Enrico Rava, born in Trieste in 1939, is undoubtedly the most internationally acknowledged Italian jazzman. In forty years of his career as trumpet player, and composer, he has produced more than ninety recordings, twenty-five of which as a leader. Being 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’. In those years 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 was 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...

Enrico Rava, born in Trieste in 1939, is undoubtedly the most internationally acknowledged Italian jazzman. In forty years of his career as trumpet player, and composer, he has produced more than ninety recordings, twenty-five of which as a leader. Being 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’. In those years 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 was 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 into the free avant-garde, among which included 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, he returned to New York in 1969, where he lived for eight years. At first playing mostly with Rudd, Bill Dixon and Carla Bley's Jazz Composer's Orchestra, under whose direction he recorded Escalator Over the Hill.

Beginning in 1972, when he recorded his first album as a leader, Il Giro Del Giorno in 80 Mondi, Rava directs quartets (in New York clubs and on tours in Europe and Argentina), nearly always in piano-less groups. The concerts and recordings follow one another, in a precious and uninterrupted flow, beside acknowledged Italian, European and American musicians such as 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, Charlie Mariano, the Globe Unity Orchestra, Cecil Taylor, Jimmy Lyons, Archie Shepp etc.

Rava was also playing tours and concerts in the USA, Japan, Canada, Europe, Brazil, China and Argentina as well as taking part in important Festivals (Montreal, Toronto, Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Perugia, Antibes, Berlin, Paris Tokyo, Peking, etc). He has several times been elected best musician in the annual referendum conducted by "Musica Jazz", and has also won the title in the "best group" and "best Italian album" categories. In the past years he has toured and recorded with his Electric Five group.

At present, he plays in several concerts with his new quintet comprised of young talents such as Gianluca Petrella and Stefano Bollani and celebrated musicians such as Rosario Bonaccorso and Roberto Gatto. He also founded in 1999 his quintet with trumpet player Paolo Fresu and recorded Shades Of Chet for Label Bleu. He also leads a duo with young and gifted piano player Stefano Bollani. On July 2001 he will tour Europe with Gato Barbieri with a new band named Complete Reunion.

(Shrink Biography)