James Brandon Lewis & Lutosławski Quartet – These Are Soulful Days (released April 18, 2026, previously issued in 2023 as bonus disc to For Mahalia, With Love, TAO Forms)
James Brandon Lewis – tenor saxophone, Roksana Kwaśnikowska – first violin, Marcin Markowicz – second violin, Artur Rozmysłowicz – viola, Maciej Młodawski – cello
I’ve really been enjoying the new album by James Brandon Lewis, which admittedly is a sentence I could have written almost any time in the last five years, and it would have been true. That’s what I thought about For Mahalia, With Love, Lewis’ powerful tribute to the “once in a millennium” gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson. (1) That album, with the unusual quintet of Lewis’s sax with cornet (Kirk Knuffke), two string players (William Parker’s bass and Christopher Hoffman’s cello), and drummer Chad Taylor, felt like Lewis had arrived (it was #1 on the 2023 Francis Davis year-end poll). That year I remember streaming this extraordinary gospel-meets-ecstatic free jazz album a lot, but little did I realize that if I had bought the physical CD of For Mahalia, With Love, I would have gotten – as a bonus disc and the subject of this review, These Are Soulful Days. This April 17th for Record Store Day, These Are Soulful Days got a stand-alone release, on LP (if you can still find a copy), CD, and also on streaming as well. It certainly deserves the attention, and in fact is one of my favorite things James Brandon Lewis has done.
The album documents a live performance from November 2021 at the Jazztopad Festival in Wroclaw, Poland, where Lewis debuted an extended suite written for his tenor supported by the Poland-based Lutosławski Quartet. One of the things that impresses me is the complexity and ambition of the music. Lewis says in the album notes that the music “is built from, and inspired by, the fabric of a quilted history of African-American music from its folk traditions of blues, spirituals, and jazz. It embodies the sentiment of a joyful past, a determined present, and a resilient future.” The whole work is a little over 50 minutes long, including four multi-part movements, an epilogue and prologue, and an encore (all met to great enthusiasm from the festival audience in Wroclaw, Poland). Those movements are highly structured, and the string writing by Lewis is wonderfully direct and expressive, providing the music with both a narrative arc and drama. Each of the movements has episodic themes, which weave in strong melodic materials drawn not just from gospel but (to my ears) from the blues and themes of American folk traditions. The emotional climax comes in the last movement, which is built around the melody “Even The Sparrow,” a theme that sounds like a century-old hymn, but which Lewis wrote and has recorded at least three other times. (2)
The Lutosławski Quartet is an ideal choice to support this material. Named after the famous Polish composer, the quartet’s discography largely focuses on modern classical music, but they have an important streak of collaborations with jazz players. On Bandcamp (as a free download), you can hear a 2014 cross-genre collaboration as part of the Eklektik Session festival in Wrocław. More recently, in January, Kris Davis released an astounding collaboration with the Lutosławski Quartet, documenting a 2024 recording of a suite of music inspired by the climate crisis. These Are Soulful Days is an important entry in the discography of this quartet and shows how they support jazz music with precision and passion.
These Are Soulful Days also shows off my favorite thing about Lewis’ playing: his sound. Especially live, that sound is enormous, a palpable force that lights up any music he plays. In interviews, Lewis often talks about how he works on his sound, and it shows. Even after the intricacies of the music fade, you can still hear the vibrations of that tone and its presence reverberating in your mind’s ear. These Are Soulful Days is an ideal way to hear one of the great tenor sounds in music, in a setting that displays memorable writing with beautiful melodies, and thematic heft. You should go and hear Lewis live, but to hear what makes him special, listen to These Are Soulful Days.
FOOTNOTES
(1) Martin Luther King said of Jackson, “A voice like hers comes along once in a millennium.” I recently learned that the most famous portion of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech was unscripted, and it was prompted by Jackson (who was within earshot) yelling out to King during the speech, “Tell them about the dream, Martin!” Amazing.
(2) Lewis recorded his theme “Sparrow” on For Mahalia, With Love (TAO Forms), Eye Of I (Anti) with his quartet on Abstraction Is Deliverance (Intakt Records).
Additional Notes
Listen to more of the Lutosławski Quartet on the radio
On my radio show “Where Is Brooklyn,” I’ll be playing both of the recently released jazz albums that feature the Lutosławski Quartet, Lewis’ These Are Soulful Days, and Kris Davis’ . The Solastalgia Suite. Tune into Vassar College radio, wvkr.org this Sunday morning, 5/3 at 2 a.m., or if you’re near Poughkeepsie, New York, listen at 91.3 FM.
New JBL coming out!
Lewis will have a new quartet album out later this year, OMNI (releasing June 26 on Intakt Records). OMNI features his quartet that has been so impressive on Abstraction Is Deliverance (2025), Transfiguration (2024), and Code of Being (2021), Aruán Ortiz (piano), Chad Taylor (drums), and Brad Jones (bass). Mark your calendar!
Follow Lewis for Great Album Picks
For better or worse, Instagram is the place to follow what musicians are doing, and one of the reasons to stay on the platform is to follow @jamesbrandonlewis. I really enjoy how Lewis likes sharing what albums he’s listening to, and recently he has plugged some personal favorites of mine like Bob Berg’s New Birth, Jeanne Lee’s Conspiracy, and Abdul Wadud’s By Myself. Share the love.
Listen to Bill Barron
I know from his interviews that JBL will often mention how important the criminally underrated tenor player (and brother of pianist Kenny Barron) Bill Barron is. Unfortunately, a lot of Barron’s music is out of print online (and I’m still getting hip to it myself). My entry point is the music he made with trumpeter Ted Curson. Curson’s Tears for Dolphy (1964) is on streaming and features two Barron compositions (“East 6th Street” and “7/4 Funny Time”) and powerful tenor playing by the great Barron. This list of key tracks is also a great place to start. Check it out.