Thomas Sayers Ellis
James Brandon Lewis Trio.
“It takes a lot of gumption…a lot of work to really map yourself,” said tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, “and get beyond your taught norm.”
He was speaking of his formative years in school and of his career path since — which will lead him to perform with his trio at Firehouse 12 this Friday night, Oct. 19.
On 2016’s No Filter, the trio bursts out of the gate with ferocious energy (“It is hands down not playing around,” Lewis said), but never loses sight of his extremely personal sound. It suggests that Lewis has put that work in as a player, composer and bandleader.
Lewis traces his trajectory as a player back to his roots in Buffalo, N.Y. (“it’s a groove town,” he said) as well as to foundational experiences playing gospel and listening to hip hop records with his older brother in the ‘90s. His 2014 album Divine Travels explored his connection with spiritual music in more depth, while he describes 2015’s Days of Freeman as a kind of tribute to hip hop.
“This is the generation of the concept album in jazz,” Lewis says, and while No Filter doesn’t have as overt a concept as his previous albums, the record feels like a record rather than a collection of songs, with an easy progression from track to track, and guest appearances that feel woven into the fabric of the music. The core trio of Lewis, bassist Luke Stewart, and percussionist Warren Trae Crudup III internalizes a huge range of influences to create a sound that grooves relentlessly, pushing at the edges of time and tonality but never abandoning them.
No Filter isn’t as overt in its connection to hip hop as Days of Freeman, but still shows a player enamored of the sound, and respectful of it enough to not try to force it into his compositions.
“I didn’t have to learn about it; it was just there in my subconscious,” Lewis said of his connection to the genre. This shows in his playing. Lewis at times sounds like he’s channeling the cadence of an MC in the midst of his improvisations, sometimes playing more with rhythm than pitch. This is most recognizable on the track “Y’all Slept,” which features a guest verse by Brooklyn-based MC P.SO the Earth Tone King. In the solo that follows, Lewis’s phrasing almost echoes the unhurried flow of the MC, making the marriage of styles feel totally natural.
“To me, you’re doing the music a disservice if you have a backbeat and you’re just playing bebop licks over it…. That’s not hip hop,” Lewis said.
Lewis said the trio format gives him freedom as a composer and especially as an improviser. He cited mentor and pianist Matthew Shipp, as someone who pushed him to try the format.
“A whole other universe opened up for me,” he said. “It seemed as if my melodic ideas were never ending … it made me aware that I don’t have to have a harmonic instrument … guiding where I should be going.” This creates a remarkable effect, in that the trio still gets a huge sound that is tightly locked in, but makes little fluctuations and adjustments as they go, sometimes ending briefly in totally unrecognizable territory. Beyond hip hop and gospel influences, you can hear strains of West African grooves, the harder edge of downtown-scene experimental rock, and electronic timbres coming from the trio, and it is a pleasure to hear these influences so thoroughly incorporated into the trio’s sound.
“In one show, we could be playing rock, hip-hop, free jazz … but the freedom comes from breaking down the constructs,” Lewis said. “The fluidity can be fascinating.”
Questions of identity and authenticity are crucial to any musician’s development, and it’s clear that the 35-year-old Lewis has given these subjects a lot of thought while working as a bandleader over the last decade. Lewis fondly recalls composition lessons with Pulitzer-nominated trumpeter, composer and current CT resident Wadada Leo Smith, who encouraged him to find the defining traits of whatever he was listening to.
“In one semester we listened to Michael Jackson, in another we listened to Billie Holiday, in another to Tupac. But he always encouraged us to find the unique moment, whether it was one note, one little dynamic gesture,” Lewis said. It’s clear that this kind of experience, as much as his earliest musical experiences growing up, have affected Lewis as a player and thinker, walking comfortably between worlds without ignoring the traditions that helped to shape him.
“I don’t have to lie to myself about who I am as a player,” he said. But one doesn’t get the impression that he has boxed himself in. Lewis is moving the boundaries for himself, album by album and night by night, across a map of sound.
James Brandon Lewis performs at Firehouse 12, 45 Crown St., Friday, Oct. 19, with sets at 8:30 and 10 p.m. Visit Firehouse 12’s website for more information.
