“Amarcord Nino Rota” is the first of producer Hal Willner‘s splendid anthology series. Each outing allows an eclectic array of modern, vaguely avant-garde musicians to explore the work of a single composer. Nino Rota is the Italian composer responsible for the well known film scores for The Godfather series, though the breadth of his work extends to opera, ballet and concertos.  Jaki Byard‘s solo piano version of Amarcord is among the highlights.

[Dedicated to Margo Guryan, who studied with Jaki Byard at his studio while attending New England Conservatory of Music in Boston Boston University]