For those unaware, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Caleb Wheeler Curtis is a musician known for his intensely focused and garrulously inventive style, which draws from a wide range of influences including progressive bop and post-Coltrane/Ornette free improvisation.

Based in Brooklyn, NY, Caleb is a leader and core member of several bands, including Ember, Orrin Evans & The Captain Black Big Band (2x GRAMMY Nominated), Walking Distance, and the Fat Cat Big Band. His third album as a leader, HEATMAP, was released on Imani Records in 2022 and features pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Eric Revis, and drummer Gerald Cleaver.

The album received widespread critical acclaim, and in addition to his three albums as a leader, Caleb has also released two albums with Ember, two albums with Walking Distance, and a duo album with Swiss pianist Laurent Nicoud.

His brand new double-disc album is entitled The True Story of Bears and the Invention of the Battery and is split into two works: Bears and the Invention of the Battery and a collection of Thelonious Monk songs on Raise Four: Monk the Minimalist.

Disc 1 – Bears and the Invention of the Battery

1. Another Tape (for Gerald)
2. The First Question
3. This Cult Does Not Help
4. A Feather is Not a Bird
5. Odessa
6. Bears and the Invention of the Battery
7. Stellar Ray, See?
8. Miedo
9. Empires
10. So Long

Recorded April 20th, 2024 at The Bridge Studio, Brooklyn, NY, this impassioned, dutifully-crafted new recording opens on the short, but sweet spoken introduction Another Tape (for Gerald) and the sweetly jaunty The First Question and then brings us the all-embracing melodies within This Cult Does Not Help, the upright bass-led A Feather is Not a Bird, and then we are brought forth the breathy brilliance of Odessa.

Along next is the scattered notes and rhythms of Bears and the Invention of the Battery and the low slung foot-tapper Stellar Ray, See?, and they are in turn backed seamlessly by a dutiful hipsway that guides Miedo, the late night, back alley, sultry jazz of Empires, the disc rounding out on a nine second, vocalized goodbye note entitled So Long.

Caleb Wheeler Curtis – stritch, trumpet, sopranino saxophone, tenor saxophone
Sean Conly – double bass
Michael Sarin – drums

Disc 2 – Raise Four: Monk the Minimalist

11. Oska T.
12. Introspection
13. Boo Boo’s Birthday
14. Raise Four
15. Reflections
16. Played Twice
17. Ugly Beauty
18. Jackie-ing
19. Light Blue
20. Raise Four (Take 2)

Recorded January 13, 2024 at Samurai Hotel Recording Studio, Astoria, NY, all these wondrously cultured Thelonious Monk songs open on the sterner, more methodically sculpted fare of Oska T. and the furtively playful Introspection and then they bring forth a stunning Boo Boo’s Birthday, the seductive calls fed out within Raise Four and a sumptuously served rendition of Reflections.

Then we continue onward with the joyful fingeer-snapper Played Twice and the languishing, at first, frenetically charged latterly Ugly Beauty, which are followed nicely by both the hop-skip melodies within Jackie-ing and the quietly sculptured, drum focused Light Blue, the second disc, and the recording therein, closing on the flirtatiously endearing Raise Four (Take 2).

Caleb Wheeler Curtis – stritch, trumpet, sopranino saxophone
Eric Revis – double bass
Justin Faulkner – drums

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.

Official Website

Caleb Wheeler Curtis @ Facebook