Curtis Clark

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 avant-garde jazz has always found attentive ears and open stages. His Nimbus West discography - Phantasmagoria, Reach, Believe & Play, Deep Sea Diver, Amsterdam Sunshine, Letter to South Africa, Live at the Bimhuis - documents a crucially overlooked talent, a style that bridges the modernist gap between Thelonious Monk and Cecil Taylor.

Dreams Deferred captures two 1993 sessions. The first five tracks, recorded at Amsterdam's legendary Bimhuis, are all Monk compositions: "Light Blue," "Worry Later/San Francisco Holiday," "Well You Needn't," "Monk's Mood," "Misterioso." The trio with Wayne Dockery on bass and South African Louis Moholo on drums transforms these classics while keeping their angular charm intact. Moholo - veteran of Chris McGregor's Blue Notes, pillar of European free jazz - brings that unique combination of power and subtlety only the great South Africans possess.

The remaining six tracks, recorded at Studio 44 in Monster, expand the trio to septet: Tristan Honsinger on cello, Tobias Delius and Sean Bergin on saxophones, Felicity Provan on trumpet and voice. Clark originals - "Two Shadows in the Mist," "Scratched," "Sean," "Diaphane," "Nelson" - plus a reading of "All The Things You Are." More relaxed atmospheres, almost soulbop at moments, but always with that tension distinguishing those who absorbed free's lessons without forgetting how to swing.

A dream deferred, perhaps. But not vanished.