James Brandon Lewis Quartet: Omni

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 minister. Lewis and his long-running quartet, pianist Aruán Ortiz, bassist Brad Jones, and drummer Chad Taylor  expand on Lewis' "Molecular Systematic Music" and construct a sonic temple where they deliver a twelve-tone gospel from the pulpit.

Lewis has carefully structured the album around the three omnis of God. "Omnipotent" opens the album, much as the choir would open the service. This beautiful, minute-long solo piece reminds the congregation to take comfort in the fact that God is all-powerful while also preparing them for the message to come.

"The Sermon" starts quietly, with Ortiz, Jones, and Taylor starting things off before Lewis and his saxophone take the pulpit. However, as the message progresses, it begins to pick up energy, using a similar timing and cadence to that of a minister. Like the prophet Jeremiah, on "Fire in My Bones," Lewis has an uncontrollable fire burning inside him; he must let it out, or else be consumed by the pain it causes when he keeps it in. On this particular song, the band's skillful, almost telepathic interplay conveys this feeling perfectly.

This intense energy perfectly sets the stage for the next critical part of the liturgy. "Testify" is the sound of the congregation sharing a communal experience, bonding with one another as they stand to speak their unique experiences with the divine aloud.  The concept of bonding plays a crucial role in Lewis' "Molecular Systematic Music." Within this musical framework, Lewis believes that musicians can break down music into tones, or "atoms." By bonding these tones into different musical molecules, you begin to form the unique DNA strand of the music being created, just as the individual members (atoms) of the congregation bond together to create the DNA of their own church. Similarly, the quartet can continuously reshape the music by combining the molecules in different ways, giving them the freedom to create something different each time they play.

Immediately following is the second omni, "Omniscient." The all-knowing God is in the church, listening to the testimonials, and the track is fittingly beautiful and serene. It acts as a salve on the fiery hot burn of our sins, a cooling grace for both the weight of our burdens and the heat of the holy fire.

"Line Upon Line" also has a dual meaning in the context of Lewis' molecular system. The band builds the song line by line, one molecule at a time, one line at a time, until the song is complete. In the church, a minister builds the sermon line by line, word by word, as it builds towards its message; this mirrors the way God reveals his truth, one line at a time, slowly, so that we can understand the truth. On this track, Taylor's drumming is less about keeping time and more like a kinetic jackhammer, pounding away as the track is constructed around him. Lewis' sax is urgent; his fiery overblowing raises the stakes and more than matches Taylor's intensity as they build their church, their sermon, their song, their message, one line at a time, until completion.

As the notes of "Spirit of the Living God" hit, the congregation stands and sings to close out the service as they file out of the pews; the third omni, "Omnipresent," begins, a fitting reminder that God is everywhere as they exit the church. In actuality, the physical church is just a building; the real church is the congregation, who carry the message forward. The message is not just in them; it is everywhere. On Omni, the music does not merely carry a message; it is the message.

While Omni is a spiritual jazz album, it is not a free jazz fire-breathing manifesto. Lewis' twelve-tone gospel is deeply reflective and beautiful.  When it does burn, it does so with a purpose; it is controlled, passionate, but never fire and brimstone. The quartet deftly navigates between both extremes, with a skillful mastery born from their shared years of playing together.  Molecular Systematic Music provides them with a framework, a map, a blueprint. Yet it is within this structure that they find the absolute freedom to create, to bind their notes into an infinite number of sonic combinations.