James Brandon Lewis has never been content to simply look backward. Even when he draws inspiration from the giants who came before him, his music has a restless quality—always searching for another possibility, another connection, another note.
That spirit is at the heart of Calling Antonín, the new album from Lewis and his Red Lily ensemble, due October 23 on TAO Forms. The project takes an unexpected journey into the music and legacy of Czech composer Antonín Dvořák, particularly the three years he spent in the United States beginning in 1892.
For Lewis, however, this isn't simply an exploration of classical music. It's an investigation into the roots of American music itself—and the fascinating connections between Dvořák, African-American spirituals, jazz and the generations of musicians who followed.
The timing is particularly significant for Lewis. Fresh from being named Tenor Saxophonist of the Year in the DownBeat Critics Poll, receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship for Music Composition and completing a celebrated engagement at New York's Village Vanguard with his quartet, he continues to establish himself as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary jazz.
Critics have taken notice. DownBeat has described Lewis as an artist "always looking for the next note," while NPR Music has called him a "righteous new classic of the improvising avant-garde." The Guardian has gone even further, describing his saxophone sound as "one of the fiercest sounds in modern jazz."
Calling Antonín finds that sound exploring a composer whose relationship with America was considerably more complicated—and influential—than his place in classical music history might initially suggest.
Dvořák came to the United States in 1892 to lead the National Conservatory of Music of America, an institution founded by Jeannette Thurber, an ambitious patron who wanted to create a uniquely American musical tradition. Dvořák believed that tradition could be found not by imitating European composers, but by looking to the music already being created in America.
He became particularly interested in African-American spirituals and Native American music. He also formed a friendship with Harry Burleigh, an African-American composer and student at the conservatory who became Dvořák's assistant. Burleigh introduced Dvořák to spirituals, including "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," helping expose the composer to a musical tradition that would profoundly influence his thinking.
Those connections eventually found their way into Dvořák's celebrated New World Symphony.
Lewis became fascinated by this history while researching a project that originally began nearly a decade ago. In 2016, bassist and composer William Parker contacted him about creating music for a Dvořák-themed production by the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theater. The project had previously been championed by trumpeter Roy Campbell, to whom Calling Antonín is dedicated.
Lewis agreed to become musical director and began digging deeply into Dvořák's life, his American experience and the musical relationships surrounding him.
What he discovered was a remarkable lineage.
Through Dvořák and Burleigh, Lewis began following a musical path that eventually connected to figures such as Duke Ellington. Maurice Peress's book Dvořák to Ellington helped illuminate a broader network of teachers and musicians whose influence stretched across generations, including Will Marion Cook, Aaron Copland, George Gershwin and Eubie Blake.
For Lewis, the story isn't about placing jazz inside a classical framework. It's about recognizing that American music has always been interconnected, constantly borrowing, transforming and reinventing itself.
That idea becomes the foundation for Calling Antonín.
The album's nine compositions are Lewis originals, but many are variations on, or inspired by, pieces Dvořák wrote during his American period. Others reflect Lewis's own personal relationship to the composer and the history surrounding him.
The first preview, "Dilemma of Hearts," offers perhaps the clearest example of how Lewis approaches the material. Inspired by the complicated relationship between Dvořák and his wife's sister, the composition takes the theme from the final movement of Dvořák's New World Symphony and transforms it into something darker and more mournful.
Rather than presenting the familiar melody straightforwardly, Lewis turns it into a dirge, surrounding the theme with layers of simultaneous free improvisation. It's a striking example of how the past can become raw material for something entirely new.
The Red Lily ensemble gives Lewis an unusually rich palette with which to explore these ideas. The group features cornetist Kirk Knuffke, violinist Melanie Dyer, cellist Tomeka Reid, bassist Joshua Abrams and drummer Chad Taylor—musicians who, like Lewis, occupy important places in today's adventurous American jazz scene.
This is the third Red Lily album, following 2021's Jesup Wagon, a tribute to inventor George Washington Carver that was named Album of the Year in the 2022 DownBeat Critics Poll, and 2023's For Mahalia, With Love, Lewis's powerful evocation of gospel legend Mahalia Jackson.
Lewis has described Red Lily as "regal, majestic" and as what brilliance might sound like if it could be transformed into sound. On Calling Antonín, that description takes on another dimension as the ensemble moves between written melodies, improvisation, chamber-like textures and explosive rhythmic passages.
The result is part historical investigation, part tribute and part musical conversation across centuries.
And perhaps that is what makes Calling Antonín so compelling. Lewis isn't attempting to recreate Dvořák. He is asking what happens when Dvořák's ideas enter the hands of musicians living and creating in 2026.
The answer is a reminder that jazz remains a living tradition precisely because it refuses to stand still.
The musical journey that began with spirituals, ragtime and early American composition continued through swing, bebop, funk, rock and countless other forms before arriving at today's improvisers. Lewis now adds his own chapter to that continuing story.
Dvořák once looked to America for the musical ingredients that could help define an American sound. More than a century later, James Brandon Lewis is looking back at Dvořák—and then pushing the music forward again.
Calling Antonín will be released October 23 on TAO Forms. The album features "Spirit of the Living God," "Lento," "Dilemma of Hearts," "Calling Antonín," "Going Home," "Ode to P.L.D.," "I Want Jesus to Walk With Me," "Finale - Humoresque" and "O' Rebicku."
Lewis and Red Lily will also take the music on the road, with European performances scheduled in Paris on October 27, Le Mans on October 29, Milan on November 7 and Dresden on November 11.
For an artist who has built his reputation by constantly challenging the boundaries of contemporary jazz, Calling Antonín feels like a natural next step: a journey into the past that ultimately points toward the future.
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