Enrico Rava

 

Enrico Rava, born in Trieste (Italy) on August 20, 1939, is the most internationally acknowledged Italian jazzman. In his forty year career as trumpet player, and composer he has produced more than a hundred recordings, some thirty as leader. A great admirer of Miles Davis and Chet Baker, his career started at an early age, when he played in clubs in Turin. In 1962, he met Gato Barbieri with whom, two years later, he recorded the soundtrack for Montaldo's film "Una bella grinta". Around this time he met Don Cherry, Mal Waldron and Steve Lacy, with whom he played free jazz in a quartet alternating between London and Buenos Aires (it is in Argentina in 1966 that the quartet recorded the album "The Forest and the Zoo"). In 1967 Rava was in New York, where he was introduced to the avant-garde, with players such as are Roswell Rudd, Marion Brown, Rashied Ali, Cecil Taylor, Charlie Haden, Marvin Peterson etc. After an italian parenthesis, during which he played with various musicians including Franco D'Andrea and where he recorded with Lee Konitz in Rome and with Manfred Schoof in Bremen, returning to New York in 1969, where he lived for eight years. At first he played mostly with Rudd, Bill Dixon and Carla Bley's Jazz Composer's Orchestra, under whose direction he contributed to "Escalator Over the Hill". Beginning in 1972, when he recorded his first album as a leader, "Il giro del giorno in 80 mondi", Rava led quartets (in New York clubs and on tours in Europe and Argentina), nearly always in pianoless groups. Over the years he played with a cast that included Franco D'Andrea, Enrico Pieranunzi, Marcello Melis, Massimo Urbani, Paolo Fresu, Pietro Tonolo, Stefano Bollani, Roberto Gatto, John Abercrombie, Roswell Rudd, Miroslav Vitous, Richard Galliano, J.F. Jenny-Clark, Misha Mengelberg, Dino Saluzzi, Lee Konitz, Martial Solal, Pat Metheny Charlie Mariano, Cecil Taylor, Jimmy Lyons, Archie Shepp etc. His tours included the USA, Japan, Canada, Europe, Brazil, China, and Argentina, and included important Festivals (Montreal, Toronto, Houston, San Francisco, Chicago, New York,Rio De Janeiro,Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Perugia, Antibes, Berlin, Paris Tokyo, Peking, etc). He has several times been elected best musician in the annual "Musica Jazz" poll, and has also won the title in the "best group" and "best Italian album" categories. He was ranked fourth in the Down Beat 2006 and 2007 trumpet players section. At present he is engaged in several projects including a duo with pianist Stefano Bollani, and the Enrico Rava Quintet (with Gianluca Petrella, Giovanni Guidi, Pietro Leveratto and Fabrizio Sferra).