Joni Mitchell, Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio attend Robbie Robertson memorial

nme.com:

Joni Mitchell and Leonardo DiCaprio were among those who gathered to celebrate the life and music of the late The Band guitarist and singer-songwriter Robbie Robertson last night (15 November).The memorial, held at Robertson’s longtime Los Angeles studio home The Village, included a moving tribute from director Martin Scorsese and performances of Robertson’s music from Jackson Browne, Citizen Cope, Angela McCluskey and others.Robertson died after a long illness on 9 August, aged 80.Scorsese and Robertson first met while making The Band’s legendary concert film The Last Waltz. “I guess when all is said and done it was a kind of folie à deux,” said Scorsese in his eulogy. “That is, two individuals came together and did something that on their own they wouldn’t have done.”Initially planned as simply a live recording of the group’s 1976 farewell concert, Scorsese and Robertson spent two years working on the film together. “During those two years Robbie stayed in the house, we had informal classes,” Scorsese remembered. “Music class for me, film class for him.

He introduced me to obscure blues music, gospel, and the Sacred Harp Singers. I introduced him to Sam Fuller movies, Pasolini’s Accattone, Visconti… We really shared what we loved.”The pair continued to collaborate on films including 1980’s Raging Bull, 1995’s Casino and 2016’s Silence.

Scorsese recalled Robertson sending him four CDs full of musical suggestions for 2006’s The Departed. The opening track was Dropkick Murphy’s ‘I’m Shipping Up to Boston’, which Scorsese ended up using repeatedly in the film.Most recently, Robertson composed the music for Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon.