James Brandon Lewis, Red Lily Quintet

CD version. The third album by James Brandon Lewis's Red Lily, after Jesup Wagon (2021) and For Mahalia, With Love (2023). Each Red Lily project is an homage to a historical figure who shaped the tenor saxophonist's life, and this time the subject is a surprise: Antonín Dvořák, the Czech composer who drew on the folk songs of his own country and then on the music he found in the United States, where he lived and worked for three years from 1892.

Calling Antonín is built on original pieces that are variations on Dvořák, take their cue from him or carry other personal meanings, from 'Spirit of the Living God' and 'Lento' to 'Going Home' and 'O' Rebicku': strong melodies, driving rhythms and a band that blends chamber textures with the fire of contemporary jazz. Red Lily is now Kirk Knuffke on cornet, Melanie Dyer on viola, Tomeka Reid on cello, Joshua Abrams on bass and Chad Taylor on drums.

Recorded on 7 and 8 October 2025 and mixed by Paul Wickliffe, with liner notes by the Dvořák scholar Michael Beckerman, dean of the UCLA School of Music. It follows Lewis's Tenor Saxophonist of the Year award in the Downbeat Critics Poll and a Guggenheim Fellowship in composition.

Released by Tao Forms (TAO 21). The LP is a first edition of 978 copies in a heavyweight gatefold jacket and holds seven tracks; the CD comes in an eight-panel digipak and holds nine.