- August 3, 2024 - 7:00 PM
- Gordon Hall, Music Mountain
THE CURTIS BROTHERS TRIO
A "Rising Star" (Downbeat Magazine) on the boundaries of Latin Jazz
Tribute to Ralph Peterson
Zaccai Curtis, Piano
Luques Curtis, Bass
Jerome Jennings, Drums
THE CURTIS BROTHERS TRIO: RALPH PETERSON LEGACY
The Curtis Brothers Trio celebrates the music and style of their late mentor Ralph Peterson. After fifteen years of recording, touring and working with maestro Peterson they plan to keep his musical spirit alive by not only performing his music but featuring one of his four chosen drummers on each performance to carry and evolve his legacy. Ralph Peterson is one of the most prolific drummers and composers in modern jazz, writing almost one hundred stylistically unique and influential compositions. He has inspired the Curtis Brothers to be a powerful voice in the world of Latin Jazz and Jazz while advocating for their music business ventures and artist owned music for all.
ZACCAI CURTIS, PIANO
Zaccai Curtis moved to New York City in 2005 where he’s connected with and regularly performed with artists such as: Lakecia Benjamin, Christian Scott, Donald Harrison, Cindy Blackman Santana, Eddie Palmieri, Chico Freeman, Brian Lynch, the Mambo Legends, Abraham Burton, Ralph Peterson, Ray Vega, and Avery Sharpe among others.
Currently Zaccai is a professor of music at the University of Hartford: Jackie McLean Jazz Studies Division, Westfield State University and University of Rhode Island. Besides being an educator Zaccai authored two books “Art of the Guajeo” and “Theory of the Common Voicing” which are meant to aid students in their Jazz and Latin Jazz education. Zaccai composes and arranges for his own quartet and trio as well as for artists such as Little Johnny Rivero, Steve Kroon, Sonido Solar and more. In 2007 Zaccai Curtis was awarded the ‘Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism’s Artist Fellowship’ for ‘original composition.’ In 2017 Curtis became a Chamber Music America: “New Jazz Works” grant recipient. In 2020 Zaccai was voted as the Rising Star in the Critics Poll for Downbeat Magazine. Most recently, Curtis has been invited to be the special guest director for 2023 CMEA Southern Regional High School Jazz Band.
Zaccai, along with his brother Luques, has developed the record label TRRcollective which has produced and released many recordings including the GRAMMY nominated ‘Entre Colegas’ by Andy González (2016). Zaccai has created the first ever music news app developed for record labels, artists and venues. ‘The Riff: Music News‘ available for free on iTunes and android.
LUQUES CURTIS, BASS
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 alongside 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 his 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.
JEROME JENNINGS, DRUMS
Jerome Jennings is a drummer, activist, bandleader, sideman, and Emmy Award-winning composer. His debut recording ‘The Beast’ is a reflection of the everyday joys and traumas of black life in the U.S. It was named one of the top three Jazz releases by NPR, received a four-star rating in Downbeat Magazine, and was nominated for the prestigious French ‘Grand Prix du Disque’ award for Album of the Year in 2016. Jerome’s sophomore recording, ‘Solidarity’, released November 2019, was recognized by NPR as best music that spoke truth to power of 2019.
To date, Jerome has performed, toured, and recorded with legendary musicians like Sonny Rollins, Hank Jones, Gerald Wilson, Christian McBride, Ron Carter, George Cables, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Wynton Marsalis (J@LC), The Count Basie Orchestra, Philip Bailey, Henry Butler, and countless others. He has also made recordings and shared the stage with contemporary musicians Sean Jones, Camille Thurman, Jazzmeia Horn, Tadataka Unno, Christian Sands, Charenee Wade, and Bokani Dyer, to name a few. He has composed music for and is the musical director for Maurice Chestnut’s dance production Beat’s Rhymes and Tap Shoes.
In the summer of 2007, Jerome earned a Masters of Music from the prestigious Juilliard School in Manhattan, NY. In 2014, he passed Jazz At Lincoln Centers Swing University 301 history course, the most comprehensive study of jazz from a non-performance perspective available." Jazz At Lincoln Center has Jerome Jennings on file as an accredited jazz scholar. Jerome was the Resident Director of The Juilliard Jazz Orchestra from fall 2017 to 2021. While on faculty at Juilliard, he designed a class entitled The Juilliard Jazz Community Project. Jerome is a professor of graduate jazz history at Montclair State University.
Jerome has participated on several panels, including Chamber Music America: Music, Language, and Revolution; Lincoln Center: Freedom’s State of Mind; Winter Jazz Festival: Jazz & Gender: A Discussion Of Community, Culture & Participatory Allies. Fall 2020, Jerome co-curated with Naomi Extra, a series of panels, performances, and discussions at The National Jazz Museum in Harlem entitled ‘Jazz in The Era of Black Lives Matter.’ He has also designed and taught several courses for Jazz At Lincoln Center’s Swing University.
Currently, Jerome is keeping busy teaching, conducting clinics, and educational youth outreach nationally and internationally. He is one of the most successful in Black American music education. Jerome has been an artist-in-residence and has lectured at dozens of Universities and Academy, nationally and internationally, including UNC Greensboro, John Hopkins Peabody Institute, Rutgers University, The Juilliard School, Jazz Music Institute JMI (Brisbane, AU), Sydney Conservatory of Music, Xavier College (Melbourne, AU), The Ohio State University, Aspen Colorado, Brigham Young University, University Of Ghana -Legon School Of Performing Arts, Rockport Jazz Workshop, and the Universidad Sergio Arboleda (Bogota Colombia) and The National Taiwan University of The Arts.