Hal willner nino rota

Amarcord Nino Rota

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Out of stock

If you think you know how to put a mix-tape together, take a lesson from Hal Willner, the absolute master.

Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month. With an air of loss in the room already, her measured whispers through “Where The Sidewalk Ends” took on an existential inflection that likely wasn’t lost on the aging boomer audience.

Part of the Brooklyn victory is the fact that it assuaged the cancellation of the show’s 2018 Lincoln Center Out of Doors staging. “How can we be happy amid the unhappiness of others?” the composer once queried. The orchestra members tuned up with wry grins on their faces, playful improvisers perhaps imagining themselves in formal stage garb, teasing the typical solemnity of concert decorum before bringing a puckish demeanor to the pieces at hand.

37 years later it remains a reference record and one of the greatest tribute albums ever produced, and recently remastered and re-released by Corbett vs. When arranger Steve Weisberg took the stage at the start of the show sporting a blazer, fedora, jeans and ponytail, he turned to the audience, opened his coat and revealed a homemade T-shirt beneath: H-A-L in huge letters.

Frisell also duetted with Laurie Anderson, the electronically enhanced strings of her violin mixing with his improvised Tele feathering as she shared a poem from Willner-fave Shel Silverstein. With ten tracks and as many different lineups, this record set the template for a series of brilliant tributes that Willner has made over the ensuing 35 years, covering the songbooks of Monk, Mingus, Weill, and Disney, with a mind-expanding range of performers from Eugene Chadbourne to Chuck D to Diamanda Galas to Peter Frampton.

A cornerstone of the original album, Carla Bley’s 12-minute escapade through the composer’s 8½ score was the kind of whirlwind that buoyed the record’s more somber moments. Bernstein certainly got plenty of room to maneuver with his update of “Roma,” which went from the original Steve Lacy soliloquy to a design of kaleidoscopic episodes that fused melodies while dodging clutter — super catchy, and an evening standout.

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Hal Willner Fans Support Roulette’s Salute to Movie Maestro Nino Rota

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By Jim Macnie  I  Apr. The packed house was unmistakably teeming with love for its fallen hero.

Yet it was the insightful music producer who seemed most present in the room. Throughout the evening Rob Schwimmer’s rather masterful theremin work added a mysterious tenor to a clutch of pieces. True, the iconic Italian composer, long associated with the equally iconic Italian director Frederico Fellini, received a tip of the hat that will forever be fondly recalled; the 26-member ensemble performing Hal Willner’s Amarcord Nino Rota at Brooklyn’s Roulette on April 8 keenly expounded on the movie maestro’s work, as did its prototype, the acclaimed 1981 various-artists album of the same name.

Pianist Jaki Byard sets the stage with the title track and ends things with "La Strada," and in his first appearance on record, guitarist Bill Frisell contributes a haunting solo acoustic version of "Juliet of the Spirits." Soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, who lived in Rome early in his international years, offers a take on Rota's "Roma" and vibraphonist Dave Samuels provides interludes and transitions in a couple of spots.

With her daughter Karen Mantler on xylophone, the band hopped on the exquisitely explosive arrangement and galloped away.