Event
A Community Gathering & Concert Celebrating Zaccai and Luques Curtis
Saturday, March 15, at 7 pm – Real Art Ways, in partnership with the Greater Hartford Arts Council, Hartford Jazz Society, Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz, Artists Collective, WWUH, Jackie McLean Institute at The Hartt School, and Hartford Public Library, presents a concert and community celebration featuring the Curtis Brothers & Friends!
On February 2, 2025, pianist-composer Zaccai Curtis, along with his bandmates Luques Curtis, Willie Martinez, Camilo Molina and Reinaldo De Jesus, achieved their first-ever GRAMMY® win for Zaccai Curtis’ album Cubop Lives! in the Best Latin Jazz Album category.
Released on Truth Revolution Recording Collective last May, Cubop Lives! is a vibrant homage to the Afro-Cuban Jazz and Bebop tradition, performed by the renowned rising star. This award represents a significant milestone in Zaccai’s career, and we are incredibly proud of these superb musicians.
Performing on Saturday, March 15, are:
Zaccai Curtis – piano
Luques Curtis – bass
Reinaldo De Jesus – percussion
Willie Martinez – timbales
Marcos Torres – percussion
Special guest Jeremy Bosch – flute
Damian Curtis & Friends:
Damian Curtis – piano
Benny Velasquez – bass
Miguel Rios – drums
Nelson Bello – congas
Ray Gonzalez – trumpet
Anthony De Leon – trombone
This event is made possible with generous support from the Greater Hartford Arts Council.
WWUH is the official media sponsor for the event.
Zaccai Curtis is an acclaimed recording artist and producer, recently honored with the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album. He leads his own groups, the Zaccai Curtis Quintet and Sonido Solar, and after five successful releases, is set to drop his new album Sonoluminescence in 2025.
Together with his brother, Luques, Zaccai co-founded the record label TRRcollective, a collaborative space for musicians to produce and release their own music. He is proud to have produced the Grammy-nominated album Entre Colegas by Andy González (2016).
A native of Connecticut, Zaccai moved to New York City in 2005, where he has performed with renowned artists including Christian Scott, Donald Harrison, Santana, Cindy Blackman, Eddie Palmieri, Brian Lynch, the Mambo Legends, and Avery Sharpe. In addition to his performance career, Zaccai is a respected educator, teaching at the University of Hartford’s Jackie McLean Jazz Studies Division and Western Connecticut State University. He is also an author, having written two instructional books: Art of the Guajeo and Theory of the Common Voicing, which support students in their Jazz and Latin Jazz studies.
A three-time ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award winner, Zaccai is a prolific composer and arranger for his own groups, as well as artists like Little Johnny Rivero, Steve Kroon, and Sonido Solar. His quartet was chosen by the U.S. State Department for the American Music Abroad (Jazz Ambassadors) program twice, touring South Asia in 2006. In 2007, he received the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism’s Artist Fellowship for original composition. In 2017, he was awarded the Chamber Music America’s New Jazz Works grant, and in 2020, he was named Rising Star in the DownBeat Critics Poll.
Luques Curtis was born 1983 in Hartford, CT. After having formal training on piano and percussion, he found himself wanting to play the bass. Luques studied at the Greater Hartford Academy of Performing Arts, Artist Collective, and Guakia with Dave Santoro, Volcan Orham, Nat Reeves, Paul Brown, and others. While attending high school, he was also very fortunate to study the Afro-Caribbean genre with bass greats Andy Gonzalez and Joe Santiago. With his talent and hard work he earned a full scholarship to the prestigious Berklee College Of Music in Boston. There he studied with John Lockwood and Ron Mahdi. While in Boston he was also able to work with great musicians such as Gary Burton, Ralph Peterson, Donald Harrison, Christian Scott, and Francisco Mela.
Now living in the New York area, Mr. Curtis has been performing worldwide with Eddie Palmieri, Stefon Harris, Ralph Peterson, Christian Scott, Sean Jones, Orrin Evans, Christian Sands, and others. He is the recent recipient of the 2016 Down Beat Rising Star Bassist on the Critics Poll and also received the Ralph Bunche Fellowship to complete his Masters Degree at the Mason Gross School of the Arts. He co-owns a record label called Truth Revolution Records along side his brother, Zaccai. They have five releases under “Curtis Brothers” with the most recent being “Algorithm.” Luques was also part of Brian Lynch’s Grammy-winning CD “Simpatico” and Grammy-nominated “Madera Latino,” as well as Christian Scott’s Grammy-nominated CD “Rewind That.” He also produced Grammy-nominated “Entre Colegas” by Andy Gonzalez. You can hear him on Eddie Palmieri’s “Sabiduria” and “Mi Luz Mayor;” Gary Burton “Next Generations;” Dave Valentin “Come Fly With Me;” Sean Jones’ “Im*Pro*Vise,” “Roots,””Kaleidoscope,” and “The Search Within;” Orrin Evans’ CD “Faith In Action.” As a sideman, Luques Curtis has participated in over 100 recordings.
