James Brandon Lewis: Remember Brooklyn & Moki

"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 superlative tributes to George Washington Carver (Jesup Wagon, Tao Forms, 2021) and Mahalia Jackson (For Mahalia, With Love, Tao Forms, 2023). Then, there is his molecular systematic music (MSM) concept, a subject for an entire essay on another day. Ultimately, this abundant creativity and restlessness yields passionate and boundary-pushing music.

Apple Cores (Anti-, 2025), like his two overt tributes, looks to the past for inspiration, just more subtly. The album title refers to a Downbeat column Amiri Baraka wrote in the 1960s. Don Cherry, however, musically hovers over the album, hinted at tangentially in several song titles.

"Remember Brooklyn & Moki" takes its name from Cherry's recording Where Is Brooklyn? (Blue Note, 1969) and his wife, Moki Cherry. Josh Werner (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums) lay down a rolling dubwise riddim foundation. The ambient guitar of Guilherme Monteiro and the percussive accents of Stephane San Juan add another sonic layer. Above these, Lewis sings a soulful modal melody. Ballad-like at times, elsewhere full-throated with energy aplenty.



Pharoah Sanders provided the sax voice on Cherry's Brooklyn album. There is an echo of Sanders' timbre, phrasing, and searching in Lewis' playing, although Lewis is most certainly his own person. The success of this piece and the album is also attributable to his bandmates, who solidly anchor the music while giving it depth, detail, and richness. Need an energy infusion? Lewis delivers.