Collin Walcott: Grazing Dreams

(ECM 1096)

Collin Walcott sitar, tabla; John Abercrombie electric and acoustic guitars, electric mandolin; Don Cherry trumpet, wood flute, doussní gouni; Palle Danielsson bass; Dom Um Romao berimbau, chica, tambourine, percussion

'Changless Faith: Song of the Morrow, Gold Sun, The Swarm, Mountain Morning'; 'Jewel Ornament'; 'Grazing Dreams'; 'Samba Tala'; 'Moon Lake'

Recorded February 1977 at Talent Studio, Oslo; engineer Jan Erik Kongshaug; producer Manfred Eicher

'[Collin] combined the scholarly approach with the instinctive, the passionate with the pragmatic in the most complete and successful ways that I had ever seen. The beauty of such a man lives and teaches us forever. In stressful times, his example still is available for advice and solace. His formidable strength and gentleness still exists and helps to guide us in this life.'

These kind words come from Collin Walcott's friend and Oregon collaborator Ralph Towner. They express not only a heartfelt and sensitive view of the man that was Collin Walcott, but also of his art.

Grazing Dreams is at the core of Collin's art. One of the gems in the ECM catalogue, in fact. Recorded nearly two years after Collin's ECM debut - the much darker Cloud Dance - this session stands out as the first time Walcott and Cherry played together on record. Their collaboration would continue in the trios of Codona (Collin, Don, and Nana Vasconcelos), and in a way this record is a precursor to the work of that illustruous trio.

The music on Grazing Dreams is very evocative. It conjures up different atmospheres from various places in the world.

The 'Changeless Faith' suite consists of a collection of tunes connected by the theme of the break of day, the beginning and hope of new life on a new day.

'Song of the Morrow' (which would be recorded as a post-humous tribute at Oregon's Ecotopia sessions) is the perfect album opener. It showcases the inventiveness of the music that follows. It is almost a two-part suite in itself: the first part is characterized by Walcott on sitar, while he switches to tabla and increases the pace for the second part. Cherry connects the two parts with some very fluent playing. His lines bring a joi de vivre to the music, full of the life of daybreak, but still with enough melancholic undertone to be seriously mournful.

'Gold Sun', attributed to Collin and Don, starts with Cherry's doussn' gouni drone transforming into a groove, which is picked up by the double-bass, berimbau, sitar, acoustic guitar, and trumpet. Together they create an atmosphere of ancient beauty. It stops me in my tracks every time I hear this tune. While the dousn' gouni, double-bass, and berimbau lay down the foundation for the tune, the sitar, guitar, and trumpet create a swirling motif culminating in a sitar and guitar duo climax. You can feel the smile they must have shared when they finished playing this tune.

Next up is 'The Swarm'. The story of a swarm of bees on their quest for a new home. The narrative unfolds through a variety of sounds that make you forget at times that you're listening to a musical composition. At other times the music is very free, with sitar, mandolin, and double-bass improvising around the theme simultaneously.

The final part of the 'Changeles Faith' suite is 'Mountain Morning'. It is a song of awakening on a mountian side covered with high rainforest trees from which mysterious animal sounds appear. Like the dawn chorus on a hot August morning, it is too short to really erupt into a crescendo, but it's poinant nonetheless.

Transfer to cd has changed the flow of the album. The original vinyl had the suite on side a and the four more individual songs on side b. The short pause between 'Mountain Morning' and 'Jewel Ornament' makes it seem like an almost seamless flow from one piece to the next, especially since the main solo instrument in both is Cherry's wood flute. The trio on 'Jewel Ornament' of Walcott (tabla), Abercrombie (electric mandolin), and Cherry presents a gorgeous fluid signet of the mastery of the three musicians. It is very Indian in nature, but touches on other idioms as well.

'Grazing Dreams' would later in 1977 be recorded with Oregon at their Friends sessions. Here it is a string trio of double-bass, acoustic guitar (with Abercrombie doubling on electric), and sitar. Abercrombie's electric solo is typical of the era, his round tone being the perfect icing on the cake - one of the jazziest pieces on the album.

'Samba Tala' is a brief percussion piece by Romao and Walcott and it provides a nice interlude in the latter half of the album. The last piece, 'Moon Lake', is, like the rather short 'Mountain Morning', a fully improvised piece. And it works really well as an album closer. Its mysterious sitar opening reminds me of Akseli Gallen-Kallela's 'Lake Keitele' painting of a Finnish water spirit criss-crossing a lake at dawn. The piece then develops into an ECM soundscape of various colours.

This is a great, great record by a rather shortlived and very talented young man, who, in the last seven years of his life, would come to more great things.

 

last modified: 29 September 2002