The title track to Codona’s eponymous first album, released on ECM in 1979.
I first heard this track thanks to a happy accident. My parents had ordered an ECM sampler around 1980. ECM was billed as a jazz label, my parents liked jazz as they understood it, and they wanted to hear something new. The music on that 2 LP set was not their flavor. So they asked me if I wanted it. I agreed to take it off their hands and give it a spin, and then proceeded to wear the records out. I’m not sure at 14 that I could quite understand what I was hearing, but it resonated with me.
The above tune by Codona was one in particular that I came to treasure. Colin Walcott, Don Cherry, and Nana Vasconcelos were each in their prime creatively. Their three albums together epitomize what was called “world music” at the time. Regrettably, all three artists are no longer with us. But their work does provide comfort to someone who early on came to prize the notion of global cooperation and collaboration, of tearing down borders and walls and identifying first and foremost as human beings. At a time when those values are particularly vulnerable, this music reminds me of why those values are more important to fight for than ever. Amazing that such a peaceful tune would incite such a reaction in me these days, but these are not ordinary times.
