Home » Jazz Articles » James Brandon Lewis

Jazz Articles about James Brandon Lewis

About James Brandon Lewis

Live Review

James Brandon Lewis Quartet At Solar Myth

by Carl Medsker
June 16, 2025

James Brandon Lewis Quartet Solar Myth Philadelphia, PA June 9, 2025 Freshly minted album in hand, the James Brandon Lewis quartet filed down the center aisle of Solar Myth and took the stage before a sold-out, anticipatory audience. Then, they rocked the house, establishing themselves as a top-ranked, forward-looking power quartet. Boiling over with talent, they have honed their skills, empathy and group dynamics over five albums and five years together. Lewis, Aruán Ortiz (piano), ...

Album Review

James Brandon Lewis Quartet with Aruán Ortiz, Brad Jones and Chad Taylor: Abstraction Is Deliverance

Read "Abstraction Is Deliverance" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
May 26, 2025

John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and David S. Ware cast long shadows over Abstraction Is Deliverance, the fifth release from the James Brandon Lewis Quartet. These tenor saxophone titans have influenced Lewis since his breakout major-label debut Divine Travels (Okeh, 2014). Yet while their legacy is acknowledged, it never overshadows the bold, present-tense expression of Lewis's own voice. He does not merely walk in their footsteps--he charts new terrain using the foundation they helped lay. Lewis is a rare ...

Play This!

James Brandon Lewis: Remember Brooklyn & Moki

by Carl Medsker
March 20, 2025

"Chasing Energy, and that energy can be any type" is how James Brandon Lewis describes his multifaceted musical journey (Jazzwise, November 2024). That journey has taken him through gospel, punk, chamber, blues, reggae, hip-hop, soul, post-bop and free jazz. Along the way, he made a detour to Morocco to study Gnawa music. Lewis integrates all of these into a forward-looking take on this music we broadly call jazz. Art, literature, history and science inform his compositions, amply demonstrated in his ...

Radio & Podcasts

James Brandon Lewis, Joe Fonda, David Murray & Garfo

by Maurice Hogue
January 6, 2025

This episode is a definite mixed bag of styles and sounds, highlighted by a preview of James Brandon Lewis' Apple Cores with his trio, bassist Joe Fonda's second new release of late, this time with a top US quintet, new albums from Portuguese quartets Garfo and Talagbusao, Quebec band Brûlez Les Meubles, the latest from the David Murray Quartet, and brilliant duet by pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and drummer Joey Baron at the 2006 Willisau Festival in Switzerland.Playlist Irreversible ...

Album Review

Dave Douglas: Gifts

Read "Gifts" reviewed by Stefano Merighi

by Stefano Merighi
October 9, 2024

L'origine della musica come dono. Così dice Dave Douglas, presentando il suo ultimo lavoro in quartetto, cercando di immaginare il rapporto tra artista e fruitore come scambio limpido e disinteressato. È un dono che il trombettista fa anche a Billy Strayhorn, mitico compositore, collaboratore aureo di Duke Ellington dei periodi più creativi. Come altre volte, infatti, Douglas individua una figura-chiave per la propria formazione e la omaggia ina maniera del tutto personale. Come già per Mary Lou Williams, ...

Album Review

Dave Douglas: Gifts

by John Sharpe
September 16, 2024

Trumpeter Dave Douglas' talents as an improviser, composer and organizer are well known by now. In some ways the challenge for him is to find novel settings in which his abilities can be appreciated. If that is indeed an issue, then he has aced the test on Gifts, with a quartet that often sounds like a much larger ensemble, thanks to Rafiq Bhatia's widescreen guitar FX, man-of-the-moment tenor saxophone star James Brandon Lewis and drummer Ian Chang. ...

In Pictures

The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis Electrify the Bowery Ballroom

by Dave Kaufman
June 23, 2024

The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis played the Bowery Ballroom in New York City in May (2024). This performance stands out as one of the most memorable live music experiences I've had this year. JBL is one of the great saxophonists and artists in contemporary jazz and was recently featured in the Jazz Raconteur series. The Messthetics are an instrumental trio consisting of avant-garde guitarist Anthony Pirog and former legendary DC punk band Fugazi members bassist Joe Lally and drummer ...