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Henri Crolla improvisant quelque chose.
His wife still keeps one of the best preserved Selmer-Maccaferri guitars in the world, the #453 (Oval hole).
Below, Django Reinhardt alongside one of his D-hole Macc’s.
Henri Crolla was born in Naples to a family of itinerant musicians, close friends to Fellini’s composer Nino Rota, settling in Paris 2 years later.
Growing up at loose in the poor outskirts of the bidonvile Porte de Choisy, Enrico would infiltrate the encampments of the Manouche, becoming close to gypsy jazz pioneer Django Reinhardt’s family, whose mother considered him one of their tribe, and whose music has been featured on this blog.
This allowed him to observe closely the man he considered the master of the guitar right from his early days, in front of whom he always refused to play as a demonstration of respect.
As the only child having a musical ability, he is encouraged to drop school at the age of 13 and help provide for his family by playing banjo in the richest Parisian cafés and brasseries, such as La Coupole, where he was later immortalised by a painter in one of the columns.
Animator Paul Grimault and poet Jacques Prévert would become close friends with him, and adopt the boy, housing him at Grimault’s for many years, from whereon he would bring his musician friends such as Django to meet other more recognised artists, musicians who were making the most innovative European jazz at the time.
His career develops greatly until the second world war, when he is mobilised in Italy, but soon deserts and returns to Paris, a city about which he would write many songs, though he is only naturalised French in 1946.
In 1945 he was already a nationally relevant musician, later being awarded the Prix de l’Académie du Jazz in 1947. He meets chanteur Yves Montand and becomes his musician, touring and writing extensively and becoming one of France’s best known. Until Montand takes a pause in 1954, which is when mostly self-taught Henri Crolla begins composing for short films and documentaries with André Hodeir, a classically trained musicologist, three times Conservatory award winner.
In 1954, Club Saint Germain, now extinct, reopens and he is the one to invite the Quintette du Hot Club de France’s violinist Stéphane Grappelli for a string quartet. Also, he starts composing for full features, some of which starring Jean Gabin, Jeanne Moreau, Brigitte Bardot.
From there on he produces a serialist composer, plays jazz, composes more for cinema, popular music, goes on a tour in the USSR, does comedy, etc.
In fact, as a producer for Vega, he endorses and supports several now culturally relevant musicians, among which a very young Martial Solal, who has himself played with Django, and whose music has been featured on this blog several times.
He composes and stars as a musician in Le bonheur est pour demain (1962), in a scene shown below from Nino Bizzarri’s David di Donatello award winning documentary on his life.
Crolla’s playing style strongly resembles Arizona native Sir Richard Bishop’s, whose music has been featured on this blog, but since Crolla came first, I’m guessing he must have been influenced somehow…
Or could it be, that as did Crolla and Georges Moustaki before, two distant strangers had the same idea to play as they would?
