It’s hard to believe that a 2025 Grammy Award winner for Best Latin Jazz Album started off not loving jazz very much. But that’s how it was for Zaccai Curtis when he joined a jazz band as a pianist at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts.
“I guess it's hard to understand [jazz] music when you first started. I think I ended up finding something that I loved about it,” Curtis said. “The musician that I gravitated towards was Thelonious Monk. I would put on Thelonious Monk constantly. And I think that's really what pulled me in, was the danceable element that was in that music.”
Exploring artists became a cornerstone in Curtis’ music journey, leading him to pay homage to the artists of the 1940s that he loves in his Grammy-winning album “Cubop Lives!”, and it all started with his dad.
Musical upbringing
Curtis, 43, grew up in Windsor with a Puerto Rican mother and an African American father from New London.
According to Curtis, he and his two brothers were five-year-olds when they started taking piano lessons with Patricia Gronback in Wethersfield.
As they grew older, Curtis said he and his brothers became immersed in music programs in the Hartford area. They took part in programs with an African Diaspora-focused arts and culture non-profit called the Artists Collective. They also participated in the Latin American arts and cultural group Guakia and The Hartford Conservatory, a performing arts school that closed in 2011.
“My father put us in all the music programs, even the ones that are in New York,” Curtis said. “So whether it was classical piano lessons or drum lessons, whatever it was musically we were involved in, and then it just grew from there. It was almost like a natural progression.”
Music also played a major role at home. Curtis’ father encouraged his sons to expose themselves to all genres of music.
“My dad was a jazz fan, so he had all of the records to Latin music, to all types of music. And it was really up to us to find out what we liked, and then we would follow that record or CD, and he encouraged it too,” he said.
It wasn’t until junior year of high school when Curtis started to gain an appreciation for jazz music. Eventually, he would develop a deep love for a style of jazz known as “Cubop”.
Bringing a new voice to Afro-Cuban jazz
“I love bebop, and I love the music of the ‘40s, and then the Cubop music I absolutely love,” Curtis said. “I can listen to that all day.”
Cubop, or Cuban bebop, is a blend of the bebop jazz style that took off in the 1940s and the rhythms of Cuban music from percussion instruments like congas, bongos, and drums.
With the Grammy-winning album, “Cubop Lives!”, Curtis said he and his bandmates were paying homage to the artists of the 1940s while experimenting with what could be done with that music today.
“We want to just add our own contribution, which is something that isn't really being done too often these days, which is that Cubop music. It's something that's not often done,” he said, “And our voice, of course, was our arrangements.”
Curtis said the win at The Grammys was an unexpected surprise. “I definitely didn't expect it,” he said. “It's just amazing that this would be recognized. I'm completely blown away and very humbled by it.”
Just being listed with the other nominees was a humbling experience, Curtis said.
“I've been transcribing those musicians since I was 15-years-old. So, it's an amazing thing just to be listed with them,” he said.
With the Grammy win now under his belt, Curtis said he’s hoping to do a lot more live performances with his bandmates. He’s also continuing work on new releases from his record label, Truth Revolution Recording Collective.
For up-and-coming artists, Curtis said it’s better to find what really resonates rather than to chase popular trends.
“If I was looking to do something that was more on the popular end of things, this album wouldn't be created,” he said. “So whatever style that you love, or whatever type of music, whatever artist you love, dig deep into that artist. Dig deep into the music. Really go until your mind or your heart tells you to do something else.”
