“NEW ALBUMS” by George Kanzler
Cubop Lives!, Zaccai Curtis (Truth Revolution Recording Collective), is a tour-de-force piano outing for Zaccai, who is the main soloist in a quintet featuring three percussionists - Willie Martinez, drums, timbales; Camilo Molina, hand percussion;
Reinaldo De Jesus, percussion, drums - and his bassist brother Luques Curtis. The repertoire ranges from originals, bebop classics and pop standards to a suite of tunes from Puerto Rican composer Noro Morales. Also, it features a version of Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" wherein Zaccai brings out surprising parallels between ragtime and the montuño of Afro-Cuban music, playing the entire piece over a clavé rhythm.
The bop part of Cubop Lives! is amply visited on titles by legendary beboppers. Thelonious Monk's "52nd Street Theme" speeds over a fast clavé rhythm; and Dizzy Gillespie's "Woody' You" bounces on a light Afro-Cuban beat, Zaccai trading solos with drums and bass. Bongos share solo space with piano on Kenny Dorham's "Minor's Holiday;" while Charlie Parker's "Moose the Mooche" is slowed down from its original mercurial bop to mid-tempo mambo, piano and bass sharing solo space.
Zaccai casts two pop standards, "Someday My Prince Will Come" and "When I Fall In Love" as seductive mambos. He also purveys his own "Black Rice" as clavé driven deep blues, and pays tribute to an influence, the late Bud Powell, with "Ear!." channeling Powell's bop style over Afro-Cuban rhythms.
…READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT HOTHOUSEJAZZ.COM