free jazz
Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians during ...
and world fusion group which released three self-titled albums on the ECM label in 1979, 1981 and 1983. The trio consisted of
multi-instrumentalist
A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays two or more musical instruments at a professional level of proficiency.
Also known as doubling, the practice allows greater ensemble flexibility and more efficient employment of musicians, where ...
s
Don Cherry
Donald Stewart Cherry (born February 5, 1934) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and television commentator. Cherry played one game in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins, and later coached the team for five se ...
,
Collin Walcott
Collin Walcott (April 24, 1945 – November 8, 1984) was an American musician who worked in jazz and world music.
Early life
Walcott was born in New York City, United States. He studied violin and tympani in his youth, and was a percussion stud ...
, and
Nana Vasconcelos
Nana, Nanna, Na Na or NANA may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Nana (given name), including a list of people and characters with the given name
* Nana (surname), including a list of people and characters with the surname
* Nana ( ...
. The name of the group was derived from the first two letters of the musicians' first names (COllin, DOn, NAna).
The members of the group declared that their goal was "to be open and incorporate all we know, without turning the whole world into milk toast - still encouraging the survival of the traditions". Critic Robert Palmer stated that the group's "self-appointed mission is to fuse African, Indian and other music traditions in the heat of improvisation". The authors of
The Penguin Guide to Jazz
''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions were compiled by ...
on CD called the group's debut album "one of the iconic episodes in so-called (but never better called) 'world music'", and stated: "Any tendency to regard Codona's music... as floating impressionism is sheer prejudice, for all these performances are deeply rooted in modern jazz (Coltrane's harmonies and rhythms, Ornette Coleman's melodic and rhythmic primitivism) and in another great and related improvisational tradition from Brazil."
Background
The musicians had crossed paths on a number of occasions prior to the formation of the group in 1977. Vasconcelos appeared on Cherry's album '' Organic Music Society'', recorded and released in 1972, while Walcott played on Cherry's '' Hear & Now'', recorded in 1976 and released in 1977. Cherry also appeared on Walcott's '' Grazing Dreams'', recorded and released in 1977, while both Walcott and Vasconcelos played on
Egberto Gismonti
Egberto Amin Gismonti (born December 5, 1947) is a Brazilian composer, guitarist and pianist.
Biography
Gismonti was born in the small city of Carmo, state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, into a musical family. His mother was from Sicily and his ...
's '' Sol do Meio Dia'', recorded in 1977 and released in 1978. The members' involvement with Codona overlapped with their participation in other projects, Cherry with
Old and New Dreams
Old and New Dreams was an American jazz group that was active from 1976 to 1987. The group was composed of tenor saxophone player Dewey Redman (doubling on musette), bassist Charlie Haden, trumpeter Don Cherry and drummer Ed Blackwell. All of t ...
, Walcott with
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
, and Vasconcelos with
Pat Metheny
Patrick Bruce Metheny ( ; born August 12, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist and composer.
He is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works, and other side projects. His style incorporates elements of progre ...
,
Milton Nascimento
Milton Nascimento (; born October 26, 1942), also known as Bituca, is a Brazilian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
He has toured across the world.
Nascimento has won five Grammy Awards, including Best World Music Album for his alb ...
,
Jan Garbarek
Jan Garbarek () (born 4 March 1947) is a Norwegian jazz saxophonist, who is also active in classical music and world music.
Garbarek was born in Mysen, Østfold, southeastern Norway, the only child of a former Polish prisoner of war, Czesław ...
,
Jon Hassell
Jon Hassell (March 22, 1937 – June 26, 2021) was an American trumpet player and composer. He was best known for developing the concept of "Fourth World" music, which describes a "unified primitive/futurist sound" combining elements of various w ...
, and others. Although the group was conceived as a leaderless trio, Walcott was the organizer and primary composer.
Codona was noted for its use of a broad range of instrumentation. While Cherry was primarily known as a trumpet and cornet player, he also performed on various
flute
The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...
melodica
The melodica is a handheld free-reed instrument similar to a pump organ or harmonica. It features a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. The keyboard usual ...
, and the
Mali
Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...
an doussn’gouni. Walcott played
sitar
The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form in ...
,
tabla
A tabla, bn, তবলা, prs, طبلا, gu, તબલા, hi, तबला, kn, ತಬಲಾ, ml, തബല, mr, तबला, ne, तबला, or, ତବଲା, ps, طبله, pa, ਤਬਲਾ, ta, தபலா, te, తబల ...
,
hammered dulcimer
The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion-stringed instrument which consists of strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set before the musician, who in more trad ...
timpani
Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...
, while Vasconcelos performed on
berimbau
The berimbau () is a single-string percussion instrument, a musical bow, originally from Africa, that is now commonly used in Brazil.
The berimbau would eventually be incorporated into the practice of the Afro-Brazilian martial art ''capoeira'' ...
talking drum
The talking drum is an hourglass-shaped drum from West Africa, whose pitch can be regulated to mimic the tone and prosody of human speech. It has two drumheads connected by leather tension cords, which allow the player to change the pitc ...
, and a variety of
percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
s. In addition, all three musicians sang. The group was also known for its unusual arrangements, an example being "Colemanwonder", a medley of two
Ornette Coleman
Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 – June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, and composer known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album '' Free Jazz: A Colle ...
tunes combined with
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...
's "
Sir Duke
"Sir Duke" is a song composed and performed by Stevie Wonder from his 1976 album ''Songs in the Key of Life''. Released as a single in 1977, the track topped the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and Black Singles charts, and reached number two in the U ...
", performed on trumpet, sitar, cuica, and percussion, and appearing on the group's debut album.
The group disbanded following Walcott's death in a traffic accident in
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
in 1984.
Discography
*1979: ''
Codona
Codona was a free jazz and world fusion group which released three self-titled albums on the ECM label in 1979, 1981 and 1983. The trio consisted of multi-instrumentalists Don Cherry, Collin Walcott, and Nana Vasconcelos. The name of the group was ...
'' (ECM 1132)
*1981: ''
Codona 2
''Codona 2'' is the second album by the jazz trio Codona, which featured sitarist and tabla player Collin Walcott, trumpeter Don Cherry and percussionist Naná Vasconcelos. It was recorded in 1980 and released on the ECM label in 1981.Codona 3'' (ECM 1243)
*2009: ''The Codona Trilogy'' (ECM 2033-35) (3 disc reissue of above titles)