Enrico Rava

He was born in Trieste in 1939 by chance, as he himself recounted; from a Piedmontese family for generations, he grew up in Turin where he began playing trombone as a self-taught player in dixieland bands.

Moving to Rome in the early 1960s, he had the opportunity to collaborate with important musicians, particularly Gato Barbieri and Steve Lacy.

With the former he recorded in 1965 the soundtrack written by Piero Umiliani for Giuliano Montaldo’s film Una bella grinta. With Steve Lacy he played in a quartet and moved to Argentina for some time, where he recorded The Forest and the Zoo in 1966, considered one of the ten essential free jazz records.

In 1967 he moved to New York, where he lived and worked for a decade, collaborating with the Jazz Composer Orchestra, among others, and participating in the recording of Carla Bley’s epochal record Escalator over the Hill.

He has collaborated with leading musicians such as Lee Konitz, Pat Metheny, Michel Petrucciani, John Abercrombie, Joe Henderson, Paul Motian, Richard Galliano, Miroslav Vitous, Joe Lovano, and Roswell Rudd.

In 1972 he recorded his first album as quartet leader, Around the Day in 80 Worlds. With this new lineup, he has played in various New York clubs, around Argentina and Europe, gaining much acclaim.

Enrico Rava has recorded numerous albums with Italian, American and European musicians, including saxophonist Massimo Urbani, pianist Stefano Bollani, and guitarist John Abercrombie.

He currently leads a quintet featuring Gianluca Petrella on trombone, Roberto Gatto on drums, Rosario Bonaccorso on bass and Andrea Pozza (who replaced Stefano Bollani) on piano, with whom he has recorded several records for ECM.

In 2009, the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome entrusted him with the direction of the Jazz Lab, with which he created several projects, such as Rava plays Gershwin and Rava on the dance floor, based on music by Michael Jackson rearranged with Mauro Ottolini.

In 2007 he received a nomination for Best Jazz Act for the prestigious Italian Jazz Awards the Italian Jazz Oscar voted by the public, and in 2008 he received a nomination for Best Jazz Album with he Third Man, in duet with Stefano Bollani, for the Second Edition of the Italian Jazz Awards.

Enrico Rava is among the Italian jazz musicians who have most contributed to the emergence of such talents, now established musicians, as Stefano Bollani, Gianluca Petrella, Claudio Quartarone, Andrea Pozza, Mauro Ottolini, Paolo Fresu, Daniele Tittarelli, and Julian Oliver Mazzariello.

He has been an honorary citizen of Chiavari since December 3, 2014. On December 19, 2018, he was awarded the honor of Cavaliere dell’Ordine al merito della Repubblica Italiana; he was previously named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture and Doctor in Music Honoris Causa at the Berklee School of Music in Boston.