Cloud Dance is the first album under the name of Collin Walcott, the sitar and tabla player who defined a corner of improvisation all his own. Recorded for ECM in March 1975 and released in 1976, it places Indian instruments and raga-like forms inside a jazz quartet as equal voices rather than exotic colour. His partners were the newly formed Gateway trio of guitar, bass and drums.
Walcott plays sitar and tabla, John Abercrombie guitar, Dave Holland double bass and Jack DeJohnette drums. The session took place at Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg, the same studio and the same month in which the trio recorded its own album Gateway. Martin Wieland engineered and Manfred Eicher produced. By then Walcott had co-founded the group Oregon with Ralph Towner and had appeared on Towner's Trios / Solos for ECM. Six of the eight pieces are his, two written with Abercrombie, and Holland contributed Vadana.
The line-up changes from track to track. Margueritte opens with sitar setting out a long, raga-like theme, before Abercrombie's electric guitar, bass and drums come in, with solos from guitar and bass. Prancing and Eastern Song are duets with Holland, the first with Walcott on tabla, the second on sitar. Night Glider and Vadana are trios for sitar, guitar and bass, with Holland following the sitar closely while the guitar moves in and out. DeJohnette returns for the title track, which closes the album at a quicker pace.
The Penguin Guide to Jazz gave the album four stars and praised its "freshness and originality". Tyran Grillo of ECM Reviews ranked it among the most powerful records in the label's early catalogue and singled out the two duets with Holland as its high point. Walcott made one more album as leader for the label, Grazing Dreams in 1977, before his death on tour with Oregon in November 1984. In between he also founded the trio Codona with Don Cherry and Naná Vasconcelos.
This CD edition of ECM 1062, first issued in 1976, was reissued in 2008 in the Touchstones series. ECM launched the series that year to bring key catalogue albums back into circulation in cardboard sleeves.
