Hal Willner

Hal Willner (born April 6, 1956 in Philadelphia - † April 6, 2020 or April 7, 2020 in New York City ) was an American music producer who is best known for his cross-genre tribute albums and tribute concerts.

Live and act

In the 1970s he worked as an assistant to Joel Dorn . In 1981 he was the music supervisor of Saturday Night Live . He was also the producer of David Sanborn's Sunday Night television program . Wilner focuses his interests on theater and film music as well as on jazz and rock music and contemporary classical music. Since 1981 he has published a series of tribute albums on which he brought together musicians from jazz, rock and avant-garde, so that Elvis Costello met Bill Frisell or Harry Nilsson met Arto Lindsay . He was also responsible for the soundtracks of Robert Altman's films Short Cuts and Kansas City ; for the latter film he received the 1996 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for best film music. In 2000 he brought together musicians such as Bono and Brian Eno for the recording of the soundtrack for Wim Wenders ' film The Million Dollar Hotel .

Willner also produced albums for Marianne Faithfull , Lou Reed , Bill Frisell , William S. Burroughs , Gavin Friday , Lucinda Williams , Laurie Anderson , Allen Ginsberg , Gary Lucas die Jazz Passengers and Spanish Fly .

He died in April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City at the age of 64 from complications from SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Tribute albums

• Amarcord Nino Rota (1981) deals with the music of the Italian film composer Nino Rota for Federico Fellini and contains interpretations by Wynton and Branford Marsalis , Carla Bley , Muhal Richard Abrams , Bill Frisell, Steve Lacy , Jaki Byard and Debbie Harry .
• That's The Way I Feel Now: A Tribute to Thelonious Monk (1984) contains contributions from musicians ranging from John Zorn to Dr. John to Chris Spedding and Peter Frampton .
• Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill (1985). This time musicians from Tom Waits to Lou Reed and Todd Rundgren to Charlie Haden were involved.
• Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films (1988). This album contains interpretations of melodies from the Disney films in the spectrum from Sun Ra to Yma Sumac and Los Lobos to Michael Stipe and Ringo Starr .
• Weird Nightmare: Meditations on Mingus (1992) is a tribute album to Charles Mingus , featuring interpretations of his music with musicians as diverse as Vernon Reid , Henry Rollins , Keith Richards , Henry Threadgill and Diamanda Galás .
• Stormy Weather: The Music of Harold Arlen (2005). The album dates back to a television feature by Larry Weinstein and includes appearances by Rufus Wainwright , Debbie Harry , David Johansen , Eric Mingus and Sandra Bernhard .
• Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys (2006).
• The Harry Smith Project: Anthology of American Folk Music Revisited (2006).
• Son of Rogues Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys (2013).

Live tribute concerts (selection)

• Greetings from Tim Buckley (1991)
• Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man (2006) Documentary by Lian Lunson about Willner's tribute concert Came So Far For Beauty for Leonard Cohen
• Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys (2006) Double album with artists from Bono to Van Dyke Parks .
• The Harry Smith Project: Anthology of American Folk Music Revisited (2006). With recordings of concerts from London (1999), Brooklyn (1999) and Los Angeles (2001).
• Stay Awake at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn , NYC (2008)
• Hal Willner's Freedom Riders Project (Brooklyn 2011)
• Celebration: The Works of Shel Silverstein (New York 2011)
• Hal Willner's Amarcord Nino Rota (London, Barbican Center , 2013; New York, Lincoln Center , 2018)
• The Bells: A Day Long Celebration of Lou Reed (New York, July 30, 2016)

Lexigraphic entries

• Wolf Kampmann (Ed.), With the assistance of Ekkehard Jost : Reclams Jazzlexikon . Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-010528-5 .

Web links

• Hal Willner in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Willner Resources in the Internet
• interview

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Hal Willner, Music Producer and Longtime 'SNL' Music Supervisor, Dead at 64. Retrieved April 7, 2020 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Hal Willner has died, reportedly from coronavirus. Retrieved April 7, 2020 . 
3. ↑ Hal Willner, Music Producer and 'SNL' Veteran, Dies of Coronavirus at 64 , Variety, April 7, 2020.
4. ↑ In 1995 he built the production September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill (1995) for Canadian television , directed by Larry Weinstein. The accompanying CD also includes recordings by Nick Cave and PJ Harvey .
5. ↑ Joe Pompeo Stay Awake Stays Alive in Brooklyn. (No longer available online.) In: The New York Observer . March 14, 2008, formerly in the original ; accessed on April 8, 2020 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
6. ↑ 6/16/2011 - Hal Willner's Freedom Riders Project :: Calendar :: BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn. Bricartsmedia.org, June 15, 2011, archived from the original on September 11, 2011 ; accessed on April 8, 2020 . 
7. ↑ Jon Pareles: 'Celebration!' - Silverstein Tribute at SummerStage - Review . In: The New York Times , August 7, 2011. 
8. ↑ http://www.londonjazznews.com/2013/11/review-hal-willner-nino-rota-amarcord.html
9. ↑ Kory Grow: Lou Reed's 'Last Project', a Box Set of Remastered CDs, Due This Fall. In: Rolling Stone . May 17, 2016, accessed April 8, 2020 .