Mourning in the world of music. Franco Cerri, one of the most appreciated and famous jazz guitarists, passed away at the age of 95. Lecturer at the Civic School of Jazz, is one of the three guitarists jazz Italians with an entry included in the Treccani Encyclopedia (the other two are Carlo Pes and Lanfranco Malaguti).
To announce the death of Franco Cerri was his son Nicolas who greeted his father with a post on Facebook: "The seven notes and the three guitars greet Franco Cerri with great affection, great musician and great man. Have a good trip, father".
Born in Milan but originally from Numana, in the province of Ancona, Franco Cerri began his career as a self-taught guitarist. It was his father who gave him his first guitar at the age of seventeen. A passion that led him, during the Second World War, to perform in shows for workers in after-work, together with some orchestras.
The beginnings and the many collaborations
His technique immediately appears astounding and is immediately noticed. He starts working on the radio and then joins the Gorni Kramer orchestra, to which he is introduced by Quartet Cetra. One of the first songs he records is “The class of donkeys” for Natalino Otto where his voice also appears (thanks to a joke recorded by Kramer). His skills also attract artists beyond Italian borders and he performs with big names in jazz. The first was Django Reinhardt, one of the musicians who influenced him musically.
35 albums will be released in a career that also sees him play Chet Baker to Billie Holiday, up to Italian colleagues Tullio De Piscopo and Pino Presti. In 1950 he began his solo career and performed throughout Europe, he also worked as an actor and dancer with Renato Rascel and Rai called him as host of some popular jazz programs. Thanks to programs such as "Di jazz in jazz", "Jazz first love", "Jazz in Italy" and "Jazz in Europe" he stands out as a showman.
Franco Cerri: soloist, session player and actor
His skill is required by the most representative artists of Italian music. Franco Cerri will play for Bruno Martino, Renato Carosone, Nuccia Bongiovanni, Flo Sandon's, Nicola Arigliano, Peter Van Wood and Johnny Dorelli. He will also collaborate with Mina and Roberto Vecchioni, as well as writing pieces for the Quartetto Cetra and composing music for commercials.
In the seventies he served as an actor in a TV commercial advertising the well-known Bio Presto laundry detergent: Cerri appeared standing, half-length, immersed in a glass tub full of water up to his neck: he became famous as " the soaking man ".
The Jazz School and the latest appearances
Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2005, he founded a Milano with the pianist Enrico Intra the "Civic School of Jazz". In 2013 he was guest star at the Sanremo Festival alongside Simona Molinari and Peter Cincotti, the following year he performed a swing version of Vattene amore together with Elio and the Stories Tese and Mietta,
Always attentive to teaching, he trained numerous students with whom he collaborated live and in recordings. These are the words of Enrico Intra: “We have been playing together for half a century, living together in this world of sound that will miss a great guitar teacher. Franco was able to begin all his experience and personality as a man. He was very communicative, available, polite, civilized, human, those beautiful qualities that everyone should have, those who frequented him were lucky and therefore also the students ”.
Photo source in evidence: Roberto Priolo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
