Comments on: The Music According to Lafayette Gilchrist

The Music According to Lafayette Gilchrist

box — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:06:29 -0800

Lafayette Gilchrist is one of my favorite piano players. Featured on a Down Beat cover a few months ago (with Vijay Iyer and Jason Moran), he has released a half-dozen or so albums with his group, New Volcanoes, and he's the regular piano player in saxophonist David Murray's quartet. His playing and composition styles are informed by funk, go -go and hip -hop. And he's from Baltimore. Of course, you might also know him from his appearance on the soundtrack to The Wire.

By: ocherdraco

ocherdraco — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:19:35 -0800

Thanks, box. I enjoyed this.

By: Rhomboid

Rhomboid — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:13:02 -0800

Speaking of The Wire, I can appreciate that they picked a different cover of Way Down in the Hole for each season's title sequence but am I alone in thinking that the original first season version was by far the best version, hands down? I was a little disappointed when s2 came along and it was gone. I had a very similar reaction to ReGenesis. The title theme for the first two seasons was a thing of beauty. Then they went and remixed it for s3 and s4 and it just didn't have the same pop. I was sad.

By: Potomac Avenue

Potomac Avenue — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 05:03:20 -0800

Hell yeah, now this is how you fuze some shit. Keep in mind that Laf made his name by reaching outside of the regular jazz or funk channels to the baltimore rock scene, playing with the free jazz wannabes from the red room at the Ottobar. Also his records are raw and dirty, in the red like Rare Essence. Good post box!

By: thedanimal

thedanimal — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 07:02:44 -0800

FYI, I believe it was Matthew Shipp on that Downbeat cover, not Lafayette Gilchrist. Not to take anything away from him, he's a very talented pianist.

By: box

box — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 07:46:51 -0800

I might be misremembering, thedanimal (and Down Beat doesn't have a very good website--get on that, guys), but I think we're both right.

By: thedanimal

thedanimal — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 09:01:59 -0800

Left to right in that picture: Matt Shipp, Jason Moran, Vijay Iyer.

By: box

box — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:05:24 -0800

The only version of 'Way Down in the Hole' that really bugs me is the fourth-season one. I understand why they used it, but, man, it's just not very good. Something about the self-satisfied talent-show quality of it, and the way that the child actors try to sound so hard, y'know? (Incidentally, Vijay Iyer and Matt Shipp are pretty great too. Between Harmonic Dissonance, a post-bop trio album with Joe Morris and Whit Dickey, and SpaceShipp, a drone album with J. Spaceman, I'm listening to a lot of Shipp lately.)

By: box

box — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:15:35 -0800

(Also, here's that Down Beat cover.) (Also also, the best links for Gilchrist fans are probably the 'go-go' ones--they're public-radio in-studios, with interviews and performances.)