Brad Mason - Trumpet
Louis Fouché - Alto Sax
Ivan Renta - Tenor Sax
Joe Fiedler - Trombone
Zaccai Curtis - Piano
Luques Curtis - Bass
Camilo Molina - Drums
Reinaldo De Jesus - Congas

The name "Sonido Solar" translates to "Solar Sound" and is a tribute to Palmieri, who is celebrated as “The Sun of Latin Music.” Palmieri, though heard exclusively on tracks 7 and 9, radiates throughout this new enterprise, while his lauded mentee Zaccai Curtis takes the reins on piano throughout the nonet’s eponymous recording. An extraordinary recruitment of Palmieri mentees include Curtis and his brother, bassist Luques Curtis, alto saxophonist Louis Fouché and trumpeter Jonathan Powell at the helm. Fellow members of various Palmieri-led groups join these four co-leaders, including tenor saxophonist Jeremy Powell, trombonist Joe Fiedler and timbalero/trap drummer Camilo Molina, who is joined in the percussion section by Curtis Brothers band conguero Reinaldo De Jesus and Marcos López on bongos and cowbell.

Sonido Solar is fueled by the spirit of learning and fashioned by a repertoire with unique influences for each band member. “We wanted to record some of our favorite songs the way they were originally written and give fans the opportunity to listen to real, classic Latin jazz standards,” Luques Curtis shares. Teamwork and camaraderie characterized this unit’s creative process — after selecting what they agreed upon as staples in the Afro-Cuban jazz world at a roundtable discussion, the four bandleaders divided the tunes accordingly, then assigning arrangements to each other. Once they arrived at the recording session, everything was “almost fully-arranged” as Zaccai explains, leaving reserved space for the marvel of improvisation that such a band inherently warrants.