James Brandon Lewis: Urgency & Maximum Intention

It has been just over a year since this writer last spoke to saxophonist and composer James Brandon Lewis for the cover feature in DownBeat’s June 2023 issue. He was celebrating a recent run of critically acclaimed releases, including 2021’s Jesup Wagon (Tao Forms), which honored the life and work of African American polymath Dr. George Washington Carver, his 2023 boundary-pushing debut with cult label Anti-, Eye Of I, and two DownBeat Critics Poll wins for Rising Star Tenor Saxophone and Rising Star Group.

While he packed for an imminent flight to take him to the first stop of a nationwide tour, he recounted his restless search for creative expression and his journey to reach wider recognition at the age of 40. “I’m constantly searching,” he emphatically stated. “If there’s nothing new under the sun, I’m not interested in that kind of sun.” A year later, as he now joins a video call on a summer morning from a New Jersey coffee shop, it seems as if he has only just returned.

Read the feature in Downbeat.

[This piece was published on 10/09/24]