Enrico Rava
was born in Trieste in 1939. Self-taught, he started out playing Dixieland trombone but switched to trumpet at 18 after hearing Miles Davis. In 1962, he began a collaboration with Gato Barbieri, which brought him into contact with Don Cherry, Mal Waldron and Steve Lacy. He joined Lacy’s group in 1965, subsequently travelling with him through Europe, South America and the US. In New York, Rava worked with Cecil Taylor, the Jazz Composers Orchestra, and Roswell Rudd; back in Europe he hooked up with the European avant-garde and the free players of the Globe Unity Orchestra. Even in this experimental period Rava remained a melodic player, a tendency refined and developed through a career which has touched on all aspects of the jazz tradition. First ECM album “The Pilgrim and the Stars” in 1975 already set high standards has won many national and international awards, including, in 2002, the JazzPar prize, Europe’s biggest award for jazz players.