Franco Cerri

Among the historical exponents of Italian jazz, Franco Cerri (1926 - 2021) following a self-taught training began his professional career alongside Gorni Kramer and the Quartetto Cetra. In the first part of his career, Franco Cerri also played the double bass, so much so that he was requested much more often in this role than in that of guitarist. At the end of the fifties he recorded some songs in which, flanked by the drummer Gianni Cazzola, he played both the guitar and the double bass. In November 1958 in Milan, in the role of double bass player, Franco Cerri, together with the pianist Mal Waldron and Gene Victory on drums, accompanies the American singer Bill Holiday, on stage at the Teatro Gerolamo in Milan.

In the same period he began his long career as an actor, dancer, presenter and musician in RAI broadcasts. In the seventies he forms a quartet in which, among others, the drummer Tullio De Piscopo and the double bass player Giorgio Azzolini militate. In addition to including in its numerous groups young musicians such as Dado Moroni, Gianluigi Trovesi and Nando De Luca, the Milanese guitarist has collaborated over the years with important foreign and Italian musicians: Django Reinhardt, Wes Montgomery, Jim Hall, Chet Baker, Stephane Grappelli, Barney Kessel, Lee Konitz, Flavio Ambrosetti, Nicola Arigliano, Tony Scott, Martial Solal, George Benson and many others.

In the eighties he started a long collaboration with the pianist Enrico Intra, with whom he founded and directed i Civic Jazz Courses in Milan, among the most important educational institutes in Europe.

A melodically elegant musician with a technically peculiar and never overwhelming approach to the guitar, Franco Cerri during his career has divided himself with excellent qualitative results between jazz and pop music, holding numerous concerts and making as many studio recordings.

Essential discography: Franco Cerri (1964 – Columbia), La Sera A Casa Con Te (1965 – CGD), Metti Una Sera Cerri (1973 – Music Superstereo De Luxe), From Cathetus To Cicero (1975 – Malobbia), Demoiselle (1979 – Dire), Di Jazz in Jazz (1990 – Dire), Franco Cerri & Gianni Basso (1998 – Fonola), Bossa with Strings (2010 – Blue Serge), Barber Shop (2014 – Abeat Records)

Record labels – Say

Towards the end of the 1950s, a leather merchant with a passion for jazz organizes long jam sessions in his home in Milan with his musician friends, who are also mostly non-professionals. The character in question is the pianist and composer Tito Fontana; with him are young jazz musicians from...

Franco Cerri – About Jazz in Jazz

Album entitled “1945-1990 Franco Cerri Di Jazz In Jazz ” recorded at the Studio Fontana in Corso Venezia 7 in Milan and released by the Dire label in 1990. The album is released for the forty-five years of activity of Franco Cerri, among the most important guitarists of the Italian and international jazz scene, as well as host of broadcasts...

Music Today – Poster

Poster of the event "Jazz in Europe" by the cultural association "Musica Oggi" (with the artistic direction of Luca Cerchiari, Franco Cerri, Franco Fayenz, Enrico Intra) organized at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory and at the Teatro Delle Erbe in Milan. The cultural association "Musica Oggi" was founded by the pianist and composer Enrico Intra together with the guitarist Franco Cerri...

Demoiselle – Franco Cerri

Album entitled “Demoiselle” recorded at Studio 7 in Milan and released in 1979 by Tito Fontana's Dire label Franco Cerri: guitar/Sante Palumbo: piano/Eddie Daniels: clarinet, tenor sax/Julius Farmer: bass/Grady Tate: drums In October 1979 clarinetist and saxophonist Eddie Daniels (member of the Thad Jones and Mel Lewis orchestra between 1966 and 1973)...

From Cathetus To Cicero - Franco Cerri

Promo album released in 1975 by the Malobbia label entitled "From Cathetus To Cicero" by guitarist Franco Cerri. Franco Cerri: electric guitar/Stefano Cerri: electric bass/Nando De Luca: piano, electric piano/Gianni Cazzola: drums/Gianluigi Trovesi: tenor saxophone, clarinet/Walter Martino: tumba Contribution shared by Enrico Pieranunzi External links: Franco Cerri Trio Franco Cerri, Toots Thielemans – Bluesette

Piero Angela and Franco Cerri

In the photo the pianist and journalist Piero Angela together with the guitarist Franco Cerri. In 1953 the critic Arrigo Polillo from the pages of the magazine Musica Jazz expressed himself thus regarding the "pianist" Piero Angela, who later became a well-known journalist and television broadcaster - "Angela is undoubtedly a classy pianist, certainly one of the best...

Franco Cerri, Franco Fayenz and Enrico Cogno

Music Inn – Cerri/Fayenz/Cogno

In the video, the guitarist and presenter Franco Cerri and the musicologist Franco Fayenz interview the journalist Enrico Cogno as part of the RAI broadcast "Jazz in Italia. The shots were taken at the Music Inn in Rome, a jazz club which in the 1970s became the musical and social incubator of the new generation of musicians and users of productions...