Jazz Articles about Zaccai Curtis

About Zaccai Curtis

Album Review

Baritone saxophonist David Larsen has produced one of the finest albums of pure hard bop music on the jazz landscape of today. Cohesion contains a treasure trove of fresh new original material from Larsen and tenor saxophonist Darryl Yokley. Larsen leads the driving, dark and impassioned sounds of hard bop. His pronounced baritone voice is best positioned to convey the pulsating, swinging color found throughout the album. Performing on the baritone is a challenge considering it is the hardest member ...

Album Review

Lakecia Benjamin: Phoenix Reimagined (Live)

Read "Phoenix Reimagined (Live)" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
July 7, 2024

The certifiable beauty of Phoenix Reimagined (Live) is that it all happens in very very real time as Lakecia Benjamin comes fiercely into her immediate own and then, in a tear of a performance that blisters the paint on the wall, surpasses herself. It is a momentous achievement. One that we rarely get to hear up close, personal and live. Benjamin cuts through the malaise of an empire falling, burning down the ministry of b.s. as she wields ...

Album Review

Zaccai Curtis: Cubop Lives!

Read "Cubop Lives!" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
May 29, 2024

Pianist Zaccai Curtis's recent album Cubop Lives! is a vibrant acknowledgement of the rich legacy of bebop and Afro-Cuban jazz offering a compelling blend that respects tradition while infusing it with a contemporary flair. Backed by a scintillating ensemble of top-flight exponents of the style, including bassist Luques Curtis, drummer Willie Martinez III, conguero Camilo Molina and on bongos Reinaldo De Jesus, the group dives into an extended track list of seventeen compositions comprising Curtis originals, bebop classics, American Songbook ...

Album Review

David Larsen: Cohesion

by Jack Bowers
April 7, 2024

For Cohesion, baritone saxophonist David Larsen's tenth album as leader of his own ensemble, he chose as his teammates a quartet of East Coast musicians who so impressed him during a tour of the Northwest that he invited them back to his Seattle, Washington home base to take part in a workshop, play some gigs and ultimately record Cohesion with him. As it turns out, it was a splendid decision, as Larsen and the others, even though ...

Album Review

Felipe Salles: Tiyo's Songs Of Life

Read "Tiyo's Songs Of Life" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
July 23, 2022

Talk about remarkable origins; the music on Tiyo's Songs of Life, performed by tenor saxophonist Felipe Salles' quartet, was written by Tiyo Attallah Salah-El while he was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in a Pennsylvania prison. In spite of his circumstances, Salah-El never lost his love for life, an upbeat frame of mind that is ever-present in these nine sparkling originals. While imprisoned, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees and founded the Coalition for the Abolition ...

Album Review

Felipe Salles, Zaccao Curtis, Avery Sharpe, Jonathan Butler: Tiyo's Songs Of Life

Read "Tiyo's Songs Of Life" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
June 21, 2022

Embarking on an errant path in his youth led saxophonist Tiyo Attallah Salah-El to life in prison, without the possibility of parole. That is about as grim as it gets, but Salah-El, rather than giving in to defeat, turned himself into a behind-the-bars composer, author and activist. He passed in 2018, but his music came to the attention of saxophonist Felipe Sallas via prison abolitionist Lois Ahrens, who had befriended the imprisoned saxophonist Salaah-El, and even provided him with fifty ...

Album Review

Ralph Peterson & the Messenger Legacy: Onward & Upward

Read "Onward & Upward" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
August 8, 2020

Generally speaking, legacy bands are created to preserve the music of an artist. They feature innovative interpretations of an artist's compositions or past performances to share with future generations of listeners. In the case of drummer Ralph Peterson, his ambitious efforts to honor the continuum of his mentor Art Blakey are forward thinking, about a collective gathering of resources that stress creative thought and individuality. Just as the true legacy of the Jazz Messengers portends, contributors are charged with replenishing ...