Lafayette Gilchrist is a bright, young piano star based in Baltimore. Born in Washington, DC, Gilchrist taught himself piano and has been plying his own brand of Jazz-inspired music for over ten years. He is certainly knowledgeable and mindful of the Jazz tradition, but as Gilchrist says, “I see myself as a child of the Hip Hop nation. Hip Hop doesn't have a deep instrumental voice in its thing right now, and we need to represent in that vein. Hip Hop as a culture has grown up a little now and the musical part of the culture has to grow and expand with it. I see the music I'm doing as representing that ‘cause it's where I'm from.” Recently, he has worked with superstar saxophonist David Murray in his Octet, as well as recorded two albums under his own leadership for HYENA Records, Towards the Shining Path (2005) and The Music According to Lafayette Gilchrist (2004).
Photo Credit
Leo Howard Lubow
”...the heir to Thelonious Monk.”
-- Entertainment Weekly
“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
“...it's Gilchrist’s cussed willingness to continually put a Baltimore-centric stamp on jazz that has made him the city's most respected pianist.”
-- Baltimore City Paper
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