In Memory of Colin Wolcott.

[NNadir]

It(Oregon)’s a family. It’s very highly evolved somehow. An interesting thing happened when Collin was killed. All the areas Collin occupied, with his wonderful, stable personality and all the things he would take care of almost in unspoken ways settled out like water seeking a level amongst us. We all took on some portion of whatever Collin’s personality filled out in the group. That even included unspoken things like who does the accounting, who makes the call to find out if the hotel is booked and who drives the van. So, it was a very interesting sociological phenomenon about a group of people and how they relate and function as kind of a closed society with a sense of honor and without spoken rules. In a sense, my main detail is being the big composer of the group. I do most of the writing. In a funny way, I’m the musical director of the group...

I was thinking for some reason today of an old friend - he was a friend although we never met and never talked - jazz sitar player/percussionist Colin Wolcott, who was killed in an automobile accident in East Germany in 1984.

It’s a family. It’s very highly evolved somehow. An interesting thing happened when Collin was killed. All the areas Collin occupied, with his wonderful, stable personality and all the things he would take care of almost in unspoken ways settled out like water seeking a level amongst us. We all took on some portion of whatever Collin’s personality filled out in the group. That even included unspoken things like who does the accounting, who makes the call to find out if the hotel is booked and who drives the van. So, it was a very interesting sociological phenomenon about a group of people and how they relate and function as kind of a closed society with a sense of honor and without spoken rules. In a sense, my main detail is being the big composer of the group. I do most of the writing. In a funny way, I’m the musical director of the group...

...He was such an extraordinary person who was such a great friend. Even if he didn’t have a musical influence—which he does—it must be there somewhere, just having known a person that closely and having lost him like that. Your life is completely changed as a result of having known him. You can still remember things he said and how he’d react in a certain situation. So, this person is still alive in your life. People don’t cease to be part of your life when they die. There’s still so much that’s just naturally there—an inertia in someone’s life that carries on and lasts throughout the lives of everyone that knew him. In this case, he was such a rare person. He’s as much a part of the band as he ever was in some ways. It’s an interesting thing to know someone that well and have them influence your life and continue to...

The above quotes are from Ralph Towner.

http://www.collinwalcott.com/biography.php

http://www.innerviews.org/inner/towner.html




http://www.collinwalcott.com/ra/padma.ram

With all the hurt and anger, it seems like a good time to remember one who made the world more beautiful.