The Hartford Courant
10:56 a.m. EDT, August 12, 2013
The Wayne Escoffery Quintet and Zaccai Curtis and Insight bring double-barreled energy and appeal to the lineup for the 30th annual New Haven Jazz Festival, the free outdoor celebration Saturday, Aug. 17, on the New Haven Green.
While this is a major Elm City event and marks the culmination of New Haven's city-wide Jazz Week activities, both Escoffery, a dynamic, big-toned tenor/soprano saxophonist, and the Curtis brothers, pianist Zaccai and bassist Luques, visionary founders of Insight, have strong Hartford ties.
Escoffery, who was born in London and grew up in New Haven, was a protégé of Hartford's legendary Jackie McLean, the late great alto saxophonist/composer/bandleader, activist and founder of Hartford's Artists Collective and the nationally acclaimed jazz degree program at The University of Hartford's Hartt School of Music.
The Hartford-born Curtis brothers, who have gone on to success as performers and recording artists, have built a large, loyal following in the capital city since they first began performing everywhere from Bushnell Park to outdoors at Real Art Ways, dazzling audiences back then as jazz wunderkinds of enormous promise.
Now, after their proven successes both as leaders and much sought-after sidemen, the creative, young musicians' promise has not only been fulfilled in many ways, but continues to unfold triumphantly with miles to go and many more great promises to keep.
Insight's special guest is Argentine vocalist Natalie Fernandez who appears on the brothers' latest recording, "Nuestro Tango" (Truth Revolution). Together the band and singer bring a tango-tinged take to the historic, downtown Green, adding yet another earthy element to Insight's swinging, alchemical mix of the Cuban clave with Afro-folkloric rhythms and musical genres from Puerto Rico and Brazil, plus other tangy elements cooked up courtesy of the Curtis brothers.
Anytime the New York-based Escoffery comes home again to New Haven, it marks a special occasion for the city, heightened this time out by the appearance of the saxophonist's guest, the celebrated trumpeter Jeremy Pelt.
A summa cum laude graduate of The Hartt School with a bachelor's degree in jazz performance in 1997, Escoffery also attended the Thelonious Monk Institute and earned a master's degree from The New England Conservatory of Music in 1999.
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