Henri Salvador - Guitarist

Henri Gabriel Salvador was born in Cayenne, the capital of French Guyana, on July 18th 1917. His father, Clovis, of Spanish descent, and his mother, a Caribbean Indian, were both born in Guadaloupe.  

When he was 7, Henri and his parents went to live in France. At around eleven years old, he discovered the music of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong and decided to become a musician. His parents bought him a guitar and he learned to play by listening to one of the masters of the period, Django Reinhardt. Throughout his career, jazz has been central to Henri Salvador's work.  

In 1933, aged 16, he began to perform in the Parisian cabarets, where he became known very quickly, due his talent as a musician but also as a comedian. In 1935, he entertained the "Tout-Paris" at Jimmy's Bar, a famous cabaret of the period. After this, Django Reinhardt hired him as an accompanist. 

In 1936, he became the guitar accompanist of the American jazz violinist, Eddy South. When he was twenty he enlisted as a soldier. War broke out and he had to wait until 1941 before he could cross into the Free Zone. He joined Bernard Hilda's jazz orchestra in Cannes, where he was spotted by Ray Ventura who offered him a job as a novelty musician in his orchestra. Together they left on a long tour of South America where, thanks to Henri Salvador, their shows were an huge success.

Salvador kicked off the '90s by returning to his roots in jazz and blues. He appeared at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1991, and two years later performed with the great French jazz pianist Michel Petrucciani. In 1994, he signed a new deal with Sony and traveled to New York to record the jazzy Monsieur Henri album; the live Casino de Paris followed a year later. In 1996, he received a special lifetime achievement award at the Victoires de la Musique Awards, where he performed a duet with Ray Charles.