Caleb Wheeler Curtis & Jason Moran - Incantation (2026) [Hi-Res]

Listening to the greatest jazz duos can feel like eavesdropping on a true meeting of minds, a summit of ingenious imaginations in which each partner alternately engages, challenges, delights, drives, inspires, surprises and startles the other. Such is abundantly the case with Incantation, the arresting new album pairing multi-instrumentalist Caleb Wheeler Curtis and pianist Jason Moran.

Out October 23, 2026 via Imani Records, Incantation features two contemporary jazz masters who bridge an expansive vision of the creative music tradition with a fearless urge to press ever forward into unmapped sonic territories. That history-encompassing spectrum of influences is on luminous display throughout the album, which features favorite compositions from both artists’ songbooks along with a pair of free improvisations, a new Curtis original and carefully chosen material from both peers and forebears.

The title of Incantation is an inadvertent echo of Curtis’ acclaimed recent sextet album Ritual, both suggesting a ceremonial aspect tapping into the music’s spiritual continuum. “In a sense, this music is a call to the ancestors,” Curtis explains. “I am very grateful to the musicians that left all this music for us. It's just not possible to play without invoking them. Our teachers and the people that we admire live inside of the tunes. It's the greatest honor I can imagine to participate in the same story as Thelonious Monk and Eric Dolphy, Johnny Hodges and Duke Ellington, Cannonball Adderley and Jaki Byard, Orrin Evans and Jason Moran.”

The last time that Curtis and Moran stepped into the studio together, to record the 2018 postmodern Charlie Parker tribute Freebird, it wasn’t on quite such an equal footing. Moran was the marquee name, an established star in the jazz pantheon, appearing as a special guest with Curtis and the other members of Walking Distance, an up-and-coming collective quartet recording just their second album. The results were exhilarating, acclaimed among the 20 best jazz albums of the year by The New York Times.

Less than a decade later, such distinctions have been all but erased. Moran remains one of the most revered figures in contemporary music, tagged by Rolling Stone as, “the most provocative thinker in current jazz.” But by the time they reconvened for the session that became Incantation, Curtis had long since proved himself to be one of the most bold and inventive voices of his generation, hailed by All About Jazz as, “one of the more daring musicians in jazz today.”

Curtis has spent the years since that 2018 outing broadening his voice in unexpected ways - specializing in the rarely-used stritch, the straight alto sax thus christened by Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and adding trumpet to his arsenal - as well as collaborating with a host of greats including Orrin Evans, Eric Revis, Gerald Cleaver, Justin Faulkner and others, and releasing a string of acclaimed and original albums under his own name and with the feverishly adventurous trio Ember.

In conceiving the project, Curtis took a cue from the title of Moran’s COVID-era solo piano album, The Sound Will Tell You. “To me, that means that we're going to use the sound of the instruments to generate the music,” he says. “There doesn't need to be some overwrought concept. It needs just Jason’s sound and my sound, and the interaction between the two.”

It’s Curtis’ sound that opens the album, his soprano weaving sinuously into “That Which Cannot Be Replaced” from New Year, the 2019 debut of the not-yet-named Ember. It’s the first of four Curtis compositions on the album, along with the newly penned title track, “Ain’t No Storm” from his 2021 album of the same name and “Flotation Device and the Shivers” from Ember’s 2023 August in March. (“Ain’t No Storm” is also reprised as the album’s brief, meditative coda.)

Moran culled a pair of songs from his own catalogue for the session. “Gangsterism on a River” was originally recorded with the pianist’s longtime Bandwagon trio as well as legendary saxophonist Sam Rivers on 2001’s Black Stars. The brooding “Restin’” is taken at an even slower and moodier pace than the original on 2005’s Same Mother.

The pair also embark on a pair of improvised pieces, the tumultuous and angular “One Hundred Years” and the stark “Archaeology.” The latter features Curtis on trumpet, a relatively new endeavor that reveals his willingness to work without a net. “The first place I started to play trumpet was with Ember, because we had created an environment where failure was an acceptable option,” he says. “Playing duo with Jason is a very sensitive and vulnerable musical environment, magnifying every choice, so I spent nearly the whole session looking at the trumpet on the stand, wondering when I would find the moment to step through the door of fear. ‘Archaeology’ was the last thing we recorded, and I’m proud of how it came out.”

Preceded by a brief reminiscence by Moran about his mentor, Jaki Byard, “Miss Nancy” is a tune by saxophonist Arthur Blythe, who Curtis has championed as a major (and undersung) influence. “Tiramisu for Two” was written by Ember bandmate Noah Garabedian, originally recorded on New Year and a staple of the trio’s set ever since. The final selection is the sly blues “Big Small” by Orrin Evans, founder of Imani Records and a longtime collaborator of Curtis.

“Jason imbues all of his projects with community, place, time, and history. I love that, and it’s been one of the through lines that has proven very inspirational over the years.” Curtis says. “Everything he does is creating bridges through time and space, highlighting the people that have been making this music and the communities they come from. By bringing these songs to play with Jason, I’m thrilled to draw connections through my musical history, mentors, family, friends, and collaborators..”

Caleb Wheeler Curtis – stritch, soprano saxophone (1, 4, 7), trumpet (9)
Jason Moran – piano