Philly Debut of Lafayette Gilchrist & New Volcanoes: Move with Love
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Baltimore-based pianist, keyboardist, and composer Lafayette Gilchrist has long been celebrated for fusing the drive of hip-hop and D.C. go-go with the depth and unpredictability of jazz, stride, and free improvisation. Now the newest member of the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra, Gilchrist brings his exuberant nonet to Philly on the heels of Move With Love—the band’s first album in seven years, released July 25 on Morphius Records.
Recorded live at Baltimore’s Club Car, the album captures a night of high-voltage groove, genre-bending interplay, and urgent joy, all in service of Gilchrist’s core message: in times of division, “the only way to move toward the future is with humanity, with compassion, with care—with love.” Audiences can expect combustible ensemble energy, deep-pocket rhythms, sly political grooves, and ecstatic releases that blur the line between dance floor and bandstand.
As Troy Collins of All About Jazz writes, Gilchrist’s “melodic sensibility embraces the esoteric angularity of Andrew Hill and Sun Ra as much as the emotional directness of the blues.” Giovanni Russonello of The New York Times adds: “New Orleans barrelhouse piano, the Impressionism of Ravel, and Duke Ellington’s jaggy solo-piano sound form the bedrock of Lafayette Gilchrist’s style. But if there’s one big influence on the way he thinks about rhythm, it’s the deeply swinging ‘pocket’ of a classic go-go beat.”
Lineup: Lafayette Gilchrist (piano), Anthony “Blue” Jenkins (bass), Carl Filipiak (guitar), Koleby Royston (drums), Bashi Rose (percussion), Christian Hizon (trombone), Leo Maxey (trumpet), Shaquim Muldrow (tenor sax), Gregory Thompkins (tenor sax)
As Lafayette Gilchrist and his New Volcanoes channel the urgency of go-go, funk, and the avant-garde into a groove-powered call for unity in turbulent times, Satellite Sound affirms jazz is a living archive of resilience, resistance, and renewal.
Presented in partnership with The Fallser Club and co-curated with WRTI’s J. Michael Harrison, Move With Love closes out the Satellite Sound fall trilogy with a performance that bridges generations, connects cultures, and invites all to join a movement rooted in rhythm, resistance, and radical joy.
