A meeting of Italians Enrico Rava/fh and Giovanni Guidi/p join with famed American Sicilian Joe Lovano on tenor sax and tarogato along with Americans Dezron Douglas/b and Gerald Cleaver/dr for a November night of music in The Eternal City.
Rava and Lovano had played together a number of years before, and they sound like long lost buds, while in a free and frisky mood throughout. The two major pieces are a 15 minute “Interiors” and an 18 minute medley. Of the latter, Lovano pulls out his Hungarian horn, the tarogato, and wails like he’s on a gypsy caravan before switching over to tenor for a deeply dark rendition of John Coltrane’s “Spiritual” before Guidi takes over with a gorgeous closeout with “Over The Rainbow.” The quarter hour “Interiors” has the horns laconic and volleying like jai alai players with Guidi scrambling like a box of spilled marbles. Rava takes center stage with a nice groove laid out by Douglas and Cleaver on an ultra hip “Secrets” with Cleaver’s cymbal chiming the team through a dramatic and modal “Fort Worth” with everyone swinging out for “Divine Timing.” The mix of intuition and cohesion is quite impressive; bravi ragazzi!