Enrico Rava

Enrico Rava (born Aug. 20, 1939) is an Italian trumpeter, composer, and bandleader with more than 300 album credits since the early Sixties. Rava played beside Gato Barbieri, Steve Lacy, Roswell Rudd, Carla Bley, Lee Konitz, and Giorgio Azzolini. In 1970, he cut an album with American brass-rockers Gas Mask.

Rava debuted as a bandleader with the 1972 International release Il giro del giorno in 80 mondi, followed by the 1973 MPS/BASF title Katcharpari. He later recorded The Pilgrim and the Stars, “Quotation Marks”, The Plot, The Words and the Days, and New York Days, with collaborators including John Abercrombie, Palle Danielsson, Paul Motian, Stefano Bollani, Mark Turner, and Larry Grenadier.

Background

Enrico Rava was born Aug. 20, 1939, in Trieste, Italy, and grew up in Turin. His mother, Andreina, held a conservatory piano diploma; an older brother owned jazz 78s by Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, and Coleman Hawkins. Rava learned piano by ear as a child and took up trombone at about fifteen for a Turin Dixieland band. He left school at sixteen and entered the family international-transport business.

At seventeen, he saw a Turin performance by Miles Davis, who inspired Rava to take up trumpet. He taught himself from Davis and Chet Baker records, then joined jam sessions around pianist Maurizio Lama. Rava made his first known recording on March 30, 1960, in Milan with pianist Lama, bassist Filippo Faguttin, and drummer Franco Mondini for the Cetra EP Jazz in Italy, Vol. 2. Rava recorded another Cetra EP with a traditional-jazz septet the following year.

Rava met Argentine tenor saxophonist Gato Barbieri in 1962, after Barbieri settled in Rome. Barbieri urged Rava to pursue music full-time and called him to Rome for an engagement at the Purgatorio club. The quintet held the Trastevere job for nine months with pianist Franco D’Andrea, bassist Gianni Foccià, and drummer Gegè Munari. Rava and Barbieri also recorded music for the Giuliano Montaldo film Una bella grinta.

After Barbieri moved to Paris to join Don Cherry, Rava joined soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy. Lacy recorded Sortie in February 1966 with trumpeter Rava, bassist Kent Carter, and drummer Aldo Romano. Lacy then formed a quartet with Rava, South African bassist Johnny Dyani, and drummer Louis Moholo. The group reached Buenos Aires and recorded the concert album The Forest and the Zoo.

Lacy drew Rava to New York in 1967, where Rava stayed with Barbieri and entered the free-jazz scene. Drummer Charles Moffett introduced Rava to club owners and arranged sit-ins with Archie Shepp, Hank Mobley, and Cecil Taylor. Trombonist Roswell Rudd hired Rava for his group. 

Rava returned to Italy for 1968 recordings with Lee Konitz on Stereokonitz and Giorgio Azzolini on Crucial Moment. Manfred Schoof used Rava in a 1969 Bremen session for European Echoes. Back in New York, Rava joined brass-rock band Gas Mask, whose Their First Album appeared on Tonsil under producer Teo Macero. He then joined Carla Bley and Michael Mantler for sessions that produced Escalator Over the Hill.

Rava shifted back toward composed themes, fixed tempos, and harmonic form by the early Seventies. In February 1972, he entered Fonit-Cetra Studios in Turin with guitarist Bruce Johnson, bassist Marcello Melis, and drummer Chip White to record Il giro del giorno in 80 mondi, his first album as a leader.

Discography:

• Il giro del giorno in 80 mondi (1972)
• Katcharpari (1973 • Rava)
• Pupa o Crisalide (1974)
• Jazz a confronto 14 (1975)
• The Pilgrim and the Stars (1975)
• “Quotation Marks” (1976)
• The Plot (1976)
• Enrico Rava Quartet (1978 • Enrico Rava Quartet)
• »Ah« (1980 • Enrico Rava Quartet)
• Opening Night (1981)
• Andanada (1983)
• Rava String Band (1984)
• Secrets (1986)
• Animals (1987)
• Volver (1988 • Enrico Rava / Dino Saluzzi Quintet)
• Quatre (1989 • Rava, Vitous, D’Andrea & Humair)