Tribe introduces the new Italian quintet of trumpeter Enrico Rava, recorded seven years after his return to ECM with Easy Living. In between came Tati, The Words and the Days, The Third Man and New York Days, and here Rava plays at a peak of lyrical invention. The programme mixes new and older Rava tunes with a collective improvisation, played by a band in which two members were in their twenties.
Trombonist Gianluca Petrella stays on from The Words and the Days. Voted Rising Star Trombonist in the DownBeat Critics Poll of 2005, he shares a front line with Rava that recalls the trumpeter's old affinity with Roswell Rudd. Pianist Giovanni Guidi (born 1985) and bassist Gabriele Evangelista (born 1988) are the newcomers. "Giovanni Guidi is like Bollani and Petrella: he astounds me every time," Rava told ECM. Drummer Fabrizio Sferra, whose resume includes Chet Baker, Paul Bley and Kenny Wheeler, completes the group, and a guitarist joins on some pieces. The album was recorded in October 2010 at ArteSuono Studio in Udine, engineered by Stefano Amerio and produced by Manfred Eicher.
The record opens with Amnesia, a rubato piece that floats rather than swings. The long ballads carry the weight. Incognito unfolds over ten minutes as a slow meditation with Petrella in strong form, and Tears for Neda sets Rava's high register against Petrella's voice-like phrasing on a simple, haunting melody. Elsewhere the tempo rises: Cornettology and Garbage Can Blues are fiery, the title track turns unexpectedly funky, and the closing Improvisation is credited to all five players. Guidi's spare, arpeggiated chords leave Rava plenty of air.
Reviewers placed it among his best work. In The Guardian, John Fordham heard "an enchanting album of luxuriant brass textures, alluring ballads, bursts of twisting postbop and memorable soloing". Duncan Heining in Jazzwise picked up echoes of Rota and Morricone, of Balkan and North African music and of the Italian brass band tradition, filtered through Miles Davis and Ornette Coleman. His verdict: "This may well be his best record yet."
This is the CD edition, ECM 2218, released on 21 October 2011.
