Lafayette Gilchrist: An Old Soul, At Ease In A Modern World

Transcript

TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. Lafayette Gilchrist was 17 the first time he sat down at a piano to check out what it could do. An hour later, a friend came by and said: I didn't know you could play. That was almost 30 years ago and Gilchrist has stuck close to piano ever since. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews his new solo album "The View from Here."

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KEVIN WHITEHEAD, BYLINE: For someone who came to piano kind of late, Lafayette Gilchrist has dug deep into its history. He loves the old piano professors who'd packed the punch of a dance band into two hands at the keyboard. Players like Eubie Blake, James P. Johnson and Willie "The Lion" Smith could keep going for hours without exhausting their folkloric materials. And if there's one thing Lafayette Gilchrist loves, it's feeding a groove like that.

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WHITEHEAD: Some of the elders developed their creative stamina playing long sessions for dancers. Despite his old-timey tremolos and thundering bass figures, Lafayette Gilchrist doesn't really sound like the old masters. Something different is going on in his timing and pile-driving left hand.

He lives in Baltimore but grew up in D.C., knee-deep in the city's go-go music and hip-hop, and he also leads a loud, horn funk band, the New Volcanoes. Go-go dance beats inform his piano the same way freight-train boogie-woogie does.

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WHITEHEAD: There's something trance-inducing about dance music in general, and in the textured patterns that Lafayette Gilchrist plays at the keyboard. His two-handed piano also has techno and minimalism behind it. It's not just about the notes, it's about the waves in which they come in, and the troughs in between.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "D.C. SLICK")

WHITEHEAD: Lafayette Gilcrhist tune "D.C. Slick," partly based on his impressions of Washington while growing up. It reminds me of a Duke Ellington character sketch, inspired by the specific way someone walked down the street, it's music grounded in everyday particulars. Gilchrist's percussive trancing also connects back to the old West African drum choirs playing their dance marathons. so he's tapping into jazz's spiritual, historical and cultural roots. Lafayette Gilchrist is an old soul at ease in the modern world.

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GROSS: Kevin Whitehead writes for Point of Departure, Downbeat and eMusic and is the author of "Why Jazz?" He reviewed the new solo CD by pianist Lafayette Gilchrist. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.