CNN
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Robbie Robertson, five-time Grammy nominee and celebrated songwriter, singer, guitarist and movie composer, has died, in keeping with an announcement despatched from his publicity company Costa Communications, Inc. to CNN. He was 80 and died after an extended sickness.
In a press release, Robertson’s supervisor of 34 years, Jared Levine, stated “Robbie was surrounded by his household on the time of his dying, together with his spouse, Janet, his ex-wife, Dominique, her companion Nicholas, and his kids Alexandra, Sebastian, Delphine, and Delphine’s companion Kenny. He’s additionally survived by his grandchildren Angelica, Donovan, Dominic, Gabriel, and Seraphina. Robertson lately accomplished his fourteenth movie music mission with frequent collaborator Martin Scorsese, ‘Killers of the Flower Moon.’”
Born in Toronto, Ontario, Robertson had roots in each the Mohawk group on the Six Nations Reserve, in addition to the Jewish enclave of his residence metropolis’s downtown.
Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns/Getty Photographs
(From left to proper) Garth Hudson, Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel and Rick Danko of The Band pose for a bunch portrait in London in June 1971.
He started enjoying guitar on the age of 10, and 6 years later joined drummer Levon Helm within the Hawks, the backing band for rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins. It was there that Robertson acquired his rock ‘n’ roll schooling, which might ultimately embrace future bandmates Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Garth Hudson.
Robertson would go on to play with Bob Dylan on his legendary “Going Electrical” excursions in 1965 and 1966.
Shifting to Woodstock in 1967, Robertson and his bandmates recorded the groundbreaking “basement tapes” with Dylan earlier than altering their title to The Band and releasing their seminal “Music from Huge Pink” album the next yr. The album, that includes the Robertson-penned basic tune “The Weight,” continues to be thought-about an inflection level in rock historical past.
In 1969, The Band carried out on the legendary Woodstock Pageant earlier than releasing an eponymous album that included the Robertson-composed “Up On Cripple Creek” and equally basic (and far lined) “The Evening They Drove Outdated Dixie Down.”
As a testomony to their newfound fame, The Band turned the primary North American rock group to look on the quilt of Time journal.
Extra albums adopted, together with “Stage Fright” in 1970, “Cahoots” the next yr which included “Life Is A Carnival,” and the double dwell set “Rock Of Ages” in 1972.”
The following yr, The Band carried out earlier than what turned the most important rock live performance viewers in historical past with an estimated 650,000 folks on the Watkins Glen Pageant in New York.
In 1976, The Band bade farewell to dwell performing with “The Final Waltz” live performance on Thanksgiving night time. Friends together with Dylan, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, Neil Younger and Joni Mitchell joined the group at San Francisco’s Winterland and the live performance movie, directed by Martin Scorsese, in addition to a three-record field have been launched in 1978.
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Rick Danko and Robbie Robertson of The Band carry out throughout The Final Waltz at Winterland in November 1976 in San Francisco.
The Band’s seventh and last studio album with Robertson was “Islands,” which was launched in 1977. He then produced Neil Diamond’s “Love At The Greek” dwell album, furthering their artistic relationship as Robertson had helmed Diamond’s “Lovely Noise” the yr earlier than.
Robertson additionally blazed trails as one of many first rock ‘n’ rollers to noticeably have interaction in film music.
He co-wrote, produced, appeared in and composed the supply music for the 1979 movie “Carny” starring Gary Busey and Jodie Foster. He would go on to create and produce music for Scorsese’s “Raging Bull” (1980), “King Of Comedy” (1983), and “The Colour Of Cash “(1986), which included “It’s In The Approach That You Use It,” co-written with Clapton.
Robertson made his solo album debut in 1987 along with his self-titled album, that includes visitors Peter Gabriel and U2.
The album included the observe “Someplace Down The Loopy River,” and was licensed gold, Grammy-nominated, and earned a number of Juno Awards in his native Canada.
His second solo album, 1991’a “Storyville,” featured a few of New Orleans’ most revered musicians and earned two Grammy nominations.
In 1994, The Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame and carried out dwell on the ceremony.
Robertson continued his film work, scoring Barry Levinson’s “Jimmy Hollywood” and appearing in “The Crossing Guard,” starring Jack Nicholson and directed by Sean Penn. He additionally produced the soundtrack album for Scorsese’s “On line casino.”
The artist continued releasing solo music, and penned the New York Occasions bestselling memoir, “Testimony,” in 2016.
A documentary function movie based mostly on the ebook and titled “As soon as Have been Brothers: Robbie Robertson And The Band” premiered at 2019’s Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant and streamed on Hulu.
In 2019, Robertson launched his sixth solo studio album “Sinematic,” and his work with Scorsese continued along with his unique rating for the movie “The Irishman.”
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Robbie Robertson seen on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant in September 2019.
On the time of his passing, Robertson was writing his followup memoir to “Testimony,” and had simply completed scoring Scorsese’s “Flower Moon” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro, which is ready to hit theaters within the fall.
In an emailed assertion despatched to CNN in a while Wednesday, Scorsese, Robertson’s 14-time collaborator, referred to as him “one among my closest mates, a continuing in my life and my work.”
“I might at all times go to him as a confidante. A collaborator. An advisor. I attempted to be the identical for him,” the filmmaker continued. “Lengthy earlier than we ever met, his music performed a central function in my life—me and tens of millions and tens of millions of different folks throughout this world. The Band’s music, and Robbie’s personal later solo music, appeared to come back from the deepest place on the coronary heart of this continent, its traditions and tragedies and joys.”
“It goes with out saying that he was a large, that his impact on the artwork kind was profound and lasting,” Scorsese added.
In lieu of flowers, the household has requested that donations be made to the Six Nations of the Grand River to help a brand new Woodland Cultural Centre.
