Rava

Their collaboration has been hailed as a summit meeting of two jazz masters. Enrico Rava, trumpeter from Trieste, and Fred Hersch, pianist from Cincinatti, share a deep affection for the tradition and a profound sense for melodic invention. In this recording, with flugelhorn and piano glowing in the superb acoustic of the Lugano studio, Rava and Hersch explore some much-loved standards: Jerome Kern’s “The Song Is You”, Thelonious Monk’s “Mysterioso” and “’Round Midnight”, Jobim’s “Retrato em Branco e Preto”, and George Bassman’s “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You”. They also play their own tunes, Fred’s “Child’s Song” and Enrico’s “The Trial”, and improvise freely together. Enrico Rava has been an ECM artist for almost fifty years. The Song Is You is Fred Hersch’s first for the label. The album was recorded at Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in November 2021, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Trumpeter Enrico Rava has proven himself adept at virtually every style of jazz, from bop through the avant-garde. For this short recording, he teams up with third-stream pianist Ran Blake in a series of 12 emotionally drenched tunes emphasizing the kind of dark, foreboding atmosphere for which Blake is well-known.

2 Blues For Cecil features three legends of modern improvised music, trumpeter Enrico Rava, bassist William Parker and drummer Andrew Cyrille. Rava and Cyrille are among the elders of improvised music with their careers going back to the 1960s whereas Parker rose to prominence during New York's loft jazz era of the 1970s. The three musicians share one major link in their respective careers. Namely, they all have, at various times, been members of Unit or other ensembles of another legend, the late pianist Cecil Taylor. Enrico Rava, William Parker and Andrew Cyrille first performed together as a trio in tribute to Cecil Taylor, with Taylor himself present, at the Whitney museum in April 2016 as part of an exhibit/program under the heading "Open Plan: Cecil Taylor." 2 Blues For Cecil was recorded on February 1 and 2 at Studio Ferber in Paris following the trio's concert on December 31, 2020 under the heading "Tribute to Cecil Taylor" as part of the Sons D'Hiver festival in Paris.

A cross-generational project by the grand master of Italian Jazz. Energized by joyous experiences on the road the ever youthful Enrico Rava took his new working quartet of the last two years into Arte Suono Studio in Udine. Here they were joined by trombonist Gianluca Petrella, an internationally noted player through his contributions to Rava’s three acclaimed post-millennium quintet albums Tribe (2011), The Words & The Days (2005) and Easy Living (2003). With Manfred Eicher producing, the five Italians recorded a program of Rava originals which cover a broad range of moods - from brooding ballad playing to fiery uptempo post-bop. Once again Rava’s playing makes it clear that lightness and intensity, elegant cool and emotional warmth are no opposites. Rava and Petrella form a peerless two-horn frontline, whether playing in unison, engaging in dialogue or taking their turns in extensive soloing…

Enrico Rava, long a key figure in European jazz, has been a mentor for successive generations of Italian players. His celebratory Edizione Speciale, recorded live at the Middelheim Festival in Antwerp, brings together a team of young improvisers who play his music with fire and élan, accompanying his fountain of melodic ideas, while also taking advantage of the free space that the extensive musical forms open up. The group’s repertoire includes material from the trumpeter/flugelhornist’s early recording Enrico Rava Quartet (1978) and Wild Dance (2015), plus a rendition of “Once Upon a Summertime” – the English version of Michel Legrand’s “La valse des lilas” – as well as the universally known Cuban song “Quizás, Quizás, Quizás”.

Enrico Rava's debut for ECM, 1975's The Pilgrim and the Stars, is a stellar progressive jazz effort from the Italian trumpeter who was then just coming into his own. Previously, Rava had spent his formative years working with such artists as saxophonist Steve Lacy, trombonist Roswell Rudd, and pianist Carla Bley, and obviously took much to heart when approaching his own music.

Enrico Rava - Italian Ballads (1996){Venus Japan TKCV 35002 rel 2007}
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© 1996, 2007 Venus Records Japan | TKCV 35002
Jazz / Contemporary Jazz / Post Bop / Trumpet

On this CD, the lyrical trumpeter Enrico Rava performs themes from Fellini movies, operas and classical music, along with three originals by band members. Despite its title, not all of the selections are taken at slower tempos, but there is an emphasis on memorable and haunting melodies. The results, which do not quite fit in as avant-garde or world music, are certainly jazz. Rava, guitarists Domenico Carliri and Roberto Cecchetto, and guest Richard Galliano on accordion get some individual improvisations, generally remaining within the mood of each piece while stretching its boundaries a bit. Barbara Casini's occasional vocals in Italian are a strong asset, and she comes across much closer to a bossa nova singer than to an opera star. Definitely an intriguing set.

Plenty has happened since Enrico Rava last recorded with his working quintet. All but the piano chair remained stable between Easy Living (ECM, 2004) and The Words And The Days (ECM, 2007), but trombonist Gianluca Petrella is the sole remnant on Tribe. "Change is good," they say, and if the rest of Rava's quintet consists of largely fresh (and young) faces, the lack of name power shouldn't be mistaken for lack of firepower.

L'Italien aux longs cheveux cendrés et à la moustache dorénavant immuable nous laisse à chaque note percevoir toute l'étendue de son jeu passionné. Issu du bop, qui continue de l'inspirer, et vétéran des sulfureuses batailles du free pour y avoir fait quelques incursions décisives, la voix d'Enrico Rava déchire délicatement le ciel pour rejoindre les plus belles étoiles en la matière, celles de Miles et de Chet naturellement… A la fois héritier et passeur, sans jamais se perdre dans la simple reproduction, il s'amuse sereinement des alternances souffle et silence, phrasé et mélodie, pour toucher à un lyrisme embrassant la pluralité des jazz et de ses amours.

Enrico Rava - Noir (1996) {Label Bleu LBLC 6595}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 335 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 124 Mb
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© 1996 Label Bleu | LBLC 6595
Jazz / Contemporary Jazz / Post Bop / Trumpet

Fittingly for a man born in the cosmopolitan city of Trieste, trumpeter Enrico Rava is as at home with formal music as with abstraction, and with straight-ahead jazz as with cutting-edge contemporary developments. Fronting a heavily rock-influenced, twin-guitar band here, he touches musical bases ranging from woozy tangos through floating, freeish pieces to relatively straightforward jazz and multi-textured jazz-rock in an album programmed as a species of ‘soundtrack’ to an accompanying cartoon booklet drawn by Francesco Tullio Altan.