CD review: Enrico Rava – Edizione Speciale 2021: Video, CD cover

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”.

1. Infant
2. Once Upon a Summertime (0:00- 5:09) / Theme for Jessica Tatum (5:10-16:58)
3. Wild Dance
4. The Fearless Five
5. Le Solite Cose (0:00-1:55) / Diva (1:56-9:43)
6. Quizás, Quizás, Quizás Gandalf.com.pl

Enrico Rava Trumpet & Flugelhorn
Francesco Bearzatti tenor saxophone
Francesco Diodati Guitar
Giovanni Guidi Piano
Gabriele Evangelista Double Bass
Enrico Morello Drums