Saxophonist, composer, and writer.

James Brandon Lewis is a saxophonist, composer, and writer whose creative practice spans music, poetry, visual art, and scholarly inquiry. Born in Buffalo, New York, and based in New York City, he is a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow. In 2025, DownBeat's Critics Poll named him both Artist of the Year and Tenor Saxophonist of the Year.

Lewis leads ensembles including his trio, quartet, and Red Lily Quintet. His recordings include Molecular (2020), Jesup Wagon (2021), For Mahalia with Love (2023), Eye of I (2023), Apple Cores (2025), and Abstraction is Deliverance (2025). His 2026 releases include Deface the Currency with the Messthetics, These Are Soulful Days with the Lutoslawski Quartet, and Omni by the James Brandon Lewis Quartet. His forthcoming Red Lily album Calling Antonín pays tribute to composer Antonín Dvořák.

His Red Lily Quintet album Jesup Wagon received DownBeat's 2022 Album of the Year honor, while For Mahalia with Love received an Academie Charles Cros Grand Prix in 2023. His other distinctions include a 2025 ASCAP Plus Award, DownBeat's 2024 Rising Star Composer and Rising Star Jazz Artist honors, the 2023 Deutscher Jazz Preis for International Band of the Year, and the 2019 ASCAP Foundation Fred Ho Award in Composition.

Lewis has performed with musicians including William Parker, Dave Douglas, Chad Taylor, Marc Ribot, Nicole Mitchell, and Ravi Coltrane. His international appearances include the Newport and North Sea jazz festivals, Philharmonie de Paris, and the Village Vanguard.

Alongside his performing and recording career, Lewis has pursued scholarly research in creativity. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Creativity from Rowan University in 2025, completing the dissertation Symphony of Cells, The Creative Encounter and the path to Molecular Systematic Music. He also holds a Master of Fine Art in Jazz Studies from the California Institute of the Arts (2010) and a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies from Howard University (2006).

His interdisciplinary work extends into museum and gallery settings. Jesup Wagon was included in The World Without End: The George Washington Carver Project at the California African American Museum (2024-2025). His visual art appeared in the exhibition catalogue Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music (2023), a project that also included his live instrumental and poetry performance. He performed with his Dead Lecturers ensemble at Philharmonie de Paris that year.

His collaborative performances connect music, poetry, and visual art. In 2022, he and poet Anne Waldman performed at Hauser & Wirth in response to the work of Pat Steir. He appeared with the Charles Gaines Ensemble at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in 2021. His work with Heroes Are Gang Leaders (HAGL) includes the recording Amiri Baraka Sessions (2019); the ensemble received the 2018 American Book Award for Oral Tradition.

His teaching includes a poetry-and-jazz workshop with Waldman at Brown University (2018), a poetry-and-jazz workshop at Howard University (2015), and presentations on compositional process at Pratt Institute and improvisation and collaboration at Hunter College. He has lectured on John Coltrane's legacy at New York University and participated in a Sonny Rollins panel at the Schomburg Center.

Lewis has held residencies at Ragdale (2023), MacDowell (2022), and the Robert Rauschenberg Residency (2020). His earlier residencies include Music Action Lab (2017), Omi International Arts Center (2013), and the Atlantic Center for the Arts (2011).

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