Bill Frisell and an all-star band recreate Amarcord Nino Rota in NYC

In 1981, producer Hal Willner undertook the first of his many tribute albums: Amarcord Nino Rota, a celebration of the Italian composer (1911-79), best known for his scores to films by compatriot Federico Fellini between 1952-78 and Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part I and II. Willner assembled a glittery roster for the project, mixing legends such as Jaki Byard, Carla Bley, Muhal Richard Abrams, David Amram, Steve Lacy and Ron Carter with future stars like Bill Frisell and Wynton Marsalis.

Willner had dreamed of presenting the music in New York (it was staged in London in 2004 and 2013) and nearly four decades and six U.S. Presidents later, in July 2018, a concert was to be held as part of Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors. But inclement weather intervened to cancel the performance. Willner didn't live to see it happen; he died in April 2020 of complications from COVID-19 at only 64. Three years later on 8 April, at Brooklyn's Roulette, a long journey came to a stirring conclusion with the music finally heard on an American stage.

Trumpeter Steven Bernstein, who had worked with Willner for many years, most notably on the soundtrack to Robert Altman's Kansas City, and spearheaded the Roulette performance, was audibly emotional when discussing the fact that the two rehearsals for the show took place on Willner's birthday (6 April) and the anniversary of his passing (7 April). With many of the album musicians deceased, Bernstein had to bring together a new ensemble, with Frisell the sole holdover: Karen Mantler (organ, glockenspiel, harmonica); Laurie Anderson (vocals, keyboards, violin); Bernstein and Dave Smith (trumpet); Reginald Chapman and Ed Neumeister (trombone); Bob Stewart (tuba); Kate St. John, Marty Ehrlich, Brian Settles, Doug Wieselman and Emily Pecoraro (woodwinds); Curtis Stewart, Fung Chern Hwei, Karen Waltuch and Marika Hughes (strings); Rob Schwimmer (piano, theremin); Frisell and Gary Lucas (guitar); Brian Carrott (vibraphone); Tony Scherr (bass); Kenny Wollesen (drums); and Teddy Thompson and Jennifer Charles (vocals). Bernstein, Mantler, St. John (who was part of the London performances) and Giancarlo Vulcano and Steve Weisberg (the latter pair also conducting) provided arrangements alongside those from the original recording by Bley and Michael Gibbs.

As Bernstein had warned the audience at the start, the show was a long one, stretching to nearly two-and-a-half hours across two acts, with well over a dozen pieces presented and, as such, expanding on the album with music from the aforementioned The Godfather, other Rota/Fellini scores, a theme from the 1949 Henry Cass film The Glass Mountain and Anderson twice intoning Shel Silverstein poetry. The latter pieces plus Schwimmer's solo piano rendering of ‘La Strada’ were the shortest while some like ‘Amarcord 1 & 2’, ‘Casanova’, ‘8 ½’ and ‘Toby Dammit’s Last Act’ hovered in the 12-15-minute range.

If one believes in such things, then the ensemble and sold-out crowd of 400 (not counting those in the standby queue on a chilly spring night) were being smiled upon from on high by Willner. Key voices were St. John's oboe, Schwimmer's theremin and Pecoraro's flute as well as the versatility of Bernstein's mates from Sexmob: Scherr and Wollesen. ‘Legend from Glass Mountain’, in a Gibbs arrangement, had so many dimensions, evoking eerie nights and European folk music, while ‘Casanova’ moved from elfin-like dance to dirge featuring Mantler's glockenspiel.

‘Juliet of the Spirits’ began with Frisell, Scherr and Wollesen and sounded like it could have been from one of the guitarist's recent Americana-focused albums until the rest of the ensemble slowly enveloped the trio with deepening textures. Mantler added harmonica to ‘The Godfather’ over rhythm in a sad march before woodwinds entered, then Lucas' acoustic guitar drew the audience along a wavering, dusty landscape on ‘Satyricon’, strong band accents then supporting Ehrlich's alto solo. The most impressive portion was a Bernstein arrangement of ‘Roma’, which on the album was essentially a four-and-a-half-minute Lacy solo feature but at Roulette was doubled in length and parceled out among the various sections and players, Ehrlich and St. John in the Lacy role over theremin and pizzicato strings.

Bernstein was a force throughout, above and beyond his commitment to presenting the concert exactly as Wilner had intended. He was an occasional MC, had solo features on both trumpet and slide trumpet, including a bluesy turn on the latter for ‘La Dolce Vita‘ in the evening's most traditional arrangement, and conducted some pieces. It was on ‘Toby Dammit’s Last Act’ that Bernstein showed that few experience the joy of music-making on his level, as he delighted in orchestrating a deep groove frosted with Carrott flourishes, the strings playing like a rock band's backing chorus under Settles' tenor saxophone solo and a nicely spiky Frisell segment.