Collin Walcott

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American musician

title: "Collin Walcott" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1945-births", "1984-deaths", "appalachian-dulcimer-players", "american-sitar-players", "jacobs-school-of-music-alumni", "ucla-school-of-the-arts-and-architecture-alumni", "pupils-of-ravi-shankar", "ecm-records-artists", "road-incident-deaths-in-germany", "oregon-(band)-members", "paul-winter-consort-members", "codona-members"] description: "American musician" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collin_Walcott" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American musician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist"]

FieldValue
nameCollin Walcott
landscape
birth_date
birth_placeNew York City, US
death_date
death_placeMagdeburg, East Germany
occupationMusician
instrumentSitar, tabla
years_active
website
::

| name = Collin Walcott | image = | image_size = | landscape = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | alias = | birth_date = | birth_place = New York City, US | origin = | death_date = | death_place = Magdeburg, East Germany | genre = | occupation = Musician | instrument = Sitar, tabla | years_active = | label = | website =

Collin Walcott (April 24, 1945 – November 8, 1984) was an American musician who worked on jazz and world music.

Early life

Walcott was born in New York City, United States. He studied violin and tympani in his youth, and was a percussion student at Indiana University School of Music. After graduating in 1966, he went to 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 1972 album On the Corner, 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 in "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."

Discography

As leader

With [[Oregon (band)|Oregon]]

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

With [[Codona]]

  • Codona (recd.1978, pbl.4/1979) ECM 1132
  • Codona 2 (recd.1980, pbl.2/1981) ECM 1177
  • Codona 3 (recd.1982, pbl.2/1983) 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

References

References

  1. (1992). "[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music". [[Guinness Publishing]].
  2. {{Cite encyclopedia. Kernfeld. Barry. (2003). Oxford University Press
  3. "Collin Walcott | Biography & History".
  4. David James Duncan. (1996). "River Teeth: Stories and Writings". Bantam.
  5. "Walcott Official Website Discography".

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1945-births1984-deathsappalachian-dulcimer-playersamerican-sitar-playersjacobs-school-of-music-alumniucla-school-of-the-arts-and-architecture-alumnipupils-of-ravi-shankarecm-records-artistsroad-incident-deaths-in-germanyoregon-(band)-memberspaul-winter-consort-memberscodona-members