Tony and GRAMMY Award-winning bassist, composer and producer Todd Sickafoose is proud to announce the release of BEAR PROOF, which he describes as “62 minutes of music for eight musicians.” The sound is evocative, melodically rich, rhythmically intense, and features a unique instrumentation of violin, accordion, electric guitar, acoustic piano, clarinet, cornet, bass and drums. “There’s something exponential that happens when you gather these eight instruments together, played with such beauty,” Sickafoose marvels. “The number of combinations, blends, doublings — it feels like there are endless possibilities.” The album is “intended to be performed straight-through in a concert,” Sickafoose writes in a brief liner note, so that’s how the recording went down: “live” in one continuous take.

The title BEAR PROOF has more than one meaning, though it might initially call to mind camping safety (bear canisters, etc.). As a California native now based in Eugene, Oregon, Sickafoose has some experience in that regard. But BEAR PROOF is also meant in the sense of withstanding downturn: “It’s that thing that protects you from the bad times, a skin you put on.”

On another level, BEAR PROOF is what Sickafoose calls “a surreal meditation on BOOM and BUST.” As he writes: “Is music perhaps better than words for talking about high times and utter ruin? In California, there’s still a bridge that spells out GOLD HERE. Let these nine song titles lead you in that direction, if you wish.” The storytelling aspect of the work is strong, though listeners’ interpretations will vary as the hourlong narrative unfolds almost like a theatrical play.

Sickafoose has stellar support in the players of the BEAR PROOF octet, all of them fine composers and leaders in their own right. Guitarist Adam Levy and drummer Allison Miller were on Sickafoose’s 2008 album Tiny Resistors (“a satisfying synthesis of instrumental improvisation and atmospheric groove, with remarkable attention to detail in composition, color and texture.” — LA Weekly). Acclaimed violinist Jenny Scheinman co-leads the group Parlour Game with Miller and has featured Sickafoose in her own quintet. Cornetist Kirk Knuffke and clarinetist Ben Goldberg had never met prior to the BEAR PROOF session, but their musical relationship developed, resulting in the 2018 duo album Uncompahgre and other projects. Pianist Erik Deutsch (currently with The Black Crowes) and accordionist Rob Reich bring a wealth of complementary tone colors and harmonies to the set, not to mention formidable soloing voices.

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LABEL: Secret Hatch Records

ALBUM: Bear Proof

RELEASE DATE: September 29, 2023

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