Franco Cerri

Franco Cerri ( born January 29, 1926 in Milan ) is an Italian jazz guitarist and television presenter. He was regarded as " the best Italian guitarist " and has even been called the "best guitarist, the European jazz has produced ."

Life and work

Cerri, who began as a teenager playing the guitar and initially explored jazz with pianist Giampiero Boneschi, began in 1945 with Gorni Kramer and Bruno Martelli, Franco Mojoli, Carlo Zeme and the Cetra Quartet his career. In 1949 he accompanied Django Reinhardt. In the 1950s he played with Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan as well as Billie Holiday and Lee Konitz. He also formed his own quartet, which was anchored in the modern jazz and in the Dado Moroni was known. In the 1960s, he played regularly on the television programs Buone Vacanze and jazz Primo Amore; also he had RAI own broadcasts as Fine serata da Franco Cerri, where he Mina accompanied among others. Overall, he has hosted in more than 600 television shows. In his combos were working musicians like Gianluigi Trovesi, Tullio De Piscopo, Pino Presti and Flavio Ambrosetti. In the 1970s, he also played with Barney Kessel and Tony Scott. Since 1980, he collaborates with pianist Enrico Intra, with whom he founded Musica Oggi as a society for the promotion of jazz, the jazz courses Civic Corsi di Jazz di Milano organized numerous albums and grossed.

In 1982, he co-wrote with the classical guitarist Mario Gangi for the publishing house Fabbri a Guitar course in 60 lessons, which reached its fifth edition. Together with Paolo Cattaneo and Giovanni Monteforte he wrote the textbook Chitarra Jazz - sviluppi - approcci - esperienze ( 1993 Ricordi).

2006 awarded him Carlo Azeglio Ciampi for his services to the music of Italy with the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and named him Commendatore della Repubblica.

Disco Graphical Notes

• Franco Cerri and his European Jazz Stars ( with Lars Gullin, Flavio Ambrosetti, George Gruntz, Karl Theodor Geier, Pierre Favre, 1959)
• 12 Bacchette per una chitarra (jazz musicians with string orchestra, 1966)
• Metti una sera Cerri ( with Nando De Luca, Pino Presti, Tullio De Piscopo, 1973)
• Omaggio a Bill Evans ( with Enrico Intra, Lucio Terzano, 1981)
• Franco Cerri & Gianni Basso Take the A Train ( with Luciano Milanese, 2006)
• Just Smile ( with Renato Sellani, Matteo Brancaleoni, Gianni Basso, Fabrizio Bosso, Massimo Moriconi, Stefano Bagnoli, 2006)
• Bossa with Strings (2011)

Lexical entries