Call them dreamscapes, call them musical abstract canvases — whatever the analogy, the performances on Roma, a long-awaited pairing of flugelhornist Enrico Rava and tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano, will please everyone who instinctively knew Lovano’s artistic sensibility would organically intertwine with Rava’s warm tone and introspection. The two performed together briefly more than 20 years
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The live album opens with a 15-minute version of Rava’s “Interiors” (not the longest cut), followed by a nearly 10-minute rendition of Rava’s “Secrets,” and the spirit of these pieces shares such a kinship that one hardly notices a break between the two. Then the quintet elevates the energy with Lovano’s “Fort Worth,” as Rava releases phrases of genuine elation. The saxophonist’s own assertive contributions also help to make this 24-bar blues a standout, before the group segues into Lovano’s “Divine Timing,” which, in its pace and energy, is more simpatico with the meditative, opening numbers. Do I wish, overall, there was a greater range of tempo on the album? Sure. Is it nevertheless largely gorgeous? You bet.
The concert closes with a lengthy triptych: Lovano’s “Drum Song,” on which he switches to tarogato,a Hungarian horn; Coltrane’s “Spiritual”; and the standard “Over the Rainbow,” a feature for Italian piano phenom Giovanni Guidi, who disguises the melody and investigates the changes with a tenderness that never flirts with sentimentality. Throughout, drummer Gerald Cleaver provides classy, unobtrusive textural support, but bassist Dezron Douglas is the unsung hero of this date. From start to finish, he grounds the occasion with muscular, meaty lines that fully ground even the most ethereal flights of fancy.— Sascha Feinstein Featured photo by Roberto Cifarelli.