Curtis Clark
Dreams Deferred
The title comes from Langston Hughes: "What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" For a pianist who traversed Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Amsterdam chasing a musical vision few could grasp, the question is anything but rhetorical. Curtis Clark was born in Chicago in 1950, studied at the California Institute of Arts in Valencia, then moved to New York where he crossed paths with David Murray. But it was Europe where he found home - Amsterdam, where American…
Reach, Believe It & Play
Solo piano. The format that separates the genuine article from the pretenders. No rhythm section to hide behind, no horns to share the weight. Just eighty-eight keys and whatever's in your soul. Curtis Clark came to this music through Horace Tapscott - not just as influence but as mentor. Born in Chicago in 1950, raised musically in Los Angeles, Clark became a Tapscott protégé, absorbing that open-ended spiritual approach to the keyboard before striking out for New York and eventually Amsterdam.…
Phantasmagoria
Curtis Clark's Nimbus debut - and he brings the whole Los Angeles underground with him. Miranda and Theus: the rhythm section that powered Horace Tapscott's Arkestra, that held the floor at UGMAA meetings, that knew how to make a piano trio sound like a congregation. This is the connection - Chicago kid studies with Tapscott, absorbs the lesson, makes his first record with the master's own people. Side A: "Phantasmagoria" - one long piece, the title track eating up the whole side. Side B: "Bouqu…
Deep Sea Diver
Just two people. Piano. Voice. Nothing else. No bass, no drums, no safety net. This is where Clark strips everything away - no Amsterdam quintet, no Dutch improvisers, just 88 keys and one voice diving deep. "Rainbow Over Harlem" opens and closes the record. "Cosmic Minstrels." "Deep Sea Diver." "Farewell Gentle Spirit (For Rev. Frank J. Harper)" - a dedication that tells you where this music comes from. "Broken Mirror Reflections." "Amy Yvonne." Titles like chapter headings in a book of hours.
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Amsterdam Sunshine
Bomb! Drop the needle. Thirteen minutes and twenty seconds. "Daniel/Amsterdam Sunshine" - dedicated to Daniel Halifee - opens this record like a prayer. Not a quick prayer, not a polite prayer. The kind that takes its time, builds in waves, lets the spirit enter the room. Clark's piano states the theme, Moore's alto answers, Reijseger's cello pulls you deeper. This is spiritual jazz in the truest sense - music as ceremony, music as offering.
A man from Chicago who studied with Horace Tapscott in…
Taagi
Taagi – which takes its title from the Apache word for “three” - is his first trio recording with bassist Aaron Gonzalez and drummer Stefan Gonzalez. Recorded on successive nights during May 2009 performances in Dallas and Austin, this album represents a great collaboration between jazz veteran and great piano maestro Curtis Clark and young, but very talented Gonzalez brothers - Aaron and Stefan. Piano trio at it’s best. Curtis Clark (piano), Aaron Gonzalez (contrabass) and Stefan Gonzalez (drum…