Roma documents the meeting of Enrico Rava, the senior figure of Italian jazz, and Joe Lovano, the American tenor saxophonist of Sicilian heritage. It was taped live in Rome in November 2018, at the head of a quintet with players from both sides of the Atlantic. Five long performances, with a closing medley close to nineteen minutes, show two veterans who listen closely to each other and leave plenty of space to a strong band.
Rava plays flugelhorn, Lovano tenor saxophone and tárogató, the Hungarian wooden reed instrument. With them are pianist Giovanni Guidi, one of the many young pianists Rava has brought forward, bassist Dezron Douglas, who makes his ECM debut here, and drummer Gerald Cleaver. The concert took place on 10 November 2018 in the Sala Sinopoli of the Auditorium Parco della Musica, recorded by Giampiero Arminio. Manfred Eicher produced the album. Rava's ECM history goes back to 1975, while Lovano had joined the label earlier in 2019 with Trio Tapestry. Rava turned eighty a few weeks before this album came out.
Rava brings two compositions and Lovano three, one of them new. Rava's Interiors opens with Guidi alone and stretches over fifteen minutes, while his Secrets drifts from a bass and drums pedal into freer playing. Lovano's Fort Worth is an up-tempo 24-bar blues in homage to Ornette Coleman, born in that Texas city, and Dewey Redman. His Divine Timing was written for this quintet. The finale moves from the fury of Lovano's Drum Song, a feature for Cleaver, through the lyricism of John Coltrane's Spiritual to a spare Over the Rainbow. Guidi closes the concert on his own.
For John Fordham in Jazzwise, "this is a meeting of hearts and minds. It should have happened a long time ago, but much better late than never." John Bungey wrote in The Times that "like the best live jazz the set mixes melodic power, rhythmic acrobatics and free-spirited adventure." Several reviewers singled out the rhythm section, and Peter Bacon of London Jazz News heard the ambience of the Sala Sinopoli as a sixth member of the band.
CD edition, ECM 2654, released in September 2019.
