Collin Walcott

The Profile

American sitarist, tabla player, and percussionist associated with Oregon and Codona. Studied sitar with Ravi Shankar and tabla with Alla Rakha. Recorded for ECM; died in 1984 in a car accident while on tour in Europe.

Member of Oregon and Codona; studied with Ravi Shankar (sitar) and Alla Rakha (tabla); key albums include Cloud Dance (1975) and Grazing Dreams (1977); collaborated with Don Cherry and John Abercrombie; passed away in 1984 during an Oregon European tour.

A thoughtful, admiring review of Collin Walcott’s Grazing Dreams highlights his role in world-jazz, his studies with Ravi Shankar and Alla Rakha, and his work with Oregon and Codona. It details the album’s personnel (Don Cherry, John Abercrombie, Palle Danielsson, Dom Um Romao) and its meditative, subtly uneasy mood. Track impressions underline lyrical restraint and inventive interplay. The piece closes by reaffirming Walcott’s lasting significance.