Customer Reviews

The Codona Trilogy

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I don't have this package, but I bought the three Codona LPs when they were initially issued.

I really miss Collin Walcott. He was a brilliant student of Indian traditional music, but adapted the tabla and sitar to a variety of contexts. He also played a good deal of hammered dulcimer, and a kalimba-type instrument I think he made from a gas can. Oregon hasn't been the same without him, and, of course, Codona has ceased to exist at all. His rhythms, his facility with improvisation, his palette of musical colors were unique and irreplacable.

I miss Don Cherry too. He was one of Ornette's original collaborators in Los Angeles in the late '50's with his lithe pocket trumpet lines. But Don was an amazing person, expatriated himself to Scandinavia, grew his own food and sewed his own clothing. He taught himself piano, douss'n gouni and some pennywhistle-type flutes. He brought the freedom and joy of Ornette's music to a variety of musics, and was the perfect partner for Collin.

I miss Nana as well. I saw him play first with Pat Metheny's band in the late '70's or early '80's. A friend who joined me thought he was going to shoot someone with that "bow and arrow" (the berimbau). He could coax such a wide variety of unlikely but appropriate and oh so musical noises from the oddest looking devices. Collin and Don have passed, I don't know if Nana has as well.

There was nothing like this band, and I fear there never will be. They played simultaneously every genre and no genre. Much of what they played live was improvised on the spot, but they could drift in and out of songs at will.

Codona 1 was probably the most solid release, but Codona 2 remains my favorite. Codona 3 showed the broadest range of styles. Each disc is brilliant in its own way, but they are very different.

India-influenced jazz.
Very original and good interactions.
Hearing the invention of pure 'Worldmusic'!
(before the term was scrumbled and degenerated because too many bad musicians were producing a kind of weak eastern-flavored wallpaper-muzak..)
But hey, there (still) is also a lot of goooood music coming from the cross-overs.
It's partly now been integrated.
And this one ís one of the sources of good music!
Don Cherry was a Don indeed!
It didn't date. Fresh and Honest.
A document to pick while sitting and looking trough your window..