Label: Intakt Records, 2020

Personnel - James Brandon Lewis: tenor saxophone; Chad Taylor: drums, mbira.

Following up the highly successful Radiant Imprints album, hailed by JazzTrail as one of the best of 2018, the dynamic duo of saxophonist James Brandon Lewis and drummer Chad Taylor is back with Live in Willisau, an eight-track session captured in 2019 at the 45th Willisau Jazz Festival, Switzerland.

The first two pieces, “Twenty Four” and “Radiance”, were drawn from their debut album. Integrating Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” and “26-2”, the former sparkles with the energy of Lewis’ propagative rhythmic figures and Taylor’s percolating sounds, which includes wildly active snare, rolling thunder toms and cymbal scintillation. At some point, both musicians express their thoughts alone. This piece segues into the next one without interruption. It's a sort of work song introduced by Coltrane’s “Seraphic Light” and containing gospel elements in the melody and beneficial changes of beat along the way. It bears some similarity in tone with Mal Waldron’s relentless “Watakushi No Sekai”, heightened here by a flawless rhythmic sense and undulating fervor.

The contemplative “Come Sunday” by Duke Ellington, stripped down to its bear essentials, along with the duo’s “With Sorrow Lonnie”, feel more spacious and relaxing as they are rhythmically conducted by the chimelike timbres of the African mbira.

Elasticity and robustness are essential factors in the unfiltered approach adopted by these creative minds. Take, for example, “Imprints”, whose sinewy start highlights an empowering tenor that etches sinuous figures and zigzagging lines on the entangling percussive tapestries. It's great to see Lewis chaining elliptical phrases and pinning them down with low-pitched notes for stabilization. Also, Dewey Redman’s “Willisee”, my favorite track on the album, carries musical farsightedness. We find them excavating confrontational, urgent sounds - Coltrane invocations, blues tones, free bop discharges, and an auspicious mix of funk and hip-hop by the end.

Delivered raw, the music of Lewis and Taylor is an impressive communion of technique, pure energy and sound, with both musicians orchestrating ideas not only with vitality but also with a refined taste. Recently, I’ve no idea of a better horn that mingles so beautifully with lyrical, mindful rhythms.

Favorite Tracks:
05 - Imprints ► 06 - Watakushi No Sekai ► 08 - Willisee