Now 82 years of age, Enrico Rava has rightly been dubbed the Godfather of Italian jazz (‘Il Padrino’) and can look back at a long and distinguished career.

Proud of his Italian heritage, he has spoken (to me) of how it informs his playing, “I have a very melodic sense, which is one of the characteristics of my country, melody”. It is hardly any surprise that he was drawn to master melodists Puccini and Verdi on Rava L'Opera Va (1993), and whether playing inside or outside there is indeed a singing, melodic quality to sound. Recorded live at Antwerp’s Midddelheim Festival, he was part of ECM’s 50th celebration and his own 80th birthday festivities in a programme that reflected the breadth of his musical range.

It would not be reaching to say there’s an autobiographical subtext to this: ‘Fearless Five’ evokes his earlier days with Roswell Rudd, ‘Infant’ suggests the early influence of Ornette, ’Wild Dance’ is from his 2015 album of the same name, while ‘Once Upon a Summertime’, recorded by Miles Davis/Gil Evans, has the talented Giovana Guidi eliding into Rava’s ‘There for Jessica Tatum’ from Rava’s 1996 album Noir. Rava’s ensemble of young, rising Italian jazz stars, to whom individually and collectively he has acted as mentor, make excellent contributions to a celebratory, adventurous, yet poetic album that numbers alongside Easy Living as among Rava’s finest for the ECM label.