Collin Walcott

Biography

Collin Walcott (April 24, 1945 – November 8, 1984) was an American sitar and tabla player in the jazz and world music genres.

Early life

Walcott was born in New York City, United States. He studied violin and timpani in his youth and was a percussion student at Indiana University School of Music. After graduating in 1966, he attended the University of California, Los Angeles and studied sitar under Ravi Shankar and tabla under Alla Rakha.

Later life and career

According to critic Scott Yanow of AllMusic, Walcott was "one of the first sitar players to play jazz". Walcott moved to New York and played "a blend of bop and oriental music with Tony Scott" in 1967–69. Around 1970, he joined the Paul Winter Consort and co-founded the band Oregon. These groups, along with the trio Codona, which was founded in 1978, combined "jazz improvisation and instrumentation with elements of a wide range of classical and ethnic music".
Walcott also played on the Miles Davis album On the Corner in 1972, had three releases under his own name on ECM Records, and taught at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
Walcott was killed in a bus crash in Magdeburg, East Germany, on November 8, 1984, while on a tour with Oregon.
Author David James Duncan wrote retrospectively in 1996 about an Oregon concert he attended in Cascade Head in his piece "My One Conversation with Collin Walcott". Duncan described Walcott as sitting "buddha-style" on stage, surrounded by instruments. Along with an electronic drum kit "to his north", Walcott "had five different tablas to his south, a sitar to his east and a bewildering semicircle of rattles, chimes, clackers, bells, whistles, finger-drums, triangles and unnameable noisemakers to his west. He was the first Western 'jazz' percussionist I'd ever seen sit flat on the floor like an East Indian."

As leader

1976: Cloud Dance (ECM 1062)
1977: Grazing Dreams (ECM 1096)
1981: Dawn Dance (ECM 1198) with Steve Eliovson
1988: Works (ECM/Polygram 837 276) – compilation
With Oregon

1970: Our First Record CD (Universe 42)
1973: Music of Another Present Era CD (Vanguard VMD-79326)
1974: Winter Light CD (Vanguard VMD 79350)
1974: Distant Hills CD (Vanguard VMD-79341)
1975: In Concert CD (Universe 25)
1976: Together CD (Universe 9) with Elvin Jones
1977: Friends CD (Vanguard 79370-2)
1978: Out of the Woods CD (Discovery 71004)
1978: Violin CD (Universe 40)
1979: Moon and Mind CD (Vanguard VMD 79419)
1979: Roots in the Sky CD (Discovery 71005)
1980: In Performance CD (Wounded Bird 304)
1983: Oregon (ECM)
1984: Crossing (ECM)
With Codona

Codona (rec. 1978, rel. April 1979) ECM 1132
Codona 2 (rec. 1980, rel. February 1981) ECM 1177
Codona 3 (rec. 1982, rel. February 1983) ECM 1243
With The Rainbow Band

The Rainbow Band (Elektra, 1971)

As sideman

Within his brief career, Walcott played with a range of different musicians of different styles and contributed to the following albums:
With David Amram

Subway Night (RCA Victor, 1973)
With Bobby Callender

Rainbow (MGM Records, 1968)
With Don Cherry

Hear & Now (Atlantic, 1977)
With Larry Coryell

The Restful Mind (Vanguard, 1975)
With Cosmology

Cosmology (Elektra, 1971)
With David Darling

Cycles (ECM, 1981)
With Miles Davis

On the Corner (Columbia, 1972)
With Rachel Faro

Refugees (RCA Victor, 1974)
With Cyrus Faryar

Cyrus (Elektra, 1971)
Islands (Elektra, 1972)
With Egberto Gismonti

Sol do Meio Dia (ECM, 1978)
With Tim Hardin

Bird on a Wire (Columbia 1971)
With Richie Havens

Richard P. Havens, 1983 (Verve, 1969)
With Dave Liebman

Drum Ode (ECM, 1974)
With Alan Lorber Orchestra

The Lotus Palace (Big Beat Records, 1967)
With Meredith Monk

Key (Increase/Lovely Music, 1971)
Our Lady of Late (Minona/WERGO, recd. 1972, publ. 1973)
Dolmen Music (ECM, 1981)
Turtle Dreams (ECM, 1983)
With Jim Pepper

Comin' and Goin' (Rykodisc, 1983)
With Vasant Rai

Spring Flowers (Universe, 1976)
Autumn Song (Universe, 1978)
With Alla Rakha

Tabla Solo (Vanguard, 1977)
With Tony Scott

Music for Yoga Meditation and Other Joys (Verve, 1968)
Tony Scott (Verve, 1970)
With Titos Sompa

Yao! Titos Sompa with the Tanawa Dance Company (Vanguard, 1978) [production only]
With Ralph Towner

Trios / Solos (ECM, 1973) with Glen Moore
With Barry Wedgle

Kake (Wonderful World Records, 1982)
With Elyse Weinberg

Elyse (Orange Twin, 1968)
With Paul Winter

Road (A&M, 1971)
Icarus (Epic, 1972)