Lamont "Curley" Baker is a main character in Disney•Pixar's 2020 animated feature film, Soul.
Background[]
Official Description[]
Curley is one of Joe Gardner’s former students who nurtured his own passion for music into adulthood, landing a coveted spot in Dorothea Williams’ jazz quartet. The accomplished drummer never forgot his favorite teacher-slash-jazz pianist, so when an opportunity for a piano player arises, Curley gets Joe the audition of a lifetime.
Physical appearance[]
Curley is a African American young man, tall, with strong arms, slightly chubby but stocky. His cheeks are big, he is bald but has a bushy goatee and always smiles.
His casual clothes consist of a black shirt with a printed list of jazz sub-genres, under this, he apparently wears a light gray sweater. He wears denim pants and green, white and black Air Jordan sneakers.
At his concert with Dorothea Williams, He wears a black suit with a tie and a long-sleeved shirt underneath, otherwise, he still wears pants and normal tennis shoes.
Appearances[]
Soul[]
Curley is introduced when Joe Gardner picks up his phone and talks with him, communicating with Joe and explaining to him that he is the new drummer in the Dorothea Williams Quartet performing at the Half Note Club. Arriving at the Half Note Club, Joe meets him just as Curley tells him that his friend Bishop said that he sat next to him on a set last year at Brooklyn just as he and Joe approach Dorothea Williams playing her saxophone in solo. Curley talks to her and introduces Dorothea to Joe who has curiosity in exploring the Half Note Club. Curley performs alongside Joe just as Dorothea tells the band to start playing music. After performance, Curley, Miho, and Dorothea look at Joe who stopped playing just as Dorothea tells Joe to get a good suit and to be on time to perform with the band.
Later when Joe and Mr. Mittens arrive back home, the real Joe (controlled by 22) gives his own phone to Mr. Mittens to which Joe (controlling Mr. Mittens) feels shocked upon seeing a call from Curley on his phone. Answering the call, Curley asks Joe to know if he is doing fine about Dorothea, feeling surprised when she saw Joe when a new band member named Robert already joined her club, leaving Joe in worry. Feeling worried, Curley tells Joe that his class was the only reason he went to band school. To help Joe perform with Dorothea at the Half Note Club, Curley gives him a plan to put on a well-dressed suit and to be punctual while getting to the Club as Curley decides to discuss with Dorothea just as he hopes that Joe could arrive at the Club as soon as possible.
Joe (now with the soul of himself controlling him) approaches Curley at the Half Note Club who is happy that Joe has arrived on time. Curley later performs with Dorothea Williams at the Half Note Club just as the audience praises the band's performance.
Soul of the City[]
Curley makes a very brief appearance among all the citizens of New York, in it, he appears eating a slice of cheese pizza while smiling.
Trivia[]
- It's unknown exactly how long it's been between him being a student of Joe's and joining Dorothea's band.
- Like Paul, he wears a pair of Air Jordan sneakers, but only in color green and black with white.
- In the concept art of the movie, Curley showed a design more like a person from Jamaica, a tattoo on his left arm and he wore formal shoes instead of his Jordan sneakers.
- In the 2021 Pixar short Nona, the titular character's husband, reuses the same model as Curley from Soul.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Curley (3).jpg (20 KB)")
.jpg "Curley (2).jpg (74 KB)")
