Paying tribute to his piano-playing idol Leon Russell, Elton John opened the Tribeca Film Festival with a free outdoor performance and film premiere about the making of his album, “The Union.”
The 64-year-old British singer belted out six songs, including several that appeared on the 2010 critically acclaimed album he collaborated on with fellow singer-songwriter Russell, at the opening of the 10th Tribeca Film Festival in New York that runs until May 1.
The opening night documentary, also called “The Union,” by director Cameron Crowe, was shown to an audience of several thousand people in the downtown area of Manhattan where the film festival was founded in order to revive the area after the September 11 2001 attacks.
The film shows John and Russell reuniting after having not spoken in 38 years and gives a behind-the-scenes glance at the writing and recording of the collaboration between John, John’s lyricist Bernie Taupin and Russell for the album that was released last year and debuted at No. 3 in the Billboard 200.
It also flashes back to old footage of both musicians in the early 1970s, snippets of guest musicians on “The Union” such as Brian Wilson and various sequences of John hailing Russell, now 69, as the greatest piano player that ever influenced him and crying when Russell composes “In the Hands of Angels” off “The Union.”
