One of the premier songwriters of the rock era, Robbie Robertson was born July 5, 1943, in Toronto, Ontario. The son of a Jewish father and Mohawk mother, Jaime Robbie Robertson's first brush with live music came at the Six Nations Reservation, his mother's girlhood home; at the age of five, he also gained exposure to the country music of rural America. Not long after, he began taking guitar lessons from a cousin, and gradually began composing his first songs.
As time wore on, his musical interests evolved from country to big band to rock, and he eventually dropped out of school to pursue a career as a performer.
In 1958, he hooked up with rockabilly star ' backing band the Hawks, joining fellow sidemen , , , and . After remaining with through 1963, the Hawks began working on their own; they soon came to the attention of , and became the support unit on the singer's now-legendary 1965-1966 world tour.
Continuing their affiliation with , the group, renamed simply the Band, went on to become one of rock's seminal acts; propelled by Robertson's acute, evocative examinations of American mythology and lore, they made a series of seminal LPs, including 1968's Music from Big Pink and the following year's self-titled masterpiece.
dissolved on Thanksgiving Day 1976 following an all-star concert filmed by director Martin Scorsese and later released as The Last Waltz. The project marked the beginning of Robertson's long affiliation with Scorsese, as well as an interest in dramatic acting; in 1980, Robertson produced and starred in Carny, co-starring Jodie Foster and Gary Busey.
Also in 1980, he composed the score to Scorsese's brilliant Raging Bull, and continued to confine his musical activity to the film medium for the next several years, later working with Scorsese on the acerbic 1983 satire The King of Comedy and 1986's The Color of Money, the sequel to The Hustler.
Finally, in 1987 Robertson released his self-titled solo debut, which included guest appearances from onetime -mates and as well as , , , and . , a conceptual piece steeped in the sounds and imagery of a famed area of New Orleans, followed in 1991.
In 1994, Robertson returned to his roots, teaming with the Native American group the Red Road Ensemble for , a collection of songs composed for a television documentary series. Contact from the Underworld of Redboy followed in 1998. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide Born to a father and a mother, (he took his stepfather's last name after his mother remarried), Robertson's earliest exposure to music was at , where he spent summers with his mother's family.
He studied guitar from his youth and was writing songs and performing from his teen years.
called The Hawks (after relocating to ). In 1960 he joined the group, which toured often, before splitting from Hawkins in .
In 2003, Robertson was inducted into .
hired The Band for his famed, controversial tours of and , his first wide exposure as an electrified performer rather than his earlier acoustic sound. Robertson's distinctive guitar sound was an important part of the music; Dylan famously praised sound.
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From their first album, ( ), The Band was praised as one of 's preeminent groups. magazine praised The Band and gave its music extensive coverage. Robertson sang only a few songs with The Band, but was the group's primary songwriter, and was often seen as the bandleader.
In , Robertson decided to break up The Band, reporting that he was exhausted by nearly sixteen years touring with them. In the Martin Scorsese film ( ) he noted that he had been playing live music almost since rock and roll began. Also, as the band's chief song-writer, he was able to live off the song royalties, and no longer needed to tour.
The Band reformed in without Robertson.
From onwards, Robertson released a series of four solo albums that began with a self-titled album. In , he contributed to Japanese musician 's album Beauty.
graduating class and was awarded an by the university. In , he announced plans to write his autobiography.
(during editing on "The Last Waltz.
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during the editing of Waltz and became friends. Scorsese hired Robertson to compose the for his film . Robertson would later work on Scorsese's movies , and , and act as executive music director for .
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