The Man and His Horn, pt.4

So, we return to one of Italy's great jazz giants - Enrico Rava. This time we have two out-of- print records...

I recently found a couple of early Enrico Rava albums that are sadly out of print. Both are from the early 1970's and are wonderful musical experiences. Katcharpari is a "groovy", "fusiony" record that features the early electric guitar work of John Abercrombie before he solidified his signature ECM sound (that smooth, thick, remote tone with that elastic, fluid, rapid-fire attack). This record showcases Abercrombie's debt to McLaughlin and Hendrix.

Rava is, at turns, so lyrical and so kinetic. If you've heard his ECM recordings you'll be both pleased and surprised with this one. The title track is an infectious melody that had me awkwardly whistling the melody for days. It sounds like a folk song that's gone off the rails...

It plays out like this:

1. Bunny's Pie (2:00)

2. Trial No. 5 (6:10)

3. Dimenticare (9:07)

4. Cheerin' Cherry (9:30)

5. Katcharpari (4:09)

6. Fluid Connection (5:51)

7. Peace (1:59)

The personel is: Enrico Rava (trumpet, vocals, bells); John Abercrombie (guitars); Bruce Johnson (bass); Chip "Superfly" White (drums

Get it here.

The second album offered up here is Pupa O Crisalide, one of his Italian recordings. The line-up of musicians are entirely Italian and are completely unknown to me. It is more conventionally a straight ahead jazz album, yet no less exciting and engaging. It's made up of seven tunes :

1. Pupo O Crisalide (4:05)

2. C.T.'s Dance (6:45)

3. Tsakwe (8:12)

4. El Samba Graciela (4:11)

5. Revisione Del Processo No. 6 (10:28)

6. Lingua Franca (4:36)

7. Giromondo (3:36)

Enjoy!

The Man and His Horn, Pt. 3

This wonderful concert recently became available so I decided to continue the Enrico Rava festival. This performance reunites (apparently – I didn’t know that they had ever played together before) Rava with tenor sax player Gato Barbieri at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival in 2002. This is a quintet concert that covers some latin-tinged material, standards and (from what I can glean) original material. There were no titles provided for the pieces here but I recognized several. More about that later…

Leandro “Gato” Barbieri was born in Argentina, moved to Rome (perhaps this was when they originally met) in the early 60’s and was discovered by Don Cherry there. He became associated with the Free Jazz movement in the 60’s and was identified with a firey style of blowing that placed him in the Pharoah Sanders mold. He incorporated jazz with folk music (think: Charlie Haden’s Liberation Orchestra, on which Barbieri was featured on the first album).

Then the 70’s came and Gato seemed to drift away from his fire and began to produce records that were no less passionate, but were substantially slicker, "over-produced" music that sold many records but earned him a reputation as somewhat of a “sell out” (though not to the extent to that of George Benson).

The lineup of musicians for this concert is: Rava on trumpet & flugelhorn, Barbieri on tenor sax, Danilo Rea on piano, Rosario Bonaccorso on bass and, the veteran, Aldo Romano on drums. The playlist is spotty: 1. unknown, 2. Summertime, 3. unknown, 4. unknown, 5. Bella, 6. unknown, 7. Bye Bye Blackbird.

“Bella” is a wonderful melody written by Rava that appears on his Pilgrim And The Stars in a slightly different form. Once again, Rava is decidedly channeling Miles Davis on the standards.

Enjoy!

The Man and His Horn, Pt. 2

It’s been a theme explored quite frequently in the history of jazz: the acknowledgement and celebration of the musicians who came before them by established artists. Call it homage. Call it tribute. Call it giving props to those who served as inspiration and guidance. The jazz musician is called upon to walk a tightrope between the past and the future. Each generation is called upon to look forward while building on what came before.

There are musicians who, at some point in their development, focus their attention on individual artists who played central roles in these musicians’ creative evolution. Think Dave Douglas doing Mary Lou Williams, Misha Mengelberg doing Thelonious Monk, Jazz Composers Collective doing Herbie Nichols, Tim Berne doing Julius Hemphill…or Enrico Rava and Paolo Fresu doing Miles Davis.

The concert here is a tribute to Miles Davis led by the trumpeters Enrico Rava and Paolo Fresu. It is in support of a recording on the Label Bleu label called Enrico Rava Quintet Plays Miles Davis. The CD was recorded live at the Montreal International Jazz Festival twelve days earlier than this concert (which was recorded at the Umbria Jazz festival) in 2001. It is an excellent CD and is wholeheartedly recommended. There are three common compositions – “When Lights Are Low”, Bye Bye Blackbird”, and “Milestones” – between the two performances, along with the same lineup in the quintet, providing lots of opportunity for comparison. Search the CD out if you like what you hear here.

Here’s the relevant information:

Enrico Rava,tp,fh
Paolo Fresu,tp,fh
Stefano Bollani,p
Enzo Pietropaoli,b
Roberto Gatto,dr

1 Announcement ER / If I Were A Bell 12:54
2 Round Midnight 12:42
3 When Lights Are Low 13:50
4 Milestones / Announcement ER 15:33
5 Bye Bye Blackbird 12:18

Enjoy!

The Man and His Horn, Pt.1

I first heard Enrico Rava decades ago on a couple of his seventies ECM recordings on vinyl – The Pilgrim and the Stars and Enrico Rava Quartet. By that point ECM could do no wrong in my books so I faithfully followed from Koln Concert straight on through the entire decade. There were times, truth be told, when I came up against music and musicians I was not prepared for. They were usually European and they were usually verging on a degree of of musical freedom I had not encountered by that point in my personal musical journey. Enrico Rava was one of them. His pieces began safe enough took a turn toward the dangerous before reaching the halfway point. Personal musical journeys being what they are - circuitous and, well, personal, I did not take any of the conventional paths to discovery (the chronological approach or the "who influenced who" method). I'm a posterboy for the india rubber ball school of learning - head in one direction, bounce off the wall in a radically different direction until I meet the next wall and then repeat the process.

Fast forward almost three and a half decades. Enrico Rava is considered a national treasure in Italy. He’s recorded dozens of albums. He’s considered a star world wide and for good reason: he’s an outstanding improvising musician. Here is proof.

The concert here is from a recent performance (Feb. 1, 2009) in Rome recorded by Italian National Radio. Rava is accompanied by fellow countryman Stefano Bollani on piano, and Americans Michael Blake on tenor sax, Larry Grenadier on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums. There is a bit of Italian at the end by the radio announcer but other than that it’s pure music… There are several tunes that were named “unknown” by the uploader so if anyone can figure out what they are let me know. Here’s how it plays out: 1. Lulu (15:59); 2. Luna Urbana (17:21); 3. “unknown (21:44); 4. Interiors (Lost Birds) (17:46); 5. bass solo (4:09); 6. “unknown” (16:04); 7. “unknown” (6:35); Thank You Come Again (20:44)

Enjoy!
Look for part 2 very soon!