Curtis Clark

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 LA, found his way to Amsterdam, and recorded this. The Dutch musicians here - Reijseger, Glerum - would become pillars of the Nimbus roster. Tom Albach always called this his favorite Curtis Clark album. After hearing that opening track, you understand why. The rest of the record - "Twinkle In The Old Man's Eyes," "Flore," "Thought Of One," "Peu De Sentiment" - continues the journey. But it's "Daniel/Amsterdam Sunshine" that sets the coordinates. Thirteen minutes of why we listen. Curtis Clark (piano), Michael Moore (alto saxophone), Ernst Reijseger (cello), Ernst Glerum (bass), Don Mumford (drums).