Robbie Robertson, The Band Guitarist and Film Composer, Dead at 80
etonline.comMartin Scorsese's films, died Wednesday in Los Angeles after a long illness. He was 80.Born in Toronto, Ontario, in 1943, Robertson started playing guitar at age 10, and when he was 16, joined The Band drummer Levon Helm in The Hawks, the backing band for rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins.
The group later changed their name to The Band before releasing their debut album, in 1968. They would go on to release 12 albums as a group, along with three with Bob Dylan, with well-known hits such as «The Weight,» «The Shape I'm In,» «The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,» and «Rockin' Chair.»Robertson is also known for his collaborations with Scorsese, which began when the filmmaker made a documentary about the Band's final performance, which was held on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco.
Scorsese released the film, titledto great acclaim and its still hailed as one of the greatest music documentaries of all time.Robertson would go on to compose music for a number of Scorsese's films, including and as well as his upcoming film, In a statement, Robertson’s manager of 34 years, Jared Levine, said «Robbie was surrounded by his family at the time of his death, including his wife, Janet, his ex-wife, Dominique, her partner Nicholas, and his children Alexandra, Sebastian, Delphine, and Delphine’s partner Kenny.
He is also survived by his grandchildren Angelica, Donovan, Dominic, Gabriel, and Seraphina. Robertson recently completed his fourteenth film music project with frequent collaborator Martin Scorsese,.
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