CamJazz continues to dominate the European jazz market (only ECM comes close in quantity and quality of recent releases) with another set of CDs featuring a prominent Italian jazz musician. This time the featured artist is trumpet and flugelhorn player Enrico Rava, featured on both the Tommaso-Rava Quartet’s La Dolce Vita and on the pianoless quartet CD Full of Life.

La Dolce Vita finds Rava collaborating with bassist Giovanni Tommaso, who has worked with Rava on many projects as well as playing on recordings featuring Lee Konitz, John Lewis, Gato Barbieri, and Kay Winding. Pianist Stefano Bollani has recorded three well-received CDs for the French Label Bleu, and drummer Roberto Gatto has worked with a who’s who of Italian jazz musicians, including Rava and pianist Enrico Pieranunzi. Both Gatto and Bollani appeared on Rava’s recent ECM release Easy Living. This is indeed music to savor, offering similar pleasures as such recent CamJazz releases as Pieranunzi’s Fellini Jazz and Salvatore Bonafede’s Journey to Donnafugata. It’s simply smart, largely lyrical modern jazz that is never boring or overly intellectual. It offers substance, but never forgets the aesthetics of aural beauty. Those who’ve enjoyed Rava’s ECM outings will enjoy this disc as well.

This ensemble tackles a variety of music from Italian cinema, from the haunting “Profumo Di Donna” to the swinging waltz of “Mondo Cane” the altering moods of the “La Dolce Vita” suite, and the colorful contributions of Rava and Tommaso as writers, including Tommaso’s “Cinema Moderno,” Rava’s “Il Sogno Di Hitchcock” and “Ammazzare Il Tempo.” These pieces allow less structured arrangements for the musicians to stretch out in. Rava is in excellent form throughout, demonstrating the fruits of a lifetime spent developing and refining his own voice on the trumpet. The grandfather of Italian jazz, at least partially responsible for the surge in young Italian jazz talent we see now, Rava is playing as well as ever and with a depth that only comes from years of playing.

One thing worth noting is that this CD consists of material that was recorded in November 1999, and released in Europe in 2000. It is making its first U.S. appearance, and it would be advisable for those interested to snap it up now rather than risk future availability as an import only. CamJazz is to be commended for bringing this material out of the vaults and giving it a U.S. release, where fans of unique voices in modern jazz can have the opportunity to hear these vital performances.