While you're always sad when a fine musician you've met dies, unlike say Andy Palacio, who was tragically cut off in his prime, Henri Salvador seem to live several lives to the full before his demise last week at the ripe old age of 90. 'Reconvexo' by the great Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso has one of the coolest lines in a song by one singer to another: 'Quem nao sentiu o swing de Henri Salvador?' ('Who hasn't felt the swing of Henri Salvador?'). Here is a version by Caetano's sister Maria Bethania.
Born in Cayenne, French Guiana in 1917, Salvador's parents moved to Paris when he was five. By his teens he was singing in cabarets in Montparnasse. He managed to escape most of the ravages of the war by getting a gig in Brazil with Ray Ventura's band (he was given the Brazilian Order of Merit by President Lula and the Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil. Antonio Carlos Jobim always credited Salvador's song 'Dans Mon Ile' with being one of the inspirations for Bossa Nova).
Back in France in the Fifties he introduced rock'n'roll to the country (which he refused to talk about later), as well as recording assorted jazz and chanson albums, notably with Django Reinhardt. He also had a side-line in comic numbers. He became one of France's best-loved showmen and somehow managed to combine cheesy showbiz with coolness - for example, here in a Sixties duet with Shirley Bassey. He had an extraordinary Indian summer of a career at the end. His 2002 release, Chambre Avec Vue, of cool bossa-tinged numbers sold over two million copies while his last album Révérence was released in 2007.
I met him this time last year in his apartment on Place Vendome, a stones throw from the Paris Ritz when he seemed as full of life as ever, his famous laugh still in constant evidence. His nickname in France was 'Monsieur Joie-De-Vivre'. His friend Quincy Jones said: 'With Henri I've learned that a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying "Ain't that the truth?"'. Salvador had been planning to star in a film with Jones producing this year set in the favelas of Rio. He last performed in December, at the time saying he was 'the only one who can bow out while still alive'.
His funeral this week in France was quite an event, attended by 2,500 people including Francois Hardy, Mireille Matthieu and Prime Minister Sarkozy. The latter made a speech about how Salvador was 'one of French Guiana's most eminent children. His tunes and inimitable velvet choice will stay for us for a long time'. I recall mentioning French Guiana to Salvador last year when he said: 'I didn't go back till I was 75 - and it was just as bad as I remembered. The food and culture are really terrible'. Big laugh- Salvador was never politically correct and often criticised for it. I also told him he wasn't the oldest guy to have a million-seller - Compay Segundo managed it with Buena Vista Social Club in his mid-Nineties. 'Yes, but he was doing old stuff,' he said with a flash of competitive spirit.
At his funeral people talked of his songs being 'plein de tendresse' and that Salvador always made them laugh. For tendresse, here's a wonderful, poetic song of his Jardin D'Hiver sung by chanson singer Keren Ann. Or you can watch Salvador's version here. For laughs (and there are those who claim Salvador practically invented the music video in the Sixties) here is quite possibly the campest, most brilliantly silly song ever recorded - Juanita Banana from 1966. It cracks me up every time.
