Lo straordinario album Amarcord Nino Rota (Hannibal, 1981) viene rievocato questa sera a New York presso il Roulette a tre anni esatti dalla scomparsa del suo geniale ideatore, il compianto Hal Willner (1956-2020).
Hal Willner, former Roulette board member and Saturday Night Live music staffer, was a music producer who knew something about embracing the joy of experimentation, pushing boundaries, and expanding singular ideas into large-scale productions. Released in 1981, Amarcord Nino Rota was Willner’s first “concept album”. The producer invited an eclectic assortment of musicians - including Carla Bley, Jaki Byard, Bill Frisell, Chris Stein and Debbie Harry, Steve Lacy and Wynton Marsalis - to take a variety of approaches to the composer Nino Rota’s music for the films of Federico Fellini. In doing so, Willner had established the template for his entire aesthetic in one fell Felliniesque swoop: the record as sonic cinema. To celebrate Hal and pay tribute to the creative community that he fostered throughout his life and career, an ensemble of 19 musicians, including Bill Frisell, Laurie Anderson, Steven Bernstein, Teddy Thompson and Curtis Stewart, will bring these arrangements to life.