Lafayette Gilchrist and New Volcanos with Carl Filipiak: Record Release

Baltimore’s Lafayette Gilchrist is a jazz pianist, but when his powerhouse funk/jazz band the New Volcanoes backs him up, listeners also get something different: a go-go beat. Gilchrist describes go-go, a style native to Washington, D.C., and its environs, as “almost like a slowed-down James Brown, but you have a combination of African rhythms.” Blended with his jazz piano playing, that’s the sound of Gilchrist’s latest album, New Urban World Blues, released this May. Lafayette is not only a penetrating and sensitive artist, but also a composer who does not shy away from the influences of the greatest artists who inspire him to look for stylistic references.