!!! NEW ALBUM “OMNI“ OUT ON INTAKT (26.6.26)!!!

James Brandon Lewis is on the top of the international jazz world and is considered one of the most influential voices in contemporary jazz. With a powerful, direct tenor saxophone sound and lyrical depth in both his solos and compositions, he makes a tremendous impact—especially with his quartet. Omni is the sixth album by the acclaimed James Brandon Lewis Quartet featuring Aruán Ortiz, Brad Jones, and Chad Taylor. Over the past decade, this outstanding quartet has been an integral part of Lewis’s concept of “Molecular Systematic Music,” which initially revolved around six- or seven-note scales, evolved into a twelve-tone system, and continues to expand. With Omni, the concept grows to include further elements and reveals, among other things, a musical gesture that could be called “twelve-tone gospel.” Omni is arguably James Brandon Lewis’s most personal statement to date and once again demonstrates the mastery of the individual musicians in a group brimming with internal dialogue and collective creativity. “A sermon without words” is how Kevin Le Gendre titles the liner notes, and concludes: “What we find here is spiritual music in its purest form.”

James Brandon Lewis (b.1983) is a critically- acclaimed composer, saxophonist, and writer. He has received accolades from NPR, ASCAP Foundation, The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. He has been described as “ a saxophonist who embodies and transcends tradition” by The New York Times. and a promising young talent having listened to the elders by Jazz Legend Sonny Rollins. The saxophonist has balanced a deep, gospel -informed spirituality with Free-Jazz- abandon and hard-hitting funk-meets-hip-hop underpinning - Rolling Stone Magazine.  Lewis created Molecular Systematic Music in 2011 under a different moniker, it describes a twofold approach to music, braiding together the fundamentals of music theory with the ideas of molecular biology in the context of DNA. While not a molecular biologist, the ideas he expresses deploy the vocabulary of molecular biology as useful metaphors, while exploring new possibilities and relationships across disciplines. He has released several critically-acclaimed albums most recently highly touted Jesup Wagon and tours internationally leading several ensembles, and is a member and co-founder of American Book award winning Ensemble Heroes Are Gang Leaders. James was recently voted Rising Star Tenor Saxophonist by Downbeat magazines 2020s International  Critics poll. He attended Howard University and received his M.F.A from California Institute of the Arts.