| Jazz |
Lafayette Gilchrist’s “Move With Love”: A Jazz-Funk Revelation With Heart, History, and Groove
For some time, I had heard Lafayette Gilchrist’s name passed around in wildly different ways, whispers of his iconoclastic energy, accounts of his genre-bending sets, comparisons to jazz greats laced with surprise at his deep funk roots. The chatter alone sparked my curiosity. So when his new album, Move With Love, landed in my hands, resistance was futile. Especially after reading the extraordinary trajectory of this musical maverick, one so inspired, so unpredictable, and clearly so in love with sound itself.
This album arrives at a pivotal moment in Gilchrist’s ever-evolving career. He has recently taken the helm of the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra, leading the storied ensemble during their tribute performance at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center in honor of NEA Jazz Master Marshall Allen. It is a significant passing of the torch, one that signals both continuity and transformation within the jazz cosmos.
Musically, Move With Love lives up to its name. It captures the infectious, joyous, and groove-laden pulse that Gilchrist and his New Volcanoes ensemble have refined over the past two decades. But more than just a sonic delight, the album is a heartfelt statement, an appeal to community and conscience in a time of global turmoil. “We have to move with love,” Gilchrist insists. “Because the world seems to be moving in the opposite direction. The only way forward is with humanity, compassion, care, with love.”
It’s hard not to be intrigued by a figure like Gilchrist, who ushers listeners into a wild, genre-blurring ride of funk, jazz, and global rhythms. Echoes of Santana emerge in sun-drenched guitar phrasing and rhythmic complexity, but they are only one layer of the intricate musical tapestry at work. This is an album made to spin for hours, revealing new gems with every listen, compositional details, surprising shifts, percussive interplay, that speak to a sophisticated architecture designed not to overwhelm but to seduce.
At its core, Gilchrist’s music is animated by soul. But his influences are sweeping, so much so that his sound becomes a living archive of African American musical history. His stylistic daring challenges neat categorization, and yet a steady, dominant rhythm always anchors the work, inviting listeners to dance, to sway, to feel. The roots of this groove can be traced back to the fertile musical grounds of the 1970s, when genres cross-pollinated and experimentalism thrived.
A crucial chapter of Gilchrist’s story is his 13-year collaboration with saxophonist David Murray, during which he toured internationally as part of Murray’s octet and quartets. That period saw Gilchrist perform at the Berlin Jazz Festival, contribute to Murray’s Sacred Ground EP for Hungarian National Radio, and take the stage at both the Winter Jazz Festival and Vision Festival in New York. Along the way, he has shared stages with a staggering list of luminaries: Cassandra Wilson, Macy Gray, Oliver Lake, William Parker, Hamid Drake, Carl Grubbs, TK Blue, and many others, each encounter leaving an imprint on his musical DNA.
All these experiences pour into Move With Love. The album’s six-track format reflects a conscious choice: depth over quantity. Each piece is given the space to unfurl, to breathe, to grow into its own ecosystem. It’s easy to imagine how this music will ignite a live audience, ecstatic, grooving, and lifted. This is not just a good album; it’s a generous, passionate, and thoroughly enjoyable one. One that puts a smile on your face from the first note.
And honestly, why would you deny yourself that kind of joy?
Thierry De Clemensat
Member at Jazz Journalists Association
USA correspondent for Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief – Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, June 26th 2025
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Recommended: the Ltd Edition Vinyl LP (Autographed Edition)
Musicians:
lafayette gilchrist – keyboards
carl filipiak – guitar
leo maxey – trumpet
christian hizon – trombone
anthony “blue” jenkins – bass guitar
shaquim muldrow – tenor sax
kevin pinder – drum set
bashi rose – percussion
Guests featuring on tracks 3, 4, 5, 6:
ebban dorsey – alto sax
efraim dorsey – tenor sax
Tracklist:
Cut Through the Chase
Move with Love
Bamboozled
Basta
Baby Steps
Cross Pollination Aggregation