“When I choose a musician to be in my band, I only call musicians I love and who I can trust musically. I give them a lot of freedom because I trust them. I have to trust them, and they have to trust me – at that point, everything is possible.”
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.