A reissue of "Amarcord Nino Rota", a tribute album assembled by producer Hal Willner, originally released by Hannibal Records in 1981, with interpretations of classic soundtrack compositions by the Italian composer from Jaki Byard, Bill Frisell, Steve Lacy, Muhal Richard Abrams, Carla Bley, Gary Windo, David Amram, George Adams, Kenny Barron, Ron Carter, &c.
4. Themes From La Dolce Vita And Juliet Of The Spirits 2:21
5. Juliet Of The Spirits 4:43
6. La Dolce Vita Suite 7:23
7. Satyricon 5:29
8. Roma 4:40
9. Medley: The White Sheik, I Vitelloni, Il Bidone, The Nights Of Cabiria 8:50
10. La Strada 3:09
sample the album:
descriptions, reviews, &c.
"A reissue of Amarcord Nino Rota, a tribute album assembled by producer Hal Willner, originally released by Hannibal Records in 1981.
If you think you know how to put a mix-tape together, take a lesson from Hal Willner, the absolute master. In 1981, Willner produced a landmark record of interpretations of music written by Nino Rota for the films of Federico Fellini. 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.
On Amarcord Nino Rota, Willner drew together an equally dazzling spectrum of musicians, compiling them into a perfect program that explores Rota's wonderful, sly, sexy oeuvre from contrasting and complementary perspectives. 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.
On the other end of the size bracket, Muhal Richard Abrams arranges and conducts his band as part of "La Dolce Vita Suite", which ends with a rock group featuring Debbie Harry singing a wordless waltz. The Carla Bley Band presents a daunting, suitably hilarious version of "8 1/2", with Gary Windo's ballistic tenor saxophone, a David Amram Quintet with Sharon Freeman on French horn plays "Satyricon", and in a surprise appearance, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis plays alongside his brother Branford, tenor saxophonist George Adams, pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Wilbert Fletcher, in William Fischer's arrangement of a medley of Rota chestnuts.
Long out-of-print on LP and only released on CD for a hot minute in the early nineties, Amarcord Nino Rota is a certifiable classic."-Corbett Vs. Dempsey
"Nino Rota, (born December 31, 1911, Milan, Italy-died April 10, 1979, Rome), Italian composer of film scores. Rota had composed an oratorio and an opera by age 13. After studies at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute he began writing film scores. From 1950 to 1978 he served as director of the Liceo Musicale, a conservatory in Bari. In 1950 he also began his long association with Federico Fellini, for whom he would score films such as La strada (1955), La dolce vita (1960), 81/2 (1963), and Amarcord (1973). He provided scores for many other films including Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather, Part II (1974)."-Encyclopedia Britannica