The Curtis Brothers Quartet is Led by Luques and Zaccai Curtis. 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 along side 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.
Zaccai Curtis is a pianist, bandleader and musician of Puerto Rican and African American ancestry. After graduating from New England Conservatory in 2005, he moved to New York City where he performs regularly with artists such as: Donald Harrison, Cindy Blackman Santana, Eddie Palmieri, Christian Scott, Ralph Peterson, T.K. Blue, Brian Lynch, Ray Vega, and Eric Person amongst others. Curtis composes and arranges for his own quartet, trio, Big-Band and more. In 2003 he was chosen as a winner of the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer’s competition and each year consecutively through 2006. Zaccai and his quartet were selected by the U.S. State Department to be in the American Music Abroad (Jazz Ambassadors) program two times in 2006. They performed in Bangladesh, Calcutta, Bangalore, Mumbai, Sri Lanka and Maldives.
Zaccai Curtis is joined by the dynamic band Insight and vocalist Natalie Fernandez. Known for bridging the gap and blending the lines between Jazz and Latin Jazz, Insight’s interpretations of such songs as “Bouncing With Bud,” “Inner Urge” and Maria Cervantes,” have brought them much recognition for being creative as well as authentic. (A difficult feat to accomplish without ruining a masterpiece composition). Along with Zaccai, Insight will continue to push their boundaries, bridging the gaps and blending the lines between Afro Caribbean, Jazz, R&B, and Tango.