APPLE CORES [LP]

Apple Cores is the latest full-length album from New York tenor saxophonist James Brandon
Lewis, "one of the fiercest sounds in jazz today" (The Guardian) with a "penchant for
unbound exploration" (Pitchfork). Informed by the rhythms and textures of hip-hop and funk
while remaining rooted in jazz, Apple Cores was recorded with Chad Taylor (drums/mbira)
and Josh Werner (bass/guitar) over the course of two intense, entirely improvised sessions.
The album takes its name and intention from the column that poet and jazz theorist Amiri
Baraka wrote for DownBeat in the 1960s. In addition to Baraka, the influence of another jazz
giant looms mightily over Apple Cores: trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist, Don Cherry. In a
testament to Cherry's influence over the music that the trio is playing, Lewis designed each
song title as a cryptogram of sorts, making subtle references to Cherry's life and music.
Apple Cores further cements Lewis as one of the provocative and prolific musical voices of
his generation. It follows his breakthrough with JazzTimes' Album of the Year Jesup Wagon
(2021), a dreamlike mosaic of gospel, folk-blues, and catcalling brass bands inspired by
inventor George Washington Carver, and Eye Of I (2023), his joyous and exploratory debut
for ANTI-.