Zaccai Curtis, who teaches jazz piano, won in the Best Latin Jazz Album category for Cubop Lives! The album’s 17 tracks include covers of artists such as Jackie McLean, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Parker, as well as three originals by Curtis. He also arranged all the pieces.
“I wanted to make a period piece album that brought a new perspective to an older style - one that wasn’t covered the way I thought it could be,” Curtis said in a press release announcing the album last year. Cubop Lives! points out the earliest of “jazz fusion” and the combination of cultures that related to each other socially, politically and, of course, musically.”
Cubop Lives! topped the JazzWeek Jazz Chart for four straight weeks. Curtis worked on the album over seven years, assembling some of the leading lights of Afro-Cuban jazz: Willie Martinez (drums, voice, timbales), Camilo Molina (percussion), Reinaldo De Jesus (percussion, drums), and bandleader’s brother, Luques Curtis (bass).
“I am extremely happy for Zaccai Curtis,” said Professor Javon Jackson, director of the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at The Hartt School. “Zaccai and his brother are most deserving of this Grammy Award, and all of us at Hartt extend our congratulations.”
Zaccai Curtis, Hartt faculty member and Grammy award winning musicianI wanted to make a period piece album that brought a new perspective to an older style - one that wasn’t covered the way I thought it could be.