In jazz, ambition is often gauged by the sheer size of an ensemble: A big band is considered more “ambitious” than a quintet. Yet ambition has nothing to do with the demands placed on a particular player, which is an especially important issue with veteran trumpeters. Louis Armstrong spent most of his 30s and 40s touring with a full orchestra, for which he soloed and sang on nearly every number. But in his 50s and 60s, he traveled with a sextet in which he was compelled to work twice as hard; he virtually never stopped blowing the whole time he was onstage. From the point of view of preserving his chops, it would have made more sense had he done it the other way around.

Two trumpeters of considerable experience are in town this week — the Italian Enrico Rava, who is pushing 70, meaning he’s already passed the point when Armstrong was forced to stop playing, and the St. Louis native Clark Terry, who shows every sign that he’ll still be playing incredible trumpet when he turns 90 two years from now. Mr. Terry is working with a big band, but that doesn’t mean he’s resting on his laurels and letting his 17 sidemen do all the work. Mr. Rava, meanwhile, is working in two settings — a duo and a quartet, but that doesn’t mean he’s blowing his brains out on every number and trying to fill up every bit of sonic space. Both trumpeters are also heard on new albums.

Messrs. Rava and Terry have more in common than the trumpet: The primary ingredient in both of their styles is humor. Mr. Terry is renowned for his comedic skills, both in terms of his whimsical solos and his occasional vocals. But I must confess that the inherently capricious nature of Mr. Rava’s playing had never made itself clear to me until now.

At the Blue Note this week, Mr. Terry is working with what is certainly one of the larger orchestras I’ve ever seen in a New York club: five saxophones, four trombones, three rhythm pieces, and — here’s the kicker — a full five trumpets plus the leader. If you looked closely at the bandstand, you’d notice that the fifth trumpeter was not even properly on the stage, but standing on a chair adjacent to it.

If the ensemble itself was ambitiously (that word again) expanded, the music celebrated the fundamentals: blues, blues, and more blues. On Tuesday, the opening number was a blues so basic that titling it would have been a waste of time; another blues featured all six trumpets in rounds of increasingly short solos and then trades; still another spotlighted the trombones.

Recalling his days with Duke Ellington, Mr. Terry called a stylish revamp of “Take the A Train” and a ballad, “Tribute to Harry Carney,” which spotlighted low-A baritone saxophonist Aaron Schroeder on a melody that could have been called “Don’t Go to Strangers Who Darn That Dream in the Early Autumn.” Mr. Terry played open-bell trumpet, muted trumpet, flugelhorn, sang “I Want a Little Girl,” and cracked wise between songs. He not only soloed, but on at least a few numbers played the lead part as well, with his distinctive brass timbre inseparably written into the arrangements.

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Upon first listen to Mr. Rava’s latest of many albums, “The Third Man,” a set of duos with his countryman the pianist Stefano Bollani, the “serious” chamber music side of Mr. Rava’s playing arrives in the foreground quickly. When I heard Mr. Rava in person for the first time in a few years at Birdland on Wednesday, I was, contrastingly, struck by the amazing humor and joy of his playing. For a moment, I regretted that this aspect was not as prominent on the new album, but when I listened to the CD again, I realized that the humor was indeed there, waiting to be found once I knew where to look for it.

Mr. Rava has said his primary influences are Miles Davis (whose main inspiration was Mr. Terry) and Chet Baker, combining the intensity of one with the optimism of the other. He was especially upbeat on the set’s opener, which he announced as “Thank You, Come Again,” explaining that he normally plays it as a closer. It’s less a melody, per se, than an opportunity for Mr. Rava to showcase how appealing his horn sounds in a series of cascading ripples of notes. He announced the second number as a tango, although the tune and the time were too abstract to say with any certainty. The third piece, like the first, was in either 3 or 6/4, and had the feel of a carousel spinning fast enough to make you lose your balance.

The set opened and closed with Messrs. Rava and Bollani working in a quartet with Larry Grenadier on bass and Paul Motian on drums. For the middle two numbers, the two Italians played as a duo (as on the album). Whereas the quartet pieces were all originals (in every time signature except plain old 4/4), the two duets were standards, starting with Jobim’s “Retrato Em Branco Y Preto,” rendered beautifully with a spacey piano solo that suggested a Nino Rota theme from a Fellini movie.

The number that had us dancing between the tables at Birdland, however, was “Cheek to Cheek.” Mr. Rava announced it as a salute to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, then proceeded to play it with so much contagious humor that it could have been offered in honor of Laurel and Hardy — not to mention Cecil Taylor. Mr. Bollani tore into an uproariously cacophonous crescendo that sounded like Mr. Taylor tap dancing, all the while hanging the Berlin melody out to dry with understated wit that suggested an Italian Victor Borge. Meanwhile, Mr. Rava broadly gestured toward his watch. There wasn’t a face without a smile on it at Birdland.

wfriedwald@nysun.com