Enrico Rava
Easy Living

Very bad evening…

"There is only one remedy to warm the soul and unleash emotions you don't even imagine you have… music."

"EASY LIVING" I glance at the cover and see him with the look of someone who knows a lot. The movements come naturally to me, I insert the disc, take the remote control, and stretch out on the couch. Enrico plays with all the sweetness that can exist, immediately accompanied in the background by the charleston of Roberto Gatto and by a Stefano Bollani who almost blends with the beat of Rosario Bonaccorso's four strings.

"CROMOSOMI".. I think the track title is far more complicated than what they are expressing, but almost immediately the theme starts and from these long trumpet phrases, Gianluca Petrella also enters to join Enrico. Trumpet… trombone… trumpet.. trombone… The music fills the room and makes me a slave to listening to this quintet. They alternate between "EASY" melodies and colorful trumpet warbles (at times almost oriental?) shaping two mini suites in the first twenty minutes of the disc.

The atmosphere rises and with "ALGIR DALBUGHI" I can no longer stay lying down, I get up, sit back down, turn up the volume, Bollani starts solo with the intro, a grave chord makes my stomach vibrate then rises in tone, and floating on the keyboard like only he can do, he accelerates and gives way to syncopated rhythms. The theme is pure swinggroove that gives no escape, the two winds work in unison and the rhythm section presses on… Bonaccorso starts in solos, the sound coming from the double bass on "TRAVELING NIGHT" is precise and nasal, reminiscent of C. Mingus who loved to let the music breathe with those pauses never left to chance, then anticipates the beat and slows it down again… again… again…

Without realizing it, I slip into silence, 54 minutes have passed and the disc is at its end, I feel sated and at the same time empty like the room I entered an hour earlier. ECM RECORDS gives us a jazz gem with a recording beyond remarkable, clean, crystal clear.

… I smile to myself and think that the evening that started decidedly badly, wasn't so bad after all.