Enrico Rava Announces Fearless Five Album ‘Corners’
Joe Lovano joins the Italian quintet on an all-original program recorded in Rome in July 2025.
Enrico Rava has announced Corners, the first ECM album by his Fearless Five, with saxophonist Joe Lovano appearing as a guest. Recorded July 21-23, 2025 at Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome and produced by Manfred Eicher, the album features original compositions by Rava, Lovano and every member of the group.
Rava formed the Fearless Five following an impromptu concert outside Rome in 2022. The band takes its name from his composition “Fearless Five,” first recorded for the 1978 Enrico Rava Quartet album. “We had so much fun on the bandstand that night, even without a proper rehearsal, that I decided more or less on the spot that this should be my new band,” Rava said. Guitarist Francesco Diodati had previously worked with Rava in other groups, while the trumpeter said the newer lineup allows its members considerable freedom in shaping the music.
That approach extends to the writing on Corners. Rava said he invited the musicians to contribute because they also lead their own groups and compose their own material. The program opens with his “Certo Angeli Segreti” and also includes pieces by Diodati, bassist Ponticello, trombonist Matteo Paggi and drummer Evita Polidoro. Polidoro also sings on her composition “Le Mie Gambe,” while Paggi’s “Mamma” closes the album.
Lovano contributes “Sun Rava,” which begins as an abstract blues, and his playing is also featured prominently on Rava’s “Hitchcock at the Beach.” The three horn players — Rava, Lovano and Paggi — interact on the free improvisation “Tone, Shape and Colours,” developed from a Lovano motif. Elsewhere, Rava revisits “Bowery Dance,” an earlier composition that he said recalls the atmosphere of his years in New York. Corners follows Rava and Lovano’s previous ECM collaboration, Roma, released in 2019.
