AAJ Review: Enrico Rava, Rava on the Dance Floor

[jkelman]

My review of Enrico Rava's Rava on the Dance Floor, today at All About Jazz.

The opening sentences of the review say it all:

Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava doing a tribute to the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson? Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava doing a tribute to the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson, on ECM?

Turns out that, shortly after the King of Pop's death, Rava - who'd not previously paid attention - found his wife watching a live performance on DVD and was smitten. Rava on the Dance Floor is the result; a large ensemble recording that pays tribute with a certain degree of reverence, but healthy doses of irreverence, too, taking Jackson's music places the deceased King of Pop could never have imagined...and is a record that, once again, demonstrates ECM's ability to surprise by doing the unexpected and releasing a record that many would think, at least on paper, to be unsuitable. In reality, however, it fits perfectly and is another indicator of the label's breadth, depth and never-ending search for good music, wherever it's to be found and regardless of the context/premise.

Review here.

[Oreb]

Gee, this is challenging my smug sense of myself as open-eared! New York Days is one of the very best jazz albums I've come across in the last few years and any Rava album gets a pretty much free ride to Casa del Oreb

but

when I first read about this I hated the idea.

Then I tried out this on Youtube.

Sold.

[jkelman]

Glad to hear it, Oreb. But when you're talking Rava, you know it's going to be something without compromise, no matter what the context. Glad you were open-minded enough to check it out. It's a great record.