Back in the Fold.('New York Days' and 'Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street')(Sound recording review)

The ECM record label, the brainchild of the production auteur Manfred Eicher, engenders deep loyalty from its artists--Keith Jarrett, for instance, has been with the company for nearly forty years. And the exit door permits reentry: a pair of prodigal trumpeters are back in the ECM fold with new albums--Enrico Rava, with "New York Days," and Jon Hassell, with "Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street."

Rava, who is Italian, took a seventeen-year break from ECM before coming back strong in 2004 with a series of albums that displayed his Miles Davis-soaked stylings, as well as the imaginative piano work of Stefano Bollani. On "New York Days," these two players are joined by the drummer Paul Motian, the bassist Larry Grenadier, and the tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, for a gorgeous program of original material and group improvisations. The over-all mood remains lyrical and pensive, suggesting a Miles Davis–Wayne Shorter project devoted mainly to evocative ballads and mid-tempo work. The fact that this admittedly derivative approach pays off when ...