One day to pick up his first instrument, a slide trombone, which he begins to play! Enrico Rava – Fearless Five: Video, Photos

Enrico Rava, one of the greatest protagonists of twentieth-century music, who contributed to writing some of the most important pages in the history of jazz, 85 yesterday.

His birth on August 20, 1939 in Trieste, a city that symbolizes diversity, borders and mixes, already represents the premonitory sign of a life that will be marked by countless encounters, experiences, travels and projects.

Enrico began listening to music at an early age thanks to his mother, who had studied music, like many bourgeois ladies of the time, and who had also obtained a diploma in piano; after the war, a piano arrived at home and later a wooden cabinet that contained both the radio and the record player: the very young Enrico thus spent the whole day listening to the best of traditional jazz, from Bix Beiderbecke to Fats Waller, passing through Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.

In the early 1950s, when bebop began to circulate in Italy, he entered the world of modern jazz, becoming passionate about the music of Gerry Mulligan’s quartet with Chet Baker, and then discovering Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.

And obviously among Enrico’s great idols there cannot be missing the trumpeter who conquered him definitively and who became his chosen one, Miles Davis, whose concert in 1957 at the Teatro Nuovo in Turin overwhelmed him with all his energy.

His now all-encompassing passion thus leads him one day to pick up his first instrument, a slide trombone, which he begins to play in an amateur group in Turin with a Dixieland repertoire.

Here begins his still unaware story as a musician: Enrico participates more and more in the jam sessions organized in the Turin area, slowly building his own original and personal style, until he meets Franco Mondini (one of the best Italian jazz drummers) and Giovanni Tommaso, with whom he begins to play outside Turin and in 1960 makes his recording debut for the series “Jazz in Italy” of Fonit Cetra.

But the meeting that would change his artistic career forever took place in 1962 and was with the Argentine saxophonist and composer Gato Barbieri, with whom a deep friendship and an intense artistic affinity was born right away, and which brought him to Rome, in contact with the atmosphere of Fellini’s Dolce Vita typical of the early Sixties.

After Gato Barbieri moved to Paris, in 1965 in Bologna, during the International Jazz Festival directed by Alberto Alberti, Enrico had the other fundamental meeting of his life, with Steve Lacy, who was one of the protagonists of the American jazz scene, to whom the Italian trumpeter was particularly attracted: with him he began to play free jazz, performing themes by Thelonious Monk and Carla Bley.

With the American saxophonist and composer he first went to London, to join the double bass player Johnny Dyani and the drummer Louis Moholo and rebuild a new quartet, and then to Buenos Aires, where he came into contact with the masters of tango, including obviously Astor Piazzolla.

And finally in January 1967 Enrico arrives with Steve Lacy’s quartet in the most desired destination for every jazz musician in the world: New York. Here he has the opportunity to listen to the founding fathers of jazz, the protagonists of modern jazz and the representatives of the new thing at the same time: in the various clubs scattered around the Big Apple he goes to concerts by Thelonious Monk, Albert Ayler, Kenny Dorham, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Carla Bley, Dave Burrell and Roswell Rudd, just to name a few. In this city that is magical for him, he begins to collaborate with all the most famous musicians of the time and with the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra, which at the time brought together the best of the New York jazz scene, including Pharoah Sanders, Steve Swallow and Charlie Haden.

And then comes the most extraordinary encounter of his life, the one with the absolute myth, the divine Miles Davis: «I see a black man, short-medium height, super hip with one of those afros, suede bell-bottoms but not too much, very soft ankle boots, a splendid leather jacket with fringes, a studded belt, huge black glasses that cover half of a beautiful face. Yes, it’s him, the divine Miles, Prince of Darkness».

His recording debut as a leader took place in 1972 with the album “Il giro del giorno in 80 mondi”, published by Fonit Cetra, followed by several albums that defined his personal style.

Having reached a complete stylistic maturity, Rava experienced a rich and intense concert and recording season, which made him one of the absolute protagonists of the international jazz scene.

This was followed by the meeting with Manfred Eicher and the release of his first ECM album “The Pilgrim And The Stars”, the collaboration with Massimo Urbani, the acquaintance with João Gilberto, who gave him the famous advice “play only the necessary notes, leave the others alone”, the return to Italy, the “Creative Collaboration” with Michelangelo Pistoletto, the friendship with Franco D’Andrea, the teaching experience at Siena Jazz and the debut at Soul Note.

1987 was a lucky year, because in addition to the tour with Joe Henderson, it was the year in which he met his great love, who would later become his future wife, Lidia Panizzut, his muse in the years to come.

Then came the symphonic and orchestral productions and the first Electrive Five with double guitar was born, one of his most successful groups in the nineties, during which he often performed in duets with piano, another of his great passions, alongside great pianists such as Enrico Pieranunzi, Franco D’Andrea, Ran Blake, Stefano Bollani and Renato Sellani.

In those years he also began his collaboration with his historic manager Mario Guidi, to whom he was linked by a deep friendship and with whom he created an endless series of highly successful recording projects and tours.

Enrico has been awarded numerous honors over the years, including in 2002 Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture and winner of the Jazzpar Prize, the so-called Oscar of Jazz, as well as Doctor in Music Honoris Causa at the Berklee School of Music in Boston; in 2019 he was also awarded the honor of Chevalier of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

The celebrations for his eightieth birthday began in April with the world tour Enrico Rava 80th Anniversary – Special Edition which in the fall will touch, in addition to Italy (August 24 in Gradara, September 15 in Alghero, September 25 in Pisa, October 20 in Soriano (VT), November 5 in Milan, December 4 in Bari and December 10 in Rome) also the United States and Argentina.

For this prestigious anniversary, the great trumpet player will also release his new album “Roma” on September 6, published by ECM, which documents the meeting with Joe Lovano on the occasion of their penultimate concert of the European tour, which took place at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome in November 2018, in which the two giants of jazz are joined by Giovanni Guidi on piano, Gerard Cleaver on drums and Dezron Douglas on double bass.

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Fearless Five is the new album by Enrico Rava, published by Parco della Musica Records. In this new project, Rava leads a “fearless” quintet composed of a new generation of musicians, who bring together young and creative energies, together with the enormous experience of the band leader.

Recorded in February 2024 in the studios of the Casa del Jazz in Rome, Fearless Five features a lineup of young musicians of great intensity: Matteo Paggi on trombone (Rava’s latest surprising discovery, discovered at the Siena Jazz seminars), the propulsive gear of Francesco Ponticelli’s double bass, the extraordinary drummer and singer Evita Polidoro and the confirmation of the indispensable guitarist Francesco Diodati, who has been at Rava’s side for about ten years and is the true center of gravity of this quintet of fearless and “fearless” jazz musicians.

‘With this group I feel like I’m on an ideal island, where everyone gives and everyone receives what they need. There is great freedom but mutual respect, everyone listens to the other, like in a perfect democracy that only jazz can represent. The musicians all have this great, almost telepathic, ability to listen and interact with inputs. But it also takes courage to stay on this island. Surrounded at times by a threatening sea, at times less so, given the very difficult times we are living in, it still remains my ideal island where I love to live and play’ –Enrico Rava

01. Lavori casalinghi 11:02
02. Lady Orlando 2:14
03. The Trial 7:46
04. Infant 2:05
05. Amnesia 4:20
06. Bell Flower 2:36
07. Spider Blues 8:51
08. Cornettology 6:29
09. Fragile 2:05
10. Le solite cose 2:12

Enrico Rava trumpet, flugelhorn;
Matteo Paggi trombone;
Francesco Diodati guitar
Francesco Ponticelli acoustic bass;
Evita Polidoro drums, vocals