Enrico Rava - Fearless Five

Enrico Rava’s new album “Fearless Five” has been released on July Friday the 5th, published by Parco della Musica Records on CD and digital. With this new project, Rava’s at the helm of a “fearless” quintet made of a new generation of musicians, which brings together fresh and creative energies with the huge band leader’s experience.

The results of Top Jazz 2024, the jazz music critics' referendum organized annually by the historic magazine Musica Jazz, were published on Thursday, January 16, 2025.

Once again, Rava has been able to give birth to a fresh and exciting formation. Indeed, Fearless Five deploys a set of valid musicians: the energy of Matteo Paggi’s trombone are the extraordinary drummer and singer Evita Polidoro (who plays in the European quartet “We Exist!” of Dee Dee Bridgewater) are Rava’s last surprising discoveries at the Siena Jazz’s seminars. In addition, the propulsive boost of Francesco Ponticelli’s double bass and the certainty of the indispensable guitarist Francesco Diodati, who’s been by Rava’s side for a decade now and is the proper centre of gravity of this fearless and impavid quintet of jazz players.

“I feel like I am on an ideal island with this band -says Rava- where everyone gives and everyone gets what he needs. There’s a great sense of freedom as well as mutual respect, everybody’s receiving from the others, just like a perfect democracy only the jazz can convey.

All the members have this great power, almost a telepathic one, they can hear the input and interact with it right away. But you have to be brave to stay on this island. Sometimes you’re surrounded by a menacing ocean, sometimes the waves calm down, just like the hard times we’re getting through. All in all, it’s still my ideal island where I love to live and play my music.”

Enrico Rava is definitely the best known and appreciated Italian jazz musician on international scale.

Appearing on the scene in the middle of the Sixties, he quickly established himself as one of the most compelling European jazz soloists, being part of the most diverse, creative and exciting musical experiences. One of the keys to his success has been his American background (he lived and worked in the US for a long time, giving his contribution to the works of Gato Barbieri, Steve Lacy, Carla Bley, Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Lee Konitz, Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Michael Petrucciani and many more) as well as his world tours. His human and artistic bluntness puts him out of every box and makes him both a meticulous and non-conventional musician at the same time.