Leonardo DiCaprio and 200 other Hollywood stars and musicians were guests on Wednesday (November 15) at a memorial evening hosted by Martin Scorsese in honor of the late Robbie Robertson in Los Angeles.
The musical tribute took place as a private memorial concert at which Jackson Browne, along with Rocco DeLuca, Citizen Cope, Angela McCluskey, Blake Mills, Jim Keltner and, for a short appearance, Jason Isbell, performed songs of the old man at the Village Studios on August 9th performed by the musician who died 80 years ago.
Isbell also appears in “Killers Of The Flower Moon,” Martin Scorsese’s latest film, which now holds a special place in Robertson’s oeuvre because his soundtrack for the film was the musician’s last work before his death.
The connection between Martin Scorsese and Robbie Robertson
About the film’s score composed by Robertson, Scorsese recently told Variety: “I think for Robbie this was a highlight of our collaboration on this film that is dedicated to him. In a way, I think he was destined to set ‘Killers’, which took place in the world of Native Americans, in this case the Osage Nation. It was almost as if Robbie had found his way home. I think he created one of the most beautiful soundtracks ever written for a film. His music is the beating heart of the film.”
The indigenous background of the western thriller, which is sure to be one of the favorites of the upcoming Oscar season, also suits Robertson, whose mother was Mohawk and Cayuga and grew up on the reservation of the Six Nations of the Grand River.
The Canadian guitarist and singer Robbie Robertson made a name for himself as a songwriter in the late 1950s, but it wasn’t until the Sixties, as part of Bob Dylan’s The Band, that he became known to a large audience. The connection via the Nobel Prize winner, who formed a lifelong friendship with Robertson, is also the one that led to Scorsese. The director immortalized The Band’s farewell concert (“The Last Waltz”) on celluloid and accompanied Bob Dylan with two documentaries.