Lafayette Gilchrist refers to soul as “the most essential part of my offering,” and Soul Progressin’ serves as his testament to that idea. Gilchrist, who still calls Baltimore home, has roots in the DC go-go scene, as well as in the left-of-center jazz world as a member of David Murray’s quartet. Those roots shine clearly here. Soul Progressin’ contains two solo piano excursions that show Gilchrist’s sensitivity and imagination, but the meat of the disc is solid grooves with angular and sometimes crunchy horns. The grooves come from the persistent and consistent go-go groove aesthetic, as opposed to a more interactive and loose New Orleans approach to groove. My first take was to hear these grooves as safe, but repeated listening shows that no other aspect of this CD has any interest in safety. The grooves are a successful realization of Gilchrist’s concept, which comes out of the go-go vibe, and much of the vibrancy of this CD comes from the material that he lays on top of the grooves. The five-piece horn section plays the dense and sometimes wild arrangements with fervor and just the right amount of disregard for orthodoxy. The legacy of Sun Ra is apparent, most obviously in the spirit of the horns and on “Those Frowning Clowns,” which was inspired by “years of official lies and needless war.”

“Detective’s Tip” starts with a solo piano exploration of one of Gilchrist’s “film noir fantasies” and eventually the rest of the band join in on the fun. Maybe it is the Baltimore/detective psychic connection that makes this track work so well; I don’t think Gilchrist ever appeared on The Wire, but he and his band play the part well here. “Uncrowned” is a solo piano piece that was written on the passing of Andrew Hill, and Gilchrist shares Hill’s ability to make the seemingly familiar quite personal. The up-tempo pieces like “Between Us” and the closer, “Many Exits No Doors,” are the most immediately rewarding, but the entire CD will repay repeated listens by revealing subtle layers of depth to what may have at first seemed like a two dimensional image.