Does DeNiro really play?

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.

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'.

DeNiro has always been known for the amount of effort he puts into authenticity. And I've always like Scorsese...but 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 musicians...or 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 gig...and 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.
Thanx...just my soap box.