The Italian Festival of Thailand, which began with a tremendous concert by violinist Olen Cesari on February 18, picks up momentum tomorrow night with a show by trumpeter Enrico Rava, whose New 4et was last year hailed as one of the country’s best jazz bands.

The Italian Embassy is presenting the concert series at the Chulalongkorn University Auditorium.

Making his Thai debut, Rava brings the quartet, a fresh undertaking for him, and the music of their album “Wild Dance”, which earned them a nomination as “Best Jazz Band of 2015” from Musica Jazz magazine.

Invited to describe his current life, Rava, 76, says it’s “a whirling experience, filled with meetings with extraordinary musicians, surreal stories, little oddities and great talents”. The New 4et – all much younger musicians – generates a powerful energy and fantastic sounds, he says.

Writing in the the Guardian, music critic John Fordham noted that the album they’ve made together “is similarly cross-generational”.

The “expanded Rava road band”, he said, is “fronted for the occasion by the leader’s trumpet paired with the trombone of Gianluca Petrella, a supple maestro of voice-like long tones, bebop intricacies and in-built swing.”

Fordham spotted the inspiration of Miles Davis in Rava’s lyricism and tone control. “But though the softly meditative ‘Space Girl’ (with its distant intimations of drum uprisings that don’t materialise), or the wistful ‘Sola’ and ‘Overboard’ show that side of him, the blurted Ornette Coleman-like flurries of ‘Infant’ or ‘Happy Shades’, the guitar-driven swinger ‘Cornette’, or the soft bop ‘F Express’, over the excellent Enrico Morello’s bustling brushwork, represent effortlessly inventive uptempo jazz playing.”

Rava has heard a lot of such commentary – he’s made more than 90 albums, credited on a third of them as bandleader. Jazz magazine has several times named him “Best Musician of the Year” and counted him among its “Best Group” and “Best Italian Records”. Downbeat calls him one of the world’s best trumpet players.

Rava has done countless turns as a sideman as well, playing alongside the likes of Carla Bley, among many others, and he’s assembled an eminently gifted ensemble for this album and tour.

Modern guitarist Francesco Diodati, 33, is part of the latest surge in success for young Italian jazz musicians. He’s particularly gifted with electronic effects, used wisely on a base of skilful technical competence on both acoustic and electric guitar. It’s been said that he represents the bold new direction in expanding those “six strings” beyond their physical borders.

Gabriele Evangelista is one of the most creative bass players in his homeland and Rava’s latest “discovery”. Expert on the double bass, he brings to the instrument extraordinary precision, a mad creativity and an amazing interplay.

A drummer of multifaceted and dynamic style, Enrico Morello capitalises on strong academic training and considerable international experience. He plays with passion as well as extreme competence, and his love for tradition gives him both an amazing “swing ability” and a great sense of dynamic choices.

The Embassy’s Italian Festival is taking various forms throughout the year, encompassing not just jazz and classical music and opera, but also seminars, exhibitions, cinema, dance and the sale of “Made in Italy” products.

BEBOP

FOR HORN

n The Enrico Rava New 4et performs at 7pm tomorrow at Chulalongkorn University Auditorium.

n Seats are free but you must register in advance by sending an e-mail to ufficioculturale.bangkok@esteri.it.

n For more details, check www.|Facebook.com/ItalianFestivalThailand.