Apr 2, 2024 12:59 PM
Saxophonist, Sonic Explorer Casey Benjamin Dies at 45
Casey Benjamin, the alto saxophonist, vocalist, keyboardist and producer who stamped his distinctive sounds on the…
On April 21, before performing at Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens, trumpeter Enrico Rava received the JazzPar Prize. The first Italian, fifth European and 13th winner of this prestigious Danish award, Rava was clearly moved as he accepted his bronze statuette and, as he had joked at a JazzPar press conference earlier in the week, “the bread attached to it.” The honorarium accompanying the “Nobel Prize of Jazz” which, since its inception in 1990, has recognized both established and emerging artists, is a generous payback for part of the dues paid by creative improvisers and composers who have dedicated their lives to an art form generally treated like the Cinderella of culture.
Receiving the JazzPar prize was the crowning event of a noteworthy 18-month period between January 2001, when Rava headlined an Italian Jazz All-Stars concert Umbria Jazz presented at New York’s Town Hall, and June when he returns to North America to appear at the San Francisco Jazz Festival. In the interim he was given “carte blanche” by the Montreal Jazz Festival to perform in four different formations on four separate nights last July (a live recording of his Miles Davis tribute with Paolo Fresu was recently released on France’s Label Bleu, the first in a series of CDs documenting Rava’s Canadian triumph) and right after Easter the trumpeter learned he was named a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres by the Republic of France.
A cynic might chalk all these high profile engagements and honors up to a sentimental jazz world recognizing the contributions of a veteran artist – at the JazzPar press conference Rava quipped that “most people my age (62) are getting worse but I’m getting better…perhaps because I was so bad before.” Self-deprecating humor aside, Rava is at the peak of his powers and playing as well as ever today. The rejuvenate effects of having quit smoking two-to-three packs of cigarettes a day a few years ago have put more wind in his sails. Two years ago he found an old Heim mouthpiece that had stopped being manufactured decades ago which he’d been searching years for that perfectly suits his embouchure and has noticeably increased the high-end of his range. At the press conference Rava confided that the mouthpiece “made me start practicing which I never did before” and that winning the prize had “motivated me to write a lot of new music. Like many people I’m insecure,” he added, “so this acknowledgement did wonders for my self-esteem.”
Rava’s JazzPar set featured three earlier compositions—“Certain Secret Corners,” “The Trial” and “Secrets”—“Happiness Is To Win A Big Prize,” a Latin-flavored waltz he wrote for the tour and the jazz standards “Nature Boy” and “Dear Old Stockholm” which he renamed “Dear Old Copenhagen” for the occasion. The one-time-only sextet he assembled was superb. Pianist Stefano Bollani and trombonist Gianluca Petrella, the young lions in his current quintet, were imported from home and he engaged bassist Jesper Bodilsen and drummer Morten Lund, two of Denmark’s leading jazz artists who often back big name musicians visiting Copenhagen, to round out his rhythm section. An old friend, the American guitarist John Abercrombie who first played with Rava in a quartet the trumpeter led in 1973, completed the line-up.
The emergence of a bright sun that hadn’t shone all week helped the Italians forget they hadn’t had a decent cup of coffee or plate of pasta in far too many days and the JazzPar award concert audience was treated to an outstanding set. In his acceptance speech Rava recalled he’d only performed in Copenhagen twice before—at the old Montmartre jazz club. But his first visit to a foreign country was a two-week school trip he made to the city at age 12 or 13 when he lived with a local family and met his first girlfriend. One couldn’t help wondering if fond memories of that youthful romance inspired some of the warmth in Rava’s joyful playing there some 50 years later.
By Mitc
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