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Jazz Articles about James Brandon Lewis

About James Brandon Lewis

Radio & Podcasts

These kinds of lists are like a mirror; our aesthetic preferences reflect back to us who we are. This list is saying I-don't-care-much-for-walking-bass-or-the-accepted-conventions-of-the-jazz-tradition. I don't want to accept that truth. I want to love The Tradition. And in my defense of my fealty to straight ahead jazz I will say that I just got a bunch of Erroll Garner discs out of the library because somebody was writing about Garner and I wanted to dive into that rabbit ...

Radio & Podcasts

James Brandon Lewis Quartet "Testify"+ Lakecia Benjamin with Sean Jones, Zaccai Curtis and Bria Skonberg

by Hobart Taylor
July 15, 2026

We also feature exciting large ensemble music from the Schapiro 17 and the New England Jazz Collaborative. Playlist Host Speaks 00:00 Zaccai Curtis “Joust" from Sonoluminescence Vol. 1 (TRR Collective) 00:06 Zela Margossian “Free Kicks" from Remedy(Ropeadope) 8:12 Parisa Karimi Molan /Tehrani Drom “Sari Galin" from Unveiled (Lulaworld) 16:08 Host Speaks 19:56 Richard Spaven “Tilt" from Light of Day (Edition) 21:52 Lakecia Benjamin “My Only (ft. Sean Jones)" from We Dream (Artwork) 26:41 Nils Petter Molvær “Berlin-orbit 4 ...

Radio & Podcasts

A Few of My Favorite 2026 Jazz Things (so far) - Part 2

by Ludovico Granvassu
July 4, 2026

Which songs stayed with us after months of listening, reviewing and sharing new releases? Here's another batch for your sonic delight.Happy listening!Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Lucy Mellenfield “Breathing Sideways" Tell the Water, She Will Listen (Stoney Lane) 0:16 Host talks 8:12 Reverso feat. Ryan Keberle, Frank Woeste, Vincent Courtois “After Last" Between Two Silences (Alternate Side) 9:24 Luca Falomi, Anais Drago, Fausto Beccalossi “Stefany" ¡Gracia! (Artesuono) 14:39 ...

Radio & Podcasts

Get hip to Anggie Obin + James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Jeff Parker IVtet and Gretchen Parlato

by Hobart Taylor
July 1, 2026

From Panama, outstanding flautist Anggie Obin, Jeff Parker and the ETA IVTet, Sullivan Forntner and Ada Bird Wolfe.Playlist Host Speaks 00:00 Ada Bird Wolfe “Green and Gold" Jamieson Trotter (piano), Katisse Buckingham (flute), Scott Mayo (bass clarinet), John Tegmeyer (clarinet), Dan Lutz (bass), Peter Buck (drums) from Murmuration (Self Produced) 00:08 James Brandon Lewis Quartet “Spirit of the Living God" from Omni (Intakt) 06:01 Host Speaks 16:32 Bria Skonberg “If You Go Away" from Indigo (Cellar) 18:14 Sullivan ...

Album Review

James Brandon Lewis Quartet: Omni

Read "Omni" reviewed by Kevin Poindexter

by Kevin Poindexter
June 26, 2026

James Brandon Lewis is on a remarkable run. Deface the Currency (Impulse!, 2026), his second collaborative album with the Messthetics, placed him at the cutting edge of the fiery fusion of punk and jazz. While that record proved he could invoke the power and fury of 60s Detroit band MC5's rock-and-roll testimonial Are You Ready to TESTIFY! (Sanctuary Records, 2007), on Omni, he is invoking a different kind of testimonial, one grounded in his upbringing as the son of a ...

Radio & Podcasts

James Brandon Lewis, Gebhard Ullmann, Ivo Perelman & Paul Dunmall

by Maurice Hogue
June 22, 2026

Does the saxophone rule jazz these days? It could look that way if this episode of One Man's Jazz was submitted as an example. So many great reed players in this one, starting with James Brandon Lewis who continues to cut a wide swath in the fields of improvised music these days. He and his quartet open and close the show with tracks from his new Omni. Cue the positive reviews. Germany's Gebhard Ullmann is a major force in European ...

Album Review

Dave Douglas: Transcend

Read "Transcend" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
May 26, 2026

Dave Douglas has spent a career dodging his own shadow, and that restlessness is precisely what keeps his catalog from ever feeling stagnant. Transcend locates its friction point between two titans who seem unlikely to share the same oxygen: the spiritual grandeur of Duke Ellington's Sacred Concerts and the dense, mosaic canvases of painter Jack Whitten.The weight of the album rests on the chemistry of this specific quintet. With James Brandon Lewis on tenor, Tomeka Reid on cello, ...