Jazz Poetry 2025: James Brandon Lewis Quintet, ft. Chad Taylor, Haile Bizen, Huang Xiang

The final Jazz Poetry performance of 2025, and the second in collaboration with the Bridges Creative Summit at City of Asylum, goes out with a bang, welcoming back a legendary headliner and the first initiate of City of Asylum’s sanctuary program. Each Jazz Poetry program begins with a full set by the band, followed by a collaborative performance with each poet. In these collaborations, poets share their work alongside the musicians, the two art forms melding to create that signature Jazz Poetry improvisational style that offers something exciting, new, and unique with each individual performance. 

Celebrated saxophonist James Brandon Lewis takes to the stage for his fifth year as festival headliner. His performance gives audiences a sneak peek of his next project: a suite of songs in tribute to American multi-instrumentalist, composer, and bandleader Eric Dolphy. This program will feature poetry collaborations with residents from visiting European ICORN cities, including Eritrean poet Haile Bizan, and the first-ever Writer-in-Residence Huang Xiang, who was the inspiration and original poet for our (now annual) Jazz Poetry Month Festival. In contemporary Chinese literature, Huang Xiang is one of the earliest and most prolific liberal poets and writers in the “underground literature” scene. 

Featured Musicians:

James Brandon Lewis: saxophone

Kirk Knuffke: cornet

Patricia Brennan: vibraphone

Chris Lightcap: bass

Chad Taylor: drums 

About the Band:

New York tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis is “one of the fiercest sounds in jazz today” (The Guardian) with a “penchant for unbound exploration” (Pitchfork). James’s latest album, Apple Cores, is his sixteenth and further cements James 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-. The latter paved the way for The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis (2024), a collaboration with experimental jazz punk trio the Messthetics. Recently named their Rising Star as both Artist of the Year and Composer of the Year, Downbeat declared: “James Brandon Lewis does not take the easy road. Having forged a singular sound on the tenor saxophone, he could simply devise settings that showcase his brawny tone. Instead, he has rooted his recent music in extramusical research.”

About the Poets:

Huang Xiang, a native of Guidong County, Hunan Province, China, was born in December 1941. Huang Xiang began publishing his work in 1958 when his poems were selected in a nationwide poetry collection. He was admitted to the Chinese Writers Association and became its youngest member at 17. Huang Xiang’s writings cover various forms and styles such as poetry, philosophy, essay and prose, political commentary, autobiography, and more. His writing “An Open Letter to President Carter” brought worldwide attention to the human rights movement in China. From 1959 to 1995, he was imprisoned a total of six times (for 12 years) for his determined pursuit of freedom of spirit and expression and human rights advocacy. Between October 2004 and October 2006, Huang Xiang was the first Writer-in-Residence at City of Asylum Pittsburgh. His creation of “House Poem” was the original “House Publication” on Sampsonia Way and features his poetry in bold white lettering covering the house’s exterior. In 2005 and 2006, Huang Xiang staged a joint performance in the first and second-ever Jazz Poetry festivals with Oliver Lake, a renowned American jazz musician, in Pittsburgh. In April 2007, Huang Xiang and Oliver Lake were invited to attend the PEN World Voices festival, where they revived their Jazz Poetry performance among appearances by other world-renowned writers, artists, and musicians, including Patti Smith and Elvis Costello.  

About Your Visit: 

The in-house restaurant, Cucina Alfabeto, is open for dinner from 5–10 pm. Please visit Open Table or call 412-435-1111 to make a reservation.