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Lafayette Gilchrist: Undaunted
ByThe main melody of the opening title track "Undaunted" is as simple as it is brilliant, spinning its main figure around a four-chord-foundation before being sequenced through minor harmonies with added tensions. Both slightly ominous and a bit obscure, then suspiciously laid-back, this opening cut has all the qualities that define Gilchrist's unique compositional approach. His piano playing has never relied on technical showboating but rather on the art of smashing just the right line or block chord across the keys at just the right time. The band reacts accordingly, imitating a notion that could be described as an expertly perfected ruggedness. Too dirty to be called polished and too clean to be considered muddy, its quality feels like something writer Charles Portis had in mind when he spoke of "True Grit."
"Ride It Out" is a mid-tempo groover with a Latin American tinge, featuring alternating solos by Hizon, Settles, and Gilchrist that hover over Burney's tasty bass-ostinato. There's plenty of cool pulse to go around and the players keep it alive with heavy hands. "Into The Swirl" then picks up the pace and finds the horns blowing a sustained melody over a Stravinsky-like whirlwind of a rhythmic foundation. The energetic drive does not stop from there and pushes through the seven-minute structure like a storm. The ominous element mentioned earlier returns on "Southern Belle"another patiently grooving structure with a New Orleans twist at its core.
With "Metropolitan Musings (Them Streets Again)" Gilchrist closes the album as if he were setting credits to the end of a movie, reassessing the previously revealed in a new light but also with the kind of conviction one can only have, knowing that something has been concluded and completed. Gilchrist's pianism is to the fore here, building strong momentum to a powerful rhythmic backdrop that propels him forward. The composer-pianist rarely surfaces with new music, but when he does, he tends to deliver in strides.
Track Listing
Undaunted; Ride It Out; In the Swirl; Southern Belle; Metropolitan Musings (Them Streets Again).
Personnel
Lafayette Gilchrist
pianoHerman Burney
bassEric Kennedy
drumsBrian Settles
saxophone, tenorChristian Hizon
tromboneKevin Pinder
drumsAlbum information
Title: Undaunted | Year Released: 2023 | Record Label: Morphius Records
Comments
About Lafayette Gilchrist
Instrument: Piano
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