:::Cloud Dance:::

Posted: Tuesday 19 May 2009 by jazzlover in Etykiety: , , ,
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I’ve always been amazed by Collin Walcott’s expertise in instruments associated with Indian music; as I was pretty early into Ravi Shankar, (The Concert for Bangladesh was a landmark in the early ‘70’s) all those utilizations of the sitar (and occasionally the tabla too) by Rock or PopRock artists who wanted to give a Psych/Ethnic color to their sound, normally sounded only like that: coloring.
Walcott played in another league, as the only Westerner who could fool me into thinking I was listening to natives from India. And the best part is he’d do it in a setting more consentaneous with my listening horizons, than the not always easy to get into Indian Ragas.
But while I know Oregon for well over 30 years, it was only recently that I learned about his solo stuff; this is one of those examples and what a mighty one it is!
Walcott enlisted the help of John Abercrombie guitar, Dave Holland double-bass and Jack DeJohnette drums, but this is no group recording per se, as he hand picks the musicians who he feels best serve the songs.
Thus, practically all possible combinations of the featured instruments are used, making this a rich, and constantly renewed aural experience; On the other hand, and except for a very discreet tabla on “Eastern Song”, he never doubles on a 2nd instrument, thus leaving the music ready to be playable live; “Eastern Song” is one of two duos with Holland, bass and sitar parallel voices meandering trough a Raga like theme, while “Prancing” is an astonishing and vibrant bass/tabla argument.
The duos with guitar were co-written with Abercrombie, his piercing overdriven guitar fighting its way atop the frenetic tabla percussion on “Scimitar”, and speaking in a clean register against the sitar on the eerie “Padma”.
Tracks get longer when the number of players involved increase, and the trio ones are “Night Glider”, a tranquil conversation between guitar and sitar, speaking close melodies or tastefully going separate ways with sympathetically related arguments, atop sparse and gliding full bass figures, and the Holland penned “Vadana”, in a similarly meditative mood and where the bass is more prominent amidst fluid cascades of guitar and sitar sentences.
The quartet tracks open and close the album, “Margarite” introduced by two minutes of sitar setting the mood for an uplifting salute to the joys of being alive, punctuated by DeJohnette inexhaustibly inventive drum sticks, and the title track, driven by a syncopated bass pattern and an almost Funky vibe, filled with competing sitar and guitar flourishes atop counterpoint accents and subtle drum rolls, nourishing an whirlwind of exultant emotions and leaving a feeling of plenitude when the album comes to an end.
:::Review by comusduke:::

Collin Walcott - Cloud Dance (1975)

1. Margueritte (Walcott) - 8:25
2. Prancing (Walcott) - 3:23
3. Night Glider (Walcott) - 6:35
4. Scimitar (Abercrombie/Walcott) - 2:42
5. Vadana (Holland) - 6:59
6. Eastern Song (Walcott) - 2:32
7. Padma (Abercrombie/Walcott) - 2:43
8. Cloud Dance (Walcott) - 5:48

Artists
John Abercrombie - Guitar
Jack DeJohnette - Drums
Dave Holland - Bass
Collin Walcott - Sitar, Tabla

1 komentarze:

  1. Santiago Killing Stringer says:
    19 January 2011 at 22:13

    I wish I could get my hands on this album.

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