Zaccai Greg Curtis (born December 25, 1981) is an American pianist and composer. He won the 2025

Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album The Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality works (songs or albums) in the Latin jazz ...

for his album ''Cubop Lives!''

Biography

Curtis studied at

Jackie McLean John Lenwood McLean (May 17, 1931 – March 31, 2006) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and educator. He is one of the few musicians to be elected to the ''DownBeat'' Hall of Fame in the year of their death. Bio ...

's Artists Collective school in Hartford, Connecticut. Curtis founded Truth Revolution, a record label that he refers to as "Truth Revolution Recording Collective, a working community of artists". The label issued Andy González's ''Entre Colegas'', which was nominated for a 2017 Grammy Award. Curtis and his brother, bassist Luques, are part of The Curtis Brothers Band (not to be confused with Michael and Richard Curtis, who also recorded as The Curtis Brothers). Their music is strongly influenced by

Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers The Jazz Messengers were a jazz combo that existed for over thirty-five years beginning in the early 1950s as a collective, and ending when long-time leader and founding drummer Art Blakey died in 1990. Blakey led or co-led the group from the o ...

. The Curtis Brothers Band's first album, ''Blood, Spirit, Land, Water, Freedom'', was followed around 2012 by ''Completion of Proof''. Their album ''Algorithm'', released around 2019, featured trumpeter Brian Lynch, alto saxophonist Donald Harrison, and drummer Ralph Peterson. Zaccai wrote all of the compositions that appear on the recording. Curtis is also faculty at the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of Rhode Island. The univer ...

, the

Institute at the

HARTT School The Hartt School is the performing arts conservatory of the University of Hartford, a private university in West Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1920 by Julius Hartt and Moshe Paranov, Hartt has been part of the University of Hartford since it ...

, and

Western Connecticut State University Western Connecticut State University (WCSU and WestConn) is a public university in Danbury, Connecticut. It was founded in 1903 as a teacher's college and is part of the Connecticut State University System. WCSU consists of four schools: the A ...

Discography

* ''Insight'' (2000) * ''Blood, Spirit, Land, Water, Freedom'' (2010) * ''Completion of Proof'' (2012) * ''Nuestro Tango'' (2013) * ''Algorithm'' (2020) * ''Cubop Lives!'' (2024)

References

External links

*
Truth Revolution Recording Collective
{{DEFAULTSORT:Curtis, Zaccai 1981 births Living people Latin jazz musicians American musicians of Puerto Rican descent American bandleaders Grammy Award winners Musicians from New York City New England Conservatory alumni