The Curtis Brothers

usic with a powerful message is the hallmark of the sound of the Curtis Brothers band. It is a sound that is deeply rooted in tradition, yet forward looking in its aim. Completion Of Proof unwinds from the music Zaccai and Luques heard in their youth, first growing up in a household rich in AfroAmerican and Latino culture and later in their musical studies at The Artists Collective, the Hartford, Connecticut interdisciplinary arts and cultural organization founded by jazz master Jackie McLean and his wife Dollie. The early lessons learned at home and in the Collective have ineradicably informed the art of the brothers – not just musically, but also philosophically – ever since. 

It is no coincidence that the compositions on Completion Of Proof, created as acknowledgment to the music the brothers heard growing up, bear a strong sonic semblance to the sound of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. From Jackie McLean on, many of the young musicians’ mentors were alumni of the esteemed band. Three of those artists – Ralph Peterson, Donald Harrison and Brian Lynch – join the two brothers to fill out the quintet that is heard on the date’s opening three tracks. It was Peterson, the powerful drummer that Blakey chose to be his second in the Jazz Messenger Big Band, who first introduced Luques and Zaccai to a wider audience, as rhythm section mates in his Boston based band, while the two attended Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory.