Biography
Hailing from New York, tenor saxophonist composer and bandleader James Brandon Lewis fuses the fervent intensity of gospel with the raw drive of blues and R&B, while drawing on the modal explorations and avant-garde legacies of Albert Ayler John Coltrane and the lyrical control of Sonny Rollins. His first recording Moments appeared independently in 2010 and was succeeded by Divine Travels in 2014 and the widely praised Days of Freeman in 2015 both issued on Sony Masterworks’ revived OKeh imprint. After performing across American venues he took his music to festivals throughout Europe and Asia. The 2018 duo project Radiant Imprints with drummer Chad Taylor preceded the 2019 quintet release An Unruly Manifesto. Selected as a Rising Star Tenor Saxophonist in DownBeat’s International Critics Poll Lewis assembled the Red Lily Quartet for the pivotal 2021 album Jesup Wagon. The live digital-only set MSM Molecular Systematic Music followed in 2022 and his longstanding quartet issued Eye of I on Anti- in March 2023. That September he unveiled For Mahalia With Love a full-length homage to the legendary gospel singer realized by the Red Lily Quintet. In 2024 Lewis joined the Washington D.C.-based experimental rock trio the Messthetics for a collaborative album.
Born in Buffalo New York in 1983 Lewis grew up immersed in church music absorbing gospel blues and R&B from an early age and received instruction from Carol McLaughlin. He attended the Buffalo Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts then studied further with Charlie Young at Howard University where he performed alongside Geri Allen Benny Golson Wallace Roney and Bill Pierce. As part of the Howard University Jazz Ensemble directed by Fred Irby he traveled to Japan and appeared at the Kennedy Center Honors supporting John Legend k.d. lang and Vanessa Williams. After completing his degree in 2006 Lewis relocated to Colorado where he became active in gospel circles performing with Albertina Walker and others while also appearing on the Word television network and earning Best Instrumentalist honors at Dorinda Clark-Cole’s singers and musicians conference in 2007.
Having established himself in gospel Lewis pursued broader horizons enrolling at CalArts to work with Charlie Haden Wadada Leo Smith Vinny Golia and Alphonso Johnson and earning a Master of Fine Arts in 2010 the same year his debut Moments was released. At the Banff Jazz Residency he collaborated with Dave Douglas Angelica Sanchez Joshua Redman Hank Roberts and Tony Malaby encountering free jazz in depth. Invited by pianist Matthew Shipp to the Atlantic Center for the Arts residency Lewis made a strong impression and with encouragement from Shipp and New York colleagues moved to the city in 2012. There he honed his craft alongside Marilyn Crispell Charles Gayle Karl Berger Eri Yamamoto and especially bassist William Parker and drummer Gerald Cleaver.
With Parker and Cleaver Lewis recorded Divine Travels for OKeh in February 2014 earning immediate recognition for his distinctive updating of his influences. The conceptual suite Days of Freeman followed in 2015 featuring drummer Rudy Royston and bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma and brought international attention that enabled Lewis to headline European festivals. In 2018 he and Chad Taylor released the improvised Radiant Imprints on Belgium’s Off label while also appearing on Marc Ribot’s Songs of Resistance 1942-2018 William Hooker’s Pillars…At the Portal and Allen Lowe’s Jews & Roots: An Avant Garde of Our Own—Disconnected Works 1980-2018. An Unruly Manifesto arrived in 2019 on Relative Pitch Records with guitarist Anthony Pirog trumpeter Jaimie Branch drummer Warren G. Crudup III and bassist Luke Stewart and received acclaim for Lewis’s interplay with Pirog. That year he also issued the improvised digital set 4.2.19 with bassist John Edwards and drummer Mark Sanders on Otoroku and contributed to Michael Eaton’s Dialogical and the digital Ropeadope release Tenor Triage alongside Eaton and Sean Sonderegger with Brad Jones and Calvin Weston.
Although touring halted during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic Lewis’s prior concert at Switzerland’s Willisau festival appeared as Live in Willisau on Intakt alongside the studio quartet album Molecular featuring Jones Taylor and pianist Aruán Ortiz which introduced his “Molecular Systematic Music” approach. That year he again placed as Rising Star Tenor Saxophonist in DownBeat’s poll. Unable to tour he composed a suite inspired by George Washington Carver and in fall 2020 convened the intergenerational Red Lily Quintet—Chad Taylor on drums William Parker on bass Kirk Knuffke on cornet and Chris Hoffman on cello—to record it at Park West Studio in Brooklyn with engineer Jim Clouse. Released by Whit Dickey’s Tao Forms as Jesup Wagon in May 2021 the album earned widespread praise and appeared on DownBeat’s year-end lists. Sonny Rollins one of Lewis’s foremost influences expressed admiration stating “When I listen to you I listen to Buddha I listen to Confucius…I listen to the deeper meaning of life. You are keeping the world in balance.”
Lewis issued the live kinetic MSM Molecular Systematic Music on Intakt in 2022 once more with Taylor Aruán Ortiz and Brad Jones. His Anti- debut Eye of I emerged in February 2023 after guitarist Marc Ribot championed him to the label’s A&R team following their prior work together including on Songs of Resistance 1942-2018. The trio recording featured Chris Hoffman on electric cello and pedals alongside drummer Max Jaffe and was previewed in early January by the four-track single “Send Seraphic Beings” which also included the originals “The Blues Still Blossoms” and “Fear Not (featuring the Messthetics)” plus Lewis’s interpretation of Donny Hathaway’s “Someday We’ll All Be Free.” In September For Mahalia With Love appeared on Tao Forms performed by the Red Lily Quintet and drew on spirituals closely tied to Mahalia Jackson whose foundational role in gospel and whose use of spirituals in support of 1950s and 1960s Civil Rights efforts remain central.
Having previously worked with guitarist Anthony Pirog on several projects including tracks with Pirog’s experimental rock band the Messthetics featuring Joe Lally and Brendan Canty of Fugazi Lewis joined the group for the Impulse collaboration The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis issued in March 2024. Captured in two days the recording merged rock’s force with jazz’s exploratory spirit.
Born in Buffalo New York in 1983 Lewis grew up immersed in church music absorbing gospel blues and R&B from an early age and received instruction from Carol McLaughlin. He attended the Buffalo Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts then studied further with Charlie Young at Howard University where he performed alongside Geri Allen Benny Golson Wallace Roney and Bill Pierce. As part of the Howard University Jazz Ensemble directed by Fred Irby he traveled to Japan and appeared at the Kennedy Center Honors supporting John Legend k.d. lang and Vanessa Williams. After completing his degree in 2006 Lewis relocated to Colorado where he became active in gospel circles performing with Albertina Walker and others while also appearing on the Word television network and earning Best Instrumentalist honors at Dorinda Clark-Cole’s singers and musicians conference in 2007.
Having established himself in gospel Lewis pursued broader horizons enrolling at CalArts to work with Charlie Haden Wadada Leo Smith Vinny Golia and Alphonso Johnson and earning a Master of Fine Arts in 2010 the same year his debut Moments was released. At the Banff Jazz Residency he collaborated with Dave Douglas Angelica Sanchez Joshua Redman Hank Roberts and Tony Malaby encountering free jazz in depth. Invited by pianist Matthew Shipp to the Atlantic Center for the Arts residency Lewis made a strong impression and with encouragement from Shipp and New York colleagues moved to the city in 2012. There he honed his craft alongside Marilyn Crispell Charles Gayle Karl Berger Eri Yamamoto and especially bassist William Parker and drummer Gerald Cleaver.
With Parker and Cleaver Lewis recorded Divine Travels for OKeh in February 2014 earning immediate recognition for his distinctive updating of his influences. The conceptual suite Days of Freeman followed in 2015 featuring drummer Rudy Royston and bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma and brought international attention that enabled Lewis to headline European festivals. In 2018 he and Chad Taylor released the improvised Radiant Imprints on Belgium’s Off label while also appearing on Marc Ribot’s Songs of Resistance 1942-2018 William Hooker’s Pillars…At the Portal and Allen Lowe’s Jews & Roots: An Avant Garde of Our Own—Disconnected Works 1980-2018. An Unruly Manifesto arrived in 2019 on Relative Pitch Records with guitarist Anthony Pirog trumpeter Jaimie Branch drummer Warren G. Crudup III and bassist Luke Stewart and received acclaim for Lewis’s interplay with Pirog. That year he also issued the improvised digital set 4.2.19 with bassist John Edwards and drummer Mark Sanders on Otoroku and contributed to Michael Eaton’s Dialogical and the digital Ropeadope release Tenor Triage alongside Eaton and Sean Sonderegger with Brad Jones and Calvin Weston.
Although touring halted during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic Lewis’s prior concert at Switzerland’s Willisau festival appeared as Live in Willisau on Intakt alongside the studio quartet album Molecular featuring Jones Taylor and pianist Aruán Ortiz which introduced his “Molecular Systematic Music” approach. That year he again placed as Rising Star Tenor Saxophonist in DownBeat’s poll. Unable to tour he composed a suite inspired by George Washington Carver and in fall 2020 convened the intergenerational Red Lily Quintet—Chad Taylor on drums William Parker on bass Kirk Knuffke on cornet and Chris Hoffman on cello—to record it at Park West Studio in Brooklyn with engineer Jim Clouse. Released by Whit Dickey’s Tao Forms as Jesup Wagon in May 2021 the album earned widespread praise and appeared on DownBeat’s year-end lists. Sonny Rollins one of Lewis’s foremost influences expressed admiration stating “When I listen to you I listen to Buddha I listen to Confucius…I listen to the deeper meaning of life. You are keeping the world in balance.”
Lewis issued the live kinetic MSM Molecular Systematic Music on Intakt in 2022 once more with Taylor Aruán Ortiz and Brad Jones. His Anti- debut Eye of I emerged in February 2023 after guitarist Marc Ribot championed him to the label’s A&R team following their prior work together including on Songs of Resistance 1942-2018. The trio recording featured Chris Hoffman on electric cello and pedals alongside drummer Max Jaffe and was previewed in early January by the four-track single “Send Seraphic Beings” which also included the originals “The Blues Still Blossoms” and “Fear Not (featuring the Messthetics)” plus Lewis’s interpretation of Donny Hathaway’s “Someday We’ll All Be Free.” In September For Mahalia With Love appeared on Tao Forms performed by the Red Lily Quintet and drew on spirituals closely tied to Mahalia Jackson whose foundational role in gospel and whose use of spirituals in support of 1950s and 1960s Civil Rights efforts remain central.
Having previously worked with guitarist Anthony Pirog on several projects including tracks with Pirog’s experimental rock band the Messthetics featuring Joe Lally and Brendan Canty of Fugazi Lewis joined the group for the Impulse collaboration The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis issued in March 2024. Captured in two days the recording merged rock’s force with jazz’s exploratory spirit.
Albums
Deface The Currency
2026
Apple Cores
2025
The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis
2024
Eye Of I
2023
An Unruly Manifesto
2019
Days of FreeMan
2015
Divine Travels
2014
Moments
2010
Singles
