!!! NEW Album „Transfiguration“ out on INTAKT RECORDS (Feb. 2024) !!!

The charismatic saxophonist and composer James Brandon Lewis is the musician of the moment in the broad field of contemporary jazz. With Code of Being, James Brandon Lewis now presents his second album. The debut CD Molecular, which Lewis recorded with his quartet in 2020 just a few months before Lockdown, was roundly acclaimed as one of the most exciting releases in 2020 (Intakt CD 350). Code of Being is a powerful work consisting of eight compositions by James Brandon Lewis. Beautiful melodies are responsible for the magic of the songs. The four exceptional musicians, each with personalities of their own, create an urgent ensemble sound, moving through a broad palette of sound-colours, rhythms and moods, charged with energy. With a profound sense for lyrical melodies, tonal concision and dynamics, the quartet develop a spirited interplay, reacting to the tiniest atmospheric oscillations on the sound and groove level. “This is captivating music which it is hard to resist, especially the melodies with their thematic beauty.," writes Florian Keller in the liner notes.

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.