What we call “Afro-Cuban Jazz” dates to the 1940s, but it pulls in age-old African and African-diaspora traditions. Distinctive 5-beat rhythms form the genre’s backbone. Musicians in Brazil and Cuba, especially, first used hardwood sticks (claves) to beat these patterns. This irresistible, propulsive music soon landed stateside. Javon Jackson and Matt DeChamplain are joined by Grammy-award-winning pianist Zaccai Curtis to tell it, show it and play it like it is. They’ll sample an exuberant selection of audio and video recordings. Over three syncopated sessions, you’ll hear the Afro-Cuban jazz of Mario Bauza, Dizzy Gillespie, Machito, Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaria, Ray Barretto, and Eddie Palmieri.
Javon Jackson is professor of jazz and director of the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the University’s Hartt School. In his career Javon has toured and recorded with artists including Art Blakey, Elvin Jones, Charlie Haden, Freddie Hubbard, Joanne Brackeen, Cedar Walton, Donald Byrd, and Curtis Fuller. He has participated in 24 recording projects with still other jazz luminaries, including Dianne Reeves, Cassandra Wilson and Ron Carter. In 2023 he collaborated with African-American poet Nikki Giovanni on a CD and documentary soundtrack, The Gospel According to Nikki Giovanni. In 2024 they got together again to record Javon and Nikki Go to the Movies.
Matt DeChamplain is assistant professor of jazz studies at the University’s Hartt School. He has performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival, Berks Jazz Festival, New York’s JVC Jazz Festival, the Berklee Jazz Festival, the Kennedy Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and has led or been part of groups that opened for Hank Jones, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, the Wynton Marsalis Quintet, Michael Wolff, and the Renee Rosnes Quartet. He has also played on Norman Johnson’s album Get It While You Can (2011), Jason Anick’s Tipping Point (2012), and vocal legend Jon Hendricks’s Holiday Wishes II: River of Stars (2013). In 2013 he brought out a solo album, Stride Bop, and in 2015, Matt and his wife, vocalist Atla DeChamplain, released their first collaboration, entitled Pause.
Zaccai Curtis is an acclaimed recording artist and producer, recently honored with the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album. He leads his own groups, the Zaccai Curtis Quintet and Sonido Solar. His sixth album, Sonoluminescence, debuts in 2025. Zaccai teaches at the Hartt School’s Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz and at Western Connecticut State University. He has authored two instructional books, Art of the Guajeo and Theory of the Common Voicing, for those studying Jazz and Latin Jazz. He produced the Grammy-nominated album Entre Colegas by Andy González (2016). Zaccai and his brother Luques co-founded the record label TRRcollective, a collaborative space for musicians to produce and release their own music.
Wednesdays, Oct. 8, 15, and 29 | 3 p.m.–4:30 p.m. | Wilde Auditorium/Harry Jack Gray Center | $80
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