Miles Davis cast a long shadow over European jazz, but it landed differently on the continent than in New York. In Italy and Poland, trumpeters like Enrico Rava and Tomasz Stańko absorbed Miles's lyricism while also absorbing Ornette Coleman's freedom and the folk music under their feet. That triangulation — not American post-bop, not pure free jazz, but something more eclectic and weathered — is what Rava has been refining for six decades. At 87, he's still refining it. Corners pairs Rava with his Fearless Five — a deliberately young band — plus longtime collaborator Joe Lovano on saxophones. The pairing matters. Lovano is not a yes-man accompanist; he's a fully formed voice who pushes back, and you can hear that tension generating heat throughout the record. The opening track, Certi Angoli Segreti, is a Rava original that moves from wistful trumpet statement to something jauntier and more complex, propelled by Lovano's multiphonic tenor and Francesco Diodati's guitar work, which the reviewer catches as Frisellian — which is accurate, and not a compliment you hand out lightly. Matteo Paggi's trombone supplies harmonic warmth across the whole set without ever crowding the front line. The revelation here is drummer and vocalist Evita Polidoro, whose Le Mie Gambe is described as soulfully personal and cannily paced — and whose drumming is flagged as Tony Williams-reminiscent. That's a serious claim. Williams played with a force and velocity that most drummers acknowledge and don't attempt. If Polidoro is in that orbit, she's worth tracking independent of this record. Lovano contributes both composition and direction: Sun Rava runs call-and-response dialogues at speed; Tone, Shape and Colours is free improvisation that earns its freedom by being melodically generous rather than merely chaotic. Rava's Hitchcock at the Beach blends brass and vocals in a way that sounds cinematic without being lazy about it. What holds the record together is the balancing act: late-Miles funk, choral ensemble writing, balladeering, and free improv all coexist without the seams showing. That's harder than it sounds. Most records that attempt this range end up feeling like a sampler. Corners feels like a single sustained argument. The 'also out this month' sidebar does Corners no favors by comparison — Tamar Osborn's Berlin crossover project, Moses Boyd's gospel-grime-jazz fusion, and the Laurance/League duo all sound interesting in their own right, but none are reviewed with the same specificity or enthusiasm. Corners is clearly the main event here, and it earns that position.
