by S. Victor Aaron
Last year brought the welcome return of Enrico Rava’s 1975 masterwork The Pilgrim And The Stars to American shores for the first time in CD form. Only a few months later, we’re getting treated to a new set of recordings by Italy’s foremost jazz musician.
New York Days, out just a few days ago, doesn’t look back to the trumpeter’s early ECM days, though. Rather, in many ways, it’s casting a gaze further back than that.
You see, before Rava starting regularly leading his own bands, he paid his dues playing in bands led by the likes of Gato Barbieri, Don Cherry, Mal Waldron and Steve Lacy. He followed Lacy to New York and stayed there for six years, absorbing the thriving, dynamic jazz scene there. His time there formed much of the basis for his own imprint on jazz, one that has ironically become symbolic of Euro-jazz. His expressive, deeply personal tone with his masterful use of time and space fits the description of Miles Davis’ own genius, but Rava somehow sounds altogether different.
For New York Days, Rava also employed another of Miles’ famous techniques: he gave his supporting cast only sketches instead of full arrangements and encouraged them to take these cues where they want to. Rava also cites Duke Ellington as an inspiration for this record; Duke wrote music that accentuated the abilities of his individual players, and that’s what this leader sought to do as well. At the same time, Rava’s own personality prevails on the whole proceedings, as the songs he composed by and large retain their mellifluous character.
It still couldn’t have been accomplished without the right players to help Rava fill out his vision, however, and on that front, he chose his team well. Mark Turner is a tenor sax player whose appreciable talents we first scoped out here as a contributor on Kurt Rosenwinkel’s The Remedy last year. The drummer Paul Motian is still the Thelonius Monk of drummers; as idiosyncratic and clever as ever. The master bassist Larry Grenadier has played extensively with both Turner and Motian; he and Turner make up two-thirds of the jazz trio Fly, and he’s also served in Motian’s own Trio 2000 combo. And finally, fellow Italian Stefano Bollani is a gifted, classically trained piano player who has first played alongside Rava more than a dozen years ago and made a record with Rava released just last year, the duo set The Third Man.
The songs don’t vary much in mood; nearly all retain a searching, yearning quality to them. The concert hall sonic imprint of the recordings adds a majestic characteristic, which fits the European feel of the music perfectly.
That majesty is also largely due to the piano player and the drummer. Bollani does bring a lot of his classical upbringing to the table, making each note and accent count while staying primarily in a supportive role. Motian knows all about performing with reflective pianists like Bollani, having had long worked in Bill Evans’ trio. His complete mastery of the art of providing the right colorings from the drum set has found a comfortable home in the wide-open, floating song structures provided by Rava.
Both of these key players set the tone in that manner for the opener for the mournful “Lulu,” and frankly, for the album as a whole. Bollani’s light, understated solo gives way to Rava’s own beautifully aching lines, his best moment on the whole record. Motian’s finest work, meanwhile, comes on “Luna Urbana.” Here, he is still inventive as ever, with some unusual stick work and unconventional accents. All of this done not as a solist but in the service of a mildly samba flavored song.
“Outsider” is the song that can be singled out where the improvising within Rava’s loose structure works the best. The surprising twists and turns, the way the players responds to cues from each other, is a clear-eyed delivery of an intentionally vague concept. Grenadier plays a crucial role and making it that way.
“Certi Angoli Segreti” is the tune most closely resembling the music of Rava’s native region. It’s a fine marriage of Old World folk waltz and New World modernist jazz. But it’s the American Turner who adapts his blowing style so well to a song with some of its roots across the Altantic. Rava’s own turn takes a dramatic trip up the scales and back down again mid-solo, and Grenadier and Bollani follow up with more subtle stylings. The dirge-like “Interiors” slow down the relaxed mood of the set to nearly a standstill. It’s here where Turner puts in his maximal work; he makes his tenor sax evoke human emotions without wasting any notes.
The track “Thank You, Come Again,” stands out with it’s brighter, relatively sharply defined melody that played in a traditional bop manner. Even then, the band seems to be stretching itself out to the limits of the song behind Rava’s moody solo. Turner’s tenor provides a diverting contrast to Rava with one that’s soulful and burns at a consistently medium tempo.
There’s also a couple of group “Improvision” tracks that float along entirely on vibe, with no real melody to go on. These meanderings don’t really go anywhere, but they do serve to illustrate how well the other songs strike a balance between structure and free form creativity.
Overall, the music does lumber along at its own sweet pace and the melodies reveal themselves slowly. That makes New York Days hard to appreciate for the impatient. Closer listens pay the dividends, where the richness of the playing can be appreciated. Inspired by his days in New York, Enrico Rava makes some fine Italian jazz.
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