Codona

The Profile

Codona was an avant-garde jazz/world-fusion trio featuring Don Cherry, Collin Walcott, and Naná Vasconcelos. Active from 1978 to 1983, they recorded three albums for ECM, blending jazz improvisation with global timbres and approaches.

Members: Don Cherry (trumpet, multi-instrumentalist), Collin Walcott (sitar, tabla, percussion), Naná Vasconcelos (percussion, berimbau, voice). Name formed from COllin, DOn, NAna. Released Codona (1979), Codona 2 (1981), Codona 3 (1983) on ECM Records; active 1978–1983.

A visionary DeBaser review praises Codona’s boundary-blurring trio of Don Cherry, Collin Walcott, and Naná Vasconcelos. It frames their ECM recordings as a synthesis of East, West, and the Global South—world music in its purest, non-ethnographic sense. The piece highlights Codona’s unique instrumentation and spirit of free exploration, calling their trilogy an unsurpassed example of world fusion.