Caleb Wheeler Curtis - The True Story of Bears and the Invention of the Battery (Deluxe Edition) (2024) [Hi-Res]

Leaving aside the ways that energy storage and our carnivorous ursine friends fit together, there is plenty to ponder in Curtis’ most inventive and far-reaching release to date. Due out November 1, 2024 via Imani Records, [deep breath] The True Story of Bears and the Invention of the Battery marks a new chapter in Curtis’ intriguingly evolving career – actually, make that two chapters, as the album consists of two distinct halves. It features a pair of scintillating but very different trios, and spotlights Curtis’ multi-instrumentalism as he switches between stritch (a straight alto, so christened by Rahsaan Roland Kirk), trumpet, and sopranino and tenor saxophone.

The first half is titled Bears and the Invention of the Battery (an adaptation, perhaps, of the aforementioned true story – the plot thickens) and features Curtis’ brilliant working trio with bassist Sean Conly and drummer Michael Sarin and mostly consists of the leader’s compelling original music, as well as a piece by the undersung altoist Arthur Blythe. The second, Raise Four: Monk the Minimalist, is a bold exploration of the music of Thelonious Monk with bassist Eric Revis and drummer Justin Faulkner, longtime bandmates in the revered Branford Marsalis Quartet.

Bears and the Invention of the Battery marks the first time that Curtis has been able to record as a leader with his own working band, showcasing complex and provocative music that has been fully developed prior to the recording session. The set features Curtis on all four horns, at times layered through overdubs to deepen the palette. To communicate just how deeply personal the music is, Curtis bookends the album with a recording of his late grandfather’s voice, a spoken intro to a tape of his own saxophone playing.

Raise Four offers a stark, raw approach to Monk’s infinitely interpretable repertoire, making a case for the jazz pioneer as a minimalist composer. “Sometimes his songs have very little content, but they're so powerful and impactful and have so much character,” Curtis says. “Monk gave us such a gift in these pieces, and the amount that he got in return is nowhere near the gift that he gave.” The collection reunites him with Revis, who was part of the quartet on 2022’s Heatmap along with drummer Gerald Cleaver and pianist Orrin Evans.

Evans has been a strong supporter of Curtis’ since the saxophonist answered an open call for his Grammy-nominated Captain Black Big Band. All four of Curtis’ leader albums have been released through Evans’ Imani records imprint, and the pianist was the guest artist on the second of three albums Curtis recorded with bassist Noah Garabedian and drummer Vinnie Sperrazza as the collective trio Ember (the third of which was also an Imani release).

Ember’s most recent outing, August in March, presented Curtis’ debut on both stritch and trumpet, while The True Story… now adds sopranino and tenor to his arsenal. Long known as an altoist on the traditional curved horn, in recent years he has dedicated himself almost exclusively to the stritch. In part this acknowledges the strong influence of Rahsaan Roland Kirk, but it also allows him to blaze a new path on a less traditional instrument.

“When people hear or see the stritch, it has a similar wonder, fascination and confusion that the title does,” he says. “It’s an opportunity for everybody to have their own experience as a listener or for me to choose my own experience with the instrument, because now I'm not playing the same horn as Dolphy and Bird and Arthur Blythe and Gary Bartz.”

Curtis first encountered the sopranino while studying with saxophonist Wessell Anderson at Michigan State University, and later was compelled by Ravi Coltrane’s work on the instrument. He finally picked up his own last year after seeing Brazilian legend Hermeto Pascoal at NYC’s Pioneer Works. “Nobody in the band played sopranino,” he recalls, “but I left the concert with a feeling of so much possibility. It felt like you can really do whatever you want in music. I was so hyped up that I bought the horn on the cab ride home.”

It’s rare for a saxophonist to double on trumpet, and even more rare for a musician to be equally adept at both. Although he’s become remarkably accomplished on the trumpet in a short time, he embraces any flaws that linger in his technique, daring to pit his new skills against his virtuoso bandmates’ and rising thrillingly to the occasion. “It's a challenge to myself to break through the perfectionist tendencies that prevent me from taking risks,” he explains. “It's a willingness to be fragile and imperfect, and it can humanize you in front of an audience. That can be pretty scary, but it can also be a way to invite people in.”

Bears and batteries? Searching originals and Monk classics? All it takes is a brief listen to become engaged with making one’s own connections, synapses firing at the breadth and spirit imbued in this wealth of vibrant music.