Vinyl Vault: CODONA
On this week’s Vinyl Vault, we’ll hear some tracks from the first album by the band CODONA.
CODONA was a trio comprising Colin Walcott, Don Cherry, and Nana Vasconcelos. The band’s name is a combination of the first two letters of the first names of the band members.
Codona released three albums on the ECM record label including their first in 1979. The band’s stated intent was to combine music from the whole world and refine it in the crucible of improvisation. Indeed, the band’s sound captured melodies and rhythms from Africa, India, and Latin America as well as 20th Century American jazz. The instrumentation was as diverse as the influences. Walcott played sitar and tabla, hammered dulcimer, and assorted percussion. Cherry played his usual cornet and trumpet but also various flutes, organ, and percussion. Vasconcelos was heard on berimbau, cuica, talking drum, and other percussion. Additionally, they all sang.
Walcott composed most of the music, but the band also performed some covers. We’ll hear a medley of two Ornette Coleman tunes together with Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke.”
If you haven’t heard CODONA, you haven’t heard anything like it. Check it out on the Vinyl Vault with Geoff Anderson, tonight, Tuesday, January 21 at 8:30 on KUVO JAZZ.
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