At no time was I convinced that De Niro was playing that saxophone. He didn't seem to put enough effort into the blowing and the breathing and the bulgy-cheeked appearance of a saxophonist.

DeNiro has always been known for the amount of effort he puts into authenticity. And I've always like Scorsesebut in this film he didn't do as good a job as DeNiro did on authenticity. I always hate it when we see musicians in a movie, and the people we see are not really musiciansor the Director hasn't paid enough attention to making the music match what the "musicians" are doing. It seems to me that, in addition to making a noteable film, Scorsese might have made a real contribution to the music in the film by hiring real musicians to play the music. All the starving musicians would have appreciated the gigand he might have actually inspired a revival of appreciation for the music of the era depicted in the film. It was great music! It's a shame that there isn't enough money in the local live music scene to support big bands anymore. Mediocre guitar players with sequences do fine while great horn players are starving. When was the last time you saw (for instance) a great trombone player?or even a mediocre trombone player? And so fewer and fewer young kids are learning these instruments. Local jazz associations are trying to preserve this important art, but it's a struggle.
Thanxjust my soap box.

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"You'll have time to rest when you're dead." - Robert De Niro

that is awesome. de niro is the maaan. where the hell does he get the time to be this awesome.

In the sleevenotes to the dvd Georgie Auld says of de Niro 'today he can play every note on the soundtrack', although at first he 'didn't know a tuba from a taxicab'.

De Niro did learn basic fingering of the sax but Jimmy's solos were performed by saxophonist Georgie Auld, who also appears in the film.

he did learn the basics of how to play the sax for the movie, but not very well. He doesnt actually play the music in the film, but he learnt how to play slightly just so he could look believable in the movie.

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