James Brandon Lewis & Red Lily Quintet For Mahalia, With Love Vinyl LP 2023

1. Sparrow - James Brandon Lewis & Red Lily Quintet
2. Swing Low - James Brandon Lewis & Red Lily Quintet
3. Go Down Moses
4. Wade in the Water
5. Calvary
6. Deep River
7. Elijah Rock
8. Were You There
9. Precious Lord
10. Go Down Moses
11. Wade In The Water
12. Calvary
13. Deep River
14. Elijah Rock
15. Were You There
16. Precious Lord

For Mahalia, With Love - the highly anticipated new album by award-winning tenor saxophonist-composer James Brandon Lewis & his Red Lily Quintet, following on their poll-sweeping Jesup Wagon - reimagines songs made famous by the gospel icon who galvanised a nation with her voice.

Whereas Lewis used his transformative talents to newly illuminate renaissance man George Washington Carver onJesup Wagon, the saxophonist does the same here for gospel-music force of nature Mahalia Jackson. And this time it's personal, because Lewis lived her music growing up, nurtured by a grandmother who had received Mahalia's singing like a bolt from above. Much more than a tribute, this work is"really a three-way conversation between Mahalia, my grandmother and me."

The challenge was to turn these songs into jazz, the 21st century variety. What James and the band [William Parker-bass, Chad Taylor-drums, Kirk Knuffke-cornet, Chris Hoffman-cello] conjure with this music is miraculous.