Easy Living

Self-taught Trieste-born trumpeter Enrico Rava is the grand master of Italian jazz. Originally a Dixieland trombonist, he switched to trumpet in his teens after hearing Miles Davis. In 1967, he moved to New York ("where my idols were, all the people I wanted to meet"), and found his musical direction, playing with Roswell Rudd, Cecil Taylor, Charlie Haden, Carla Bley and the Jazz Composer's Orchestra among others.

Even in experimental periods Rava has remained above all a melodic player, a tendency refined and developed through a career which has touched on all aspects of the jazz tradition. His early ECM album, The Pilgrim and the Stars (1975), already set high standards. A decade and several acclaimed albums later, following Volver (1986), came a seventeen year leave of absence from the label, which ended with Easy Living, his 2003 triumphant return with an all-Italian quintet, which showcased the leader's burnished, wide-open tone at its best.