Tati

At 66, Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava is experiencing an artist upsurge. Tati, his followup to the acclaimed Easy Living, which brought him back to the ECM label after 17 years, is as broad-reaching and penetrating as anything he has done in years. Ranging from a piece inspired by free jazz giant Ornette Coleman to an adaptation of Puccini's "E lucevan le stelle" from Tosca, it melts the boundary between jazz and other genres with supreme ease. Heading a "inside-outside" trio including his young piano partner of recent years, Stefano Bollani, and the great drummer Paul Motian, Rava succeeds where other ECM artists have not--using the label's ethereally controlled sound to heighten his lyricism, not hermetically seal it. The horn man wrote most of the material, including "Jessica Too," a crisp exercise in counterpoint, and the title ballad, named after French film master Jacques Tati. The trio also feasts on established pieces by Motian including "Birdsong," which channels Erik Satie, and Bollani's darting, elliptical "Casa di bambola" ("Doll's House"). --Lloyd Sachs