I think Alessandroni told me he also played banjo on this score. He did a lot of banjo and mandolin stuff for Ennio as we know.
Surprisingly enough, Sandro told me years ago that he didn't play the mandolin or/and mandola for Morricone, only for Trovajoli and for a lot of library music for Flipper and Beat. He did of course play the mandolin and mandoloncello (not mandola) on his own scores.
There was a known group in Rome of 4-5 people who played mandolin, mandola and mandoloncello-- Gino Del Vescovo was the Capo-- and they usually played on Morricone's scores according to Sandro, and this has been confirmed by Bruno Battisti D'amario and Giorgio Carnini.
As for the banjo soloists, aside from Alessandroni there's Maurizio De Angelis (of Guido & Maurizio De Angelis fame) who played on Once upon a time in the west. I guess he may have played on other Morricone scores as well.
Interesting stuff Mikael. I was never convinced Alex's memory in his 80s was totally reliable but i just saw from the Bruno interview in latest maestro, for what its worth "...I have never played the mandola or the mandolin, because Alessandroni was very good with these instruments." Plus in same sentence he confirms GBU was Bruno on banjo. I do urge people to register and check out maestro
We do get these conflicting things. Not a surprise given the volume of work they did over many years ...another day, another maestro, another score!!
Despite being then in his eighties, Sandro seemed pretty sure that he didn't play the mandolin or mandola for Morricone ( I've kept all his emails). However, recordings were made all the time, every day in some studio or another and most of the time one never knew what the final use was. So it is quite possible that he was the mandolin soloist on some Morricone scores after all.
Here's what Bruno told me a few years ago: "In Morricone's films the mandolinist & mandolaist was Gino Del Vescovo (in one of his films - but I don't remember the title - I played the banjo).
It'd seem the film he's referirng to was The Good. the bad and the ugly!
