Don Cherry, Nana Vasconcelos, Collin Walcott - The Codona Trilogy

Friday, January 30, 2009

ECM 2033-35     ****Don Cherry (t, doussn’gouni, fl, org, melodica, v), Nana Vasconcelos (berimbau, cuica, talking dr, perc, v) and Collin Walcott (sitar, hammered dulcimer (santoor), sanza, timpani, v). Rec. September 1978, May 1980 and September 1982


When ECM first released this material, it passed me by. It was hard enough to keep on my learning curves of choice then, even though reviewing was continually washing up new discoveries to excite the senses. There is a common fall-back when describing one art form whereby we describe that artistic experience using the language or terminology of another.

Without straying into realms of synaesthesia of the orange sherbet kisses kind, The Codona Trilogy is visual. Its astonishing openness conjures torrents and tumbles and millraces of visual images. By the time we get to the 1982 sessions they are so comfortable in their skins that they are producing ‘Trayra Boia’ a conversational wash of words that takes word-jazz to new places before the angelic blasts enter and the sitary railroad blues of ‘Clicky Clacky’. Illuminating notes from Steve Lake only add to the perfection. And did I mention the trilogy’s fun and the sense of humour?

Review: Ken Hunt
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