Product DescriptionThey have been playing together since the early 1990s, Stefano Bollani hailing trumpeter Rava as his mentor, and Enrico Rava regarding Bollani as "perhaps the most gifted pianist since Art Tatum". After Rava's highly acclaimed album 'Easy Living' - featuring the quintet which introduced Bollani to ECM listeners, and the equally appealing Rava/Bollani/Paul Motian collaboration 'Tati' comes this superb set, recorded in Lugano in November 2006. Marvellous linear playing, beautiful melodies plucked from the air, two great Italian improvisers making freely lyrical jazz together. Most of the music is by Rava and Bollani, but there are also tracks by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Bruno Martino and Moacyr Santos.One of the leading architects of Italian jazz, Enrico Rava was also one of the first Europeans to find wholehearted acceptance from New York's players - in the mid 1960s he lived in NYC, working regularly with Steve Lacy, Roswell Rudd, Carla Bley etc. Rava's first ECM disc, 'The Pilgrim and the Stars' (1975), was followed by several acclaimed albums including 1986's 'Volver', with Dino Saluzzi. Like Tomasz Stanko, Rava was first influenced by Miles Davis and Chet Baker, contributed to the development of free jazz, then later found a new, intensely melodic approach. Indeed, Rava is a real Italian singer with a trumpet. Pianist Stefano Bollani, born in 1972, is a major talent, armed with prodigious technique. A professional musician since the age of 15, he's played with everyone from Pat Metheny to Han Bennink, via Elliott Sharp, Lee Konitz and Phil Woods. His leader dates for Label Bleu - 'Les Fleurs Bleues', 'Smat Smat,' 'Concertone' and last year's 'I Visionari' - were very well received by the press. He has also appeared on the French label (which is no longer producing new recordings) with Enrico Rava, including the Miles Davis tribute 'Montral Diary' and 'Noir'. He won the Italian Django d'Or in 2000. Following his first solo ECM album last autumn - 'Piano Solo' - Bollani made a sensational first solo tour of the UK this spring, and he will also record for ECM with his Danish trio (bassist Jesper Bodilsen and drummer Morten Lund). This autumn he released his first classical CD, Poulenc's Concert champtre and improvisations for Avie. Personnel: Enrico Rava - (trumpet), Stefano Bollani - (piano) Review Italian improvositionists from both ends of the generational spectrum, Rava and Bollani provide a fluid, highly textured, free-flowing album of trumpet and piano. Of the two, the pedigree comes from Enrico Rava, who was really the first Italian jazz musician to be accepted by the New York jazz establishment. He moved there in the late 1960s, following his recording in 1962 with Gato Barbieri. He went on to record with the likes of Carla Bley, Cecil Taylor, Rashid Ali, Charlie Haden before becoming bandleader himself and is acknowledged as one of Europe's finest musicians - helping to put both Italy and Europe firmly on the jazz map.Stefano Bollani is the blistering young tyro - born in 1972, he considers Rava to be his mentor and they have worked together over the last 10 years (they released "Tati" with Paul Motian in 2004) following his years of study at the Florence Conservatory.However, there is no sense in which there is a senior or junior member of this partnership one of the real joys of this album is just how simpatico these two are. Bollani has technique to burn - listen to his fingers flying across the keys on "Cumpari" which pushes Rava into some pyrotechnics of his own - but in general they both play this album slow and languid. They don't show off to each other or anyone else - one leads where the other follows and although they trade licks throughout, they are very tasteful licks. The more lyrical playing for sure comes from Rava, but it somehow plays both as counterpoint to and yet completely in synch with Bollani's vibrant, flame-grilled technique.Musicicality and respect are at the
