James Brandon Lewis Shares Powerful New Track “The Blues Still Blossoms”
“I was thinking about miles of blue fields, that was the visual in my mind,” James Brandon Lewis said 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. Listen + watch a live performance of the song below.
“The Blues Still Blossoms”: https://youtu.be/HyRQ48x9E8E
'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 skronkage. 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.”
Next spring Lewis will head out on a North American co-headlining tour with The Messthetics, an instrumental trio featuring guitarist Anthony Pirog, who is joined by former Fugazi members Joe Lally (bass) and Brendan Canty (drums). “Fear Not (Feat. The Messthetics)” is a song Lewis and The Messthetics collaborated on and released earlier this year; it also features Shahzad Ismaily on Moog synthesizer. Listen to it here: https://youtu.be/X2_9gR1y5zI
“Fear Not” is a sonic poem that captures an energy of resilience, purpose and a brighter tomorrow,” Lewis said of the song’s themes. “The Messthetics are friends at this point and collaborating with them over the years has now brought us to another high point of musical bonding and purely unapologetic energy!”
TOUR DATES
2/22 - San Diego, CA – Casbah#
2/23 - Los Angeles, CA – Zebulon#
2/24 - San Francisco, CA – SFJazz
2/25 - Bend, OR – Volcanic Theatre Pub#
2/26 - Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios#
2/27 - Seattle, WA – Madame Lou’s#
3/12 - Kingston, NY – Tubby's#
3/13 - Toronto, ON – Drake Hotel#
3/14 - Erie, PA – JazzErie @ The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Erie#
3/15 - Chicago, IL – Constellation#
3/17 - Pittsburgh, PA – Club Café#
3/18 - Washington D.C. - Black Cat#
3/19 - Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s#
3/20 - New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge#
3/30 - Knoxville, TN – Big Ears Festival 2023
# with The Messthetics