant-gut-bucket."
- Detroit Metro Times
There’s good reason why jazz fans and critics alike are so excited about Lafayette Gilchrist. The young Baltimore-based pianist and composer hit the scene hard with his 2004 debut, The Music According To Lafayette Gilchrist, and went straight to earning raves for his sophomore release, Towards The Shining Path, in 2005. Emerging from jazz legend David Murray’s Big Band and Quartet, a group in which he still plays to this day, Gilchrist has an approach and presence that’s drawn comparisons to royalty such as Andrew Hill and Thelonious Monk. On Gilchrist’s first two releases, however, he was backed by an eight-piece band with a raging funk horn section. On the aptly-titled third album, Three, he’s captured alone front and center with his trio. In this context, the weight is firmly on Gilchrist to carry the day. He responds with dazzling results that showcase an entirely new side of his musical persona. The compositions swing and groove, the improvisations run from introspective to extroverted with confidence and finesse. On Three, it’s clear that a major new figure is staking his claim to the jazz vanguard.
Baltimore City Paper DECEMBER 14
Nobody has more fun making music than Lafayette Gilchrist and the New Volcanoes. The nine new songs here are the usual sort of Technicolor splendor that Gilchrist and the New Volcanoes seem able to toss off in their sleep, captured in the most luscious recording of the group to date. Dig the wiggly flourishes Gilchrist lays down on New Jack or the contrapuntal low-end funk bouncing behind the bass and drums on Bubbles on Mars. Once somebody figures out how to bottle this joy as a pill, theyll be tossing a middle finger to pharmaceutical giants dishing Prozac crack to the terminally unhappy. And thats not even touching on the horn sections sunny outbursts or the dazzling, dizzying freedom that is the John Dierker sax solo. (BM) 2005
Jazz Times FEBRUARY 2006
There's a menacing quality to those cuts, and its not just due to Gilchrists Gothic pianism. Oftentimes, the four piece horn foil increases the hairy tension with its braying melodies that sound as if they were lifted out of the songbooks of Henry Threadgill or Ed Wilkerson. As the title suggests, Gilchrist asserts himself as a bright new light with a fondness for subversive whimsy. Nevertheless his music is far from lighthearted. (JOHN MURPH)
Vintage Vinyl.com
JANUARY 2006 BEST JAZZ BY LIVING ARTISTS-2005
This was, by far, my favorite jazz record of 2005. I had never heard of Gilchrist until this CD showed up on my desk. Besides his two CDs on the tiny (but tasty) Hyena label, he has also appeared as the pianist on tenor sax giant David Murray's most recent CD. Gilchrist is a genius piano player and a fabulous composer and arranger. He writes muscular and intelligent music for four to six piece bands. A master of inventive horn voicings, he may turnout to be a 21st century Charles Mingus. Gilchrist's full rich harmonies create the feel of the World Saxophone Quartet with a rhythm section. The six-piece ensemble has the depth, texture and oomph of a much larger aggregation. Gilchrist's refined, spare and rhythmically complex piano style is evocative of the best of Thelonius Monk. It drives the band like Basie or Ellington. His arrangements are brilliant, leaving just enough room for tight, blistering solos. Gilchrist's long time collaborator, saxophonist John Dierker, and Trumpeter Mike Cerri know just what to do in those spaces. Bassist Anthony Jenkins, aptly nicknamed "Blue" is just that. He pushes at and pumps up the rhythmic tension with a deft, funky touch. Get this one.
Village Voice
Though his slanted, pounding rhythms sometimes make you want to say krunk, pianist Gilchrist's harmonies are straight out of Andrew Hill. It's a fabulous combination, and it makes his new Towards the Shining Path (Hyena) one of this year's best.
Washington Post
There's not a performance here that doesn't pull at you, whether it's the opener "New Jack," with its vibrant syncopations; "Elephant Dance," with its thoroughly evocative rhythmic footprints; or "The Juggler's Dream," with its color and audacity. Even "Unsolved, Unresolved," a comparatively lean trio performance, exerts a classic soul-jazz tug.
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