James Brandon Lewis shares new single ‘The Blues Still Blossoms’
JAMES BRANDON LEWIS SHARES NEW SINGLE ‘THE BLUES STILL BLOSSOMS’ ALONGSIDE LIVE VIDEO
NEW ALBUM EYE OF I, OUT 3 FEBRUARY VIA ANTI-
“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”
Sonny Rollins
“A saxophonist who embodies and transcends tradition”
The New York Times
“Next-gen sax colossus […] blazes impressively from emotional blues to wild free jazz”
Uncut
“Jazz sax ace channels Donny Hathaway’s song of spiritual survival with grit and compassion”
Mojo
“One of the foremost jazz technicians of his time, revered by his peers and jazz greats alike”
Clash
Listen to ‘The Blues Still Blossoms’ here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7TeiBB6_uw
Watch a live video of the track here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyRQ48x9E8E
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“I was thinking about miles of blue fields, that was the visual in my mind,” James Brandon Lewis says of his contemplative new song ‘The Blues Still Blossoms’, out today. “I wanted a blues that sounded like it was floating and never ending. And new, refreshing. The piece is built on word-like phrasing – I’m not thinking about time at all. It’s like a breathing walk, or a conversation.” The track is from Lewis’s upcoming album Eye of I, out on February 3, 2023 via ANTI-. He has today also shared a live performance of the song featuring the trio Chris Hoffman (electronic chello) and Max Jaffe (drums) who play on Eye of I.
Eye Of I is a record alive with the messy contrasts of life in the United States circa 2022 – dissonant one minute and graceful/prayerful the next; animated by anger and contention as well as the possibility of resolution, and holding equal space for expressions of steadfast faith and wild spontaneous skronk. Lewis’ melodic identity encompasses ancient and future, inside and outside, density and openness, church and street. He’s a master of the short infectious motif, and like his hero Sonny Rollins, devotes long expanses of his improvisation to the stretching and refracting and mutating of short phrases. Rollins gave Lewis very high praise when they met recently, saying: “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.”
‘The Blues Still Blossoms’ follows James’ recently shared interpretation of Donny Hathaway’s ‘Someday We’ll All Be Free‘ as well as previous single ‘Fear Not (feat. The Messthetics)‘.
Pre-order Eye Of I, which includes liner notes by Thurston Moore, here:
https://www.jblewis.com/
Photo credit: Ben Pier
High-res images can be found here
Eye Of I tracklist:
1. Foreground
2. Someday We’ll All Be Free
3. The Blues Still Blossoms
4. Middle Ground
5. Eye Of I
6. Within You Are Answers
7. Womb Water
8. Background
9. Send Seraphic Beings
10. Even The Sparrow
11. Fear Not (feat. The Messthetics)