Rudy Cipolla: A Portrait of a Mandolin Player (1986)

Описание: Join us as Maestro Rudy Cipolla (1900-2000) walks around the neighborhood, listen to him reminisce about love lost and found, mortality, his passion for the mandolin and composing, his students, and bookstore on Judah Street, Inner Sunset district in San Francisco. You'll see his parents' wedding picture in San Marco d'Argentano, and an early photo of Rudy as a child and recent immigrant living in Portland, Oregon.

Rudy learned music by ear but in his early twenties (1920s) he became a member of Joseph Rybka's Plectrum Orchestra and began a professional career as a musician and arranger. His journey introduced him to the vaudeville circuit and his arrangements of Latin dances for his Argentine Trio played regularly on the NBC network. This video offers an intimate glimpse into his day-to-day activities and reveals how he handled life's challenges. His indomitable spirit and inner courage helped him face every day with music in his heart. Undefeated by the vicissitudes of life, he composed some of his best music as a octogenarian.

Rudy takes us on a gig to Caffè Trieste in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood where he performed "La Civetta" with Fabio Giotta and Theresa Norris. You'll see Rudy playing with mandolinist Matteo Casserino and with guitarist Gino di Michele who owned "Gino's Guitar Shop" across the street from Rudy's "Book Nook". After World War Two, Rudy and his younger brother Gino created a lending library with books to rent, magazines, toys, and candy for sale. He composed more than a hundred titles as he held court at the candy counter.

This is the 2021 restoration of the original 1986 documentary by videographers Richard Schatzman and Eric Eiserloh. (All credits are listed at TRT 18:00) The procedure to convert the DVD is explained at 19:45. About thirty hours of hard work by Schatzman made this into a beautifully restored, color-corrected and audio-enhanced mp4. The original languished for nearly 35 years and has never been located. Schatzmana restore this from my DVD copy, discovered while cleaning during Covid in 2020.

p.s. Rudy was not evicted and was able to stay there until the late 1990s when he and his niece June Winsenberg moved to Concord (in the East Bay). I last saw Rudy a couple of months before he died. He was in a wheel chair, couldn't hear much and was completely blind. We spent an afternoon holding hands.
Suggest turning on the CC if audio and spoken parts too soft.