Lafayette Gilchrist’s Joyful ‘Move with Love’ Album Review

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Move with Love from Lafayette Gilchrist and The New Volcanoes is an outstanding multi-genre live recording incorporating jazz, funk, hip-hop, and several more. Gilchrist, a Baltimore, MD native, grew up as a fan of the local go-go music of Chuck Brown as well as major pop artists of that era and that mix of influences makes every tune on this album catchy, danceable, and interesting.

On “Move With Love,” the band’s first album since 2018, Gilchrist unveils a retooled New Volcanoes on Move With Love. Guitarist Carl Filipiak and bassist Anthony “Blue” Jenkins return from the previous incarnation, while percussionist Kevin Pinder transitions onto the drum kit. They’re joined by trumpeter Leo Maxey, trombonist Christian Hizon, saxophonist Shaquim Muldrow and percussionist Bashi Rose, with saxophonists Ebban Dorsey and Efraim Dorsey guesting on four of the album’s six tracks. The album was recorded live at Baltimore’s Club Car venue.

While Lafayette’s piano playing is exceptional and on point, the team he assembled for this recording session is amazing, and they are individually widely showcased. The horn section, whether three- or five-piece is close to a Tower of Power configuration and kicks ass. The rhythm section is tight as a fist and Filipiak on guitar is another standout.

All in all, each track is stellar and combined add up to one of my favorite releases of 2025 thusfar. Check out my track-by-track coverage, get yourself a copy, and have a listen! It’s an enjoyable ride all the way through!

Baltimore-based pianist, keyboardist, and composer Lafayette Gilchrist reconvenes his hip-hop, funk, and go-go fueled ensemble New Volcanoes for the exuberant Move With Love, the acclaimed band’s first release in seven years. While the title captures the infectious, joyous, groove-heavy sound that New Volcanoes has honed over the last two decades, it’s also a plea for community during turbulent times.

“We need to move with love,” Gilchrist insists, “because the whole world seems to be moving in the opposite direction. The only way to move towards the future is with humanity, with compassion, with care—with love.”

Track-By-Track

Cut Through The Chase is great from the first deep blasts off of Anthony “Blue” Jenkins’ bass guitar, so deep it sounds like a marching band’s sousaphone. The big bad kick drum and bass pop in next, followed by the horn blasts that give me the feel of the German techno-marching band Meute. The horns strike the main melody, and Hizon takes the first solo, which has a great feel, a bit tempered at the start with an excellent buildup once joined by the remaining horns. 

The second section features Carl Filipiak with a nicely spaced guitar solo complete with an outstanding counterpoint horn line punching between guitar notes. It’s a great collaborative interplay. The final turn is a bright, airy piano section led by Lafayette and the horns. I knew, on first listen of this cut, that I had to review this album.

The resolute “Cut Through the Chase” opens the album with a street-level anthem for the country’s working people, a population that Gilchrist knows well, hailing from as notoriously gritty an urban center as Baltimore. “That’s about the struggle of every day folk,” the composer explains. “They say for poor folk, every day is an emergency. But the music doesn’t mirror the drudgery of everyday existence, because it’s all the more reason to celebrate being alive. You need the release, you need the release to be real, and you need it to be beautiful.”

Move With Love starts with a light, Latin-feel piano intro with the full octet entering in sync shortly after. The main horn line initially hits me directly with an echo of Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough.” The horns and Lafayette trade punches for the main theme. Shaquim Muldrow plays a monster of a tenor solo, and then his mates, Maxey on trumpet and Hizon on trombone, come in for some excellent New Orleans-style horn rounds. Jenkins comes back with another bluesy funk guitar solo. The sustained bottom notes are 100% conversational. The follow-up is a master class in percussion from Bashi Rose with the whole band in a fantastic call-and-response sequence. This is head-bobbing music all the way with an very cool fade out.

Bamboozled sounds like someone’s tiptoeing around the corner in a haunted house. It’s got a slinky tap dance feel from Gilchrist and Filipiak and an ominous feel from the horn section, simultaneously building a dangerous feel. Lafayette takes a longer jazzy solo, and it swings in mid-tempo. The horn section, now a five-piece with the Dorseys on sax, propels the tune along at a heightened pace. Lafayette is the centerpiece here, with the horns accentuating the mood throughout. I found myself finger-snapping and toe-tapping most of the way. The closeout is a mirror image of the opening with some big steps from Kevin Pinder and Anthony “Blue” Jenkins on drums and bass, respectively.

Bamboozled is  a stealthy tune whose sly groove hints at the gaslighting perpetrated by the political class.

BASTA is a great vehicle for Lafayette’s gliding style, which is super prominent at the start, ultimately joined by Filipiak as co-lead and the five-piece horn section to undergird the rolling go-go melody. Hizon puts a highlight reel trombone lead together in the second section that segues into a fine tenor sax solo from Shaquim Muldrow, riding on top of the horns. Leo Maxey is up next with a silky trumpet solo. Finally, Lafayette takes his turn with a twinkly piano section. The full dectet comes back with the main theme before Lafayette and the rhythm section close it out.

Carl Filipiak’s Sicilian heritage provided the title of “BASTA,” an Italian interjection meaning, “Enough!” That command lends the album’s most go-go inflected track its ferocious spine.

Baby Steps has a mid-tempo trombone-led opening, with the full band playing the main theme behind it. There’s a bit of a waltz feel to it, and I can envision couples slow dancing to this one. Hizon has the lead voice for the first half of Baby Steps yielding to Lafayette with dreamlike playing for the second half. The tune is very cinematic and dramatic, and I can visualize Lafayette’s description of innocent children walking to school.

 The lurching “Baby Steps” allows that progress can be slow moving while reflecting the innocence of the young people that Gilchrist sees on their way to school, “still just learning the world. The world is not some awful place to them. It’s still a place of wonder and potential.”

Crosspollination Aggregation reminds me a bit of “Heard It Through the Grapevine” in a more jazzy setting. The opening section is a downtempo piece that accelerates quickly when Leo Maxey picks up the lead on trumpet. It’s got a great bounce to it and the rest of the horn section drives the main theme forward. One noticeable trait of all the tunes, including this one, is that the main theme is always present, even when the soloists are working their magic. Overall it’s quite a wonderful album. I definitely would want to see this group live at any opportunity.

The album closes with “Crosspollination Aggregation,” which pays tribute to the paths that crossed in the audience that evening at the Club Car, a model for the love movement that Gilchrist hopes to inspire with his music. “In the mass media and on social media, we’re invisible,” he says of the like-minded community he counts himself a part of. “But out here on the ground, we’re all around. Love definitely has that power to eventually build up to the point where it’s an undeniable force. It’s hard to have faith sometimes because we’ve never lived in an age where that’s prevailed, but history is an ever-current event. We can change humanity’s destiny.”

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