Grammy-winning producer-engineer Rob Fraboni is well connected. Not only has he worked on albums by Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan and Bonnie Raitt but he was the best man at Clapton's first wedding and he's Keith Richards' neighbor.
Fraboni has been involved with more than 200 recording projects, including remastering U2's "Joshua Tree," remastering Bob Marley's entire catalog and engineering albums by John Lennon, the Beach Boys and the Rolling Stones. Fraboni earned a Grammy for producing a Richards' track on a Hank Williams tribute album in 2002. (Read my 2011 interview with Fraboni.)
Fraboni is coming to Minneapolis to talk before a screening of the Band's famous farewell concert, "The Last Waltz," at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Parkway Theater.
Fraboni was the co-producer of the recording of that concert on Thanksgiving night in 1976. The landmark movie, directed by Martin Scorsese, was released in '78, showcasing the Band backing an all-star lineup including Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Neil Young, Neil Diamond, Dylan and Clapton.
As a critic who attended the Last Waltz, I'll interview Fraboni at the Parkway before the movie. The program is organized by Minneapolis impresario and author Rob Chapman as part of his Rock 'n' Roll Picture Show series at the Parkway.
By the by, Fraboni has a Minnesota connection. His mother was from Ely, his father from Virginia, Minn., and they met in Hibbing. Fraboni's aunt in Hibbing sold her house to the Zimmerman family after their son, Bob Dylan, moved out East.
