Hal Willner

Elvis Costello:

Words are a very poor carriage for the way I am feeling today at the sudden passing of my dear friend, Hal Willner.
Nobody could put themselves to the front of a line of Hal’s many friends but Diana and I are only comforted by the thought that his wife, Sheila Rogers and their son, Arlo must know of the depth and breadth of love that people have for Hal.
It is my belief that beloved people always dwell in the present tense.
Not very long ago, Hal and I sat for a while listening to a wonderful record that he was making with an extraordinary cast based on the songs of Marc Bolan. His studio was like a living collage of his love of music, art and other fascinations; record albums, artwork, puppets, tiny books of arcane facts once owned by Stan Laurel were among his wonders.
After the new record was over, we listened to a few selections from an album by the actor, Albert Finney, made for the Motown label. Only a few people probably know this record even exists, Hal would be among the even smaller group of curious souls who sought out an actual copy.
Listeners are sometimes confused by the role of a record producer, as many of the most successful or infamous producers apply their own vision to the music like a veneer or lens through which the original intentions may be only dimly perceived.
Hal’s approach better resembled the beautiful chaos of a childhood chemistry set, in which all of the substances and elements were mixed with joyous but determined abandon to render coloured smoke, a delightful explosion or something of unlikely and uncommon beauty.
I arrived to one of my most memorable sessions with Hal, directly off a plane to NYC from Barbados, where I had been cutting rock and soul sides with what I thought of as an experimental line-up of players with an ample supply of rum cocktails. 


In these terms being, “experimental”, I was a mere novice.
The band Hal had assembled consisted of, guitarist, Bill Frisell, bassist, Greg Cohen and a horn section of Henry Threadgill and Art Baron with percussionist, Don Alias, smiting what looked like a giant railway sleeper with a huge felt mallet, the “Marimba Eroica” which resonated to your very innards. The studio was filled with an array of remarkable percussion instruments, each with similarly extraordinary names given to them by the composer, inventor and musical theorist, Harry Partch.
It was indicative of Hal’s mischief that he had had musicians, Marc Ribot, Michael Blair and Francis Thumm addressing these microtonal devices alongside conventionally tuned instruments as a foundation for performing Charles Mingus’ “Weird Nightmare”, a beautiful ballad with Mingus’ own lyric.
The resulting album of Mingus interpretations had contributions by people as contrasting as Dr. John, Henry Rollins, Keith Richards, Leonard Cohen and Chuck D.


This range of artists was not by any means unique in Hal’s work, nor was it a matter of marquee billing or stunt casting. To engage with the gentle and curious assemblies of his productions was to surrender your fears and doubts, like discovering a box of paints full of previously unseen colours. 

Listen to any one of Hal’s extraordinary investigations, whether into the music of Nino Rota or Thelonius Monk, his record of Disney songs, “Stay Awake” with performances by Tom Waits, Betty Carter, Sun Ra, NRBQ, Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson and Bonnie Raitt or his productions of albums by Lou Reed, Marianne Faithfull, Lucinda Williams and “The Lion For Real” by Allen Ginsberg.
Hal also worked with the director, Robert Altman, producing the extraordinary soundtrack for “Kansas City” or also the film, “Short Cuts” for which he was kind enough to ask me to write the song “Punishing Kiss” which was sung by Annie Ross.
Hal’s live events rightly live in legend, my favourites being a concert during the Vancouver Winter Olympics, performing the songs of Neil Young or “The Harry Smith Project”, an investigation into the “Anthology Of American Folk Music”, a more than three-hour concert at Royce Hall, UCLA, including performances and contributions from Garth Hudson, David Thomas, The Folksmen, Steve Earle, Kate and Anne McGarrigle, EIiza Carthy, Percy Heath and Philip Glass and of course, his direction of the Montreal concert one year after the passing of Leonard Cohen.
As heartfelt as many of the performances on that evening were, Hal had already produced an unmatchable moment with Leonard Cohen and Sonny Rollins collaborating on a performance of “Who By Fire” on the NBC show, “Night Music”, the standard by which we hoped to measure any successes during the two seasons of the television show, “Spectacle”.
I could go on to name all of the elusive moments of alchemy and records on which Hal conjured gentle magic but I will close by expressing my deep gratitude for every door he walked me through and all the simple kindness and humour of his regular but always unexpected texts, whether during a moment of crisis in our family, while hard at work at his regular musical supervising job at SNL or in the midst of producing music for theatre director Robert Wilson at an anniversary event for Solidarność in Gdansk.
I wrote to Hal two nights ago when it seemed he had come through the worst of this dreadfully, cruel contagion. I said it seemed as if we had woken in the plot of a poorly realized film adaptation of a futuristic story by Philip K. Dick, with savage asides that might have invited the editorial red pen by even a writer like Hunter S. Thompson. Whether or not there was time to still laugh or smile, I will miss my friend’s reply for the rest of my days.
“Condolences” seems a word of insufficient depth for the way many of us feel today but we must not be selfish or feel alone but rather look to the light and imagination with which we will perhaps emerge from this dark and melancholy hour. I send my love and that of my wife, Diana with a wish for every possible strength to Sheila and Arlo.
Here is a song by Kurt Weill recorded with The Brodsky Quartet in Toronto in 1995 for Hal’s album of Weill interpretations and re-imaginings also entitled, “Lost In The Stars”.
Elvis Costello. 7/4/20

That’s beautiful
Is there audio of the Harry Smith concert somewhere?

That is a compelling tribute, damn maybe I should read EC's autobiography. Saturday Night Live, in quarantine, just now closed with a well-timed tribute to Willner: current cast, in concise segments, on what it was like to work and hang out with him, past and maybe current female SNL colleagues delivering choruses of "Perfect Day," a shot of Lou Reed with Willner---not to make it a SadOlympics, but so far his death has been the single most disturbing/felt loss of this pandemic, speaking strictly for myself.

Saturday Night live tribute was nice

xpost EC's memoir is really good, though not necessarily quite what you might expect (which is to say, a standard rock and roll memoir). But he is a great writer, so if you're expecting that you won't be disappointed.

Had no idea the T. Rex album was apparently completed and is being released:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTLMGU9o50k

“Jeepster” is the fourth song to be released from Angelheaded Hipster, following Kesha’s “superstar vocals”(SPIN) on “Children of the Revolution,” Devendra Banhart’s “serene...trippy” (Rolling Stone) “Scenescof” and Nick Cave’s “gorgeous rendition” (Brooklyn Vegan) of “Cosmic Dancer.” Each of the 26 tracks on Angelheaded Hipster was produced by the acclaimed Hal Willner, who passed away from COVID-19 in April. Willner had previously served as the Saturday Night Live sketch music producer for nearly 40 years, produced albums for Lou Reed, Marianne Faithfull and William S. Burroughs, and concept albums drawing upon the music of Thelonious Monk, Kurt Weill, vintage Disney films and others.

For Angelheaded Hipster, Willner brought together a wide-ranging cast to reimagine Bolan’s greatest songs - Jett, Kesha, Banhart and Cave plus Marc Almond, Børns, Helga Davis, Perry Farrell, Elysian Fields, Gavin Friday, Emily Haines, Jesse Harris, King Khan, Sean Lennon & Charlotte Kemp Muhl, Maria McKee, Father John Misty, John Cameron Mitchell, Gaby Moreno, Nena, Beth Orton, Peaches, Todd Rundgren, Lucinda Williams, Victoria Williams With Julian Lennon and U2 Feat. Elton John.

Angelheaded Hipster will be available on CD, LP and digital. A special limited-edition white vinyl version will be released one week early on August 28 exclusively at independent retail stores in the US.

Hal Willner worked on AngelHeaded Hipster for several years, with sessions spanning continents, from New York, Los Angeles and New Orleans, to London, Paris and Berlin. The project was conceived and executive produced by Bill Curbishley and Ethan Silverman. Kate Hyman had the creative vision to ask Willner to produce it.

Dunno who plays on it, musician-wise, but the Joan Jett song (which is not particularly good; Visconti's production is a big part of T. Rex) features a lot of shots of Tony Scherr on bass, so I assume the usual guys will be playing on it.

https://www.npr.org/2020/09/09/910679207/a-final-bow-from-hal-wilner-the-producer-with-the-golden-rolodex

Todd Rundgren, Helga Davis, Beth Orton and his final project on Marc Bolan

Listened today and it’s a mixed bag of course, but I was surprised how many singers followed Bolan’s voice right down to detailing the warble of his trills. (About a quarter of them)

Which didn’t bother me because it made me realize how essential those trills are to putting his lyrics and melodies into stratosphere. So the album made me look at his work in a new way, which I wasn’t expecting but I should have expected since the other Wilner tributes were so special because of that exact knack of his.

Just listened for the first time, and it made me listen to his work in a new way also, elaborating on some elements, which is true to their spiraling stardust tophat tendencies, while staying true to the boogiedelic patterns and prancing, like hands across thee Ocean (incl. ov Tyme) insider-outsider art, "primitive" but nevah crude. In other words, despite my wondering if Bolan's songwriting was up to Weill's and so on's possibility-wise, another Willner mission accomplished, dependable and surprising. Not a Magnum Opus, or a final fiery leap, like black*: this is more like You Want It Darker, El Cohen leaving the building with mission accomplished album-wise one more time, as his conversations with the muse-mistress take a break (working on two or three albums 'til he checked out).
Only spotting a few dud vocals so far, and the musos do pretty well even on those tracks. Really seems like it's close to twice as good as the Pitchfork review indicates (rating of 4.4, I'd say 7.0, at least). also good in spacey associative ways hard to quantify, but if you're already into Willnar and most of his current guests at all, and you think you might like it, you probably will.

Very much looking forward to my copy -- also will be interesting to compare it to the Bolan tribute comp Zorn was behind back in the late 1990s.

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Great-Jewish-Music-Marc-Bolan/release/386274

Listening again, now to the 2-CD, and liking Jett's "Jeepster" better, with Ribot one of the guitarists. Bolan's writing lyrics and tunes, more subtle than I realized---not on that one, but most others so far---also hearing how he and Bowie apparently influenced each other for a while, in effect kind of a Buck Owens-Beatles crosstalk thing (so maybe some creative competition as well). Of course they both worked with Visconti, right?
Where should I start with T.Rex albums? Also Tyrannosaurus Rex and Bolan's later work, since publicity says this project draws from all of that?
(Børns now going toward old Robert Plant at his best, Beth Orton up to the line, maybe a little past, King Khan and organist Brian Mitchell ripping it up on "I Love To Boogie," and so on, the always finewine Gaby Moreno gliding through the rippling "Beltane Walk": "I met a boy, he was God's fool").
U2 actually not sucking on "Bang A Gong," not even Bono.

Uh-oh, he's making these little sounds of desire. But now back into the words, the groove. Good guests too duh.

The sax has to elbow past him later, does.

Where should I start with T.Rex albums? Also Tyrannosaurus Rex and Bolan's later work, since publicity says this project draws from all of that?

Hm, you could get eight million answers here. If you want a very VERY quick album start pack-- first Tyrannosaurus Rex album My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair... But Now They're Content to Wear Stars on Their Brows, the first three official T. Rex albums as such (self-titled, Electric Warrior, The Slider and the final album, Dandy in the Underworld, which was him refocusing a bit in 1977 before it all ended tragically. That said I have every album, but I would.

In any event, you will also need a good singles comp to get a real sense of things, because his string was pretty incredible at the heights. Problem is there are about eight million comps and for the longest time there were rights issues as well between the first and second halves of his career as such. Thankfully there's one from a couple of years ago, Gold, which actually does span his career in all phases outside of an early solo single and the John's Children era. If anything, start there, then the albums I mentioned -- it's not chronologically ordered per se but it's a good collection of killer singles, some good B-sides and a fine selection of album cuts.

https://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/t-rex-gold-new-compilation/

I will start there, thanks so much! Xgau mentions T. Rextasy: The Best of T. Rex, 1970-1973, on Warner Bros., apparently from '86 or thereabouts, when he mentions it in Consumer Guide, also, in '82 round-up of singles:
The late Marc Bolan's "You Scare Me to Death" (Cherry Red import), overdubbed on demo tapes by Simon Napier-Bell, has an off-center infectiousness pop postmodernists would give their M.F.A.s for. As for A.A., note this hook: "You scare us to death/With your awful breath."

Just now noticed this on his Amazon page: LP way OOP, but discogs has details, incl. him as associate producer; All performances were recorded live outdoors in the streets and parks of New York City.
https://www.discogs.com/Various-Stars-Of-The-Streets/release/1522484

Listening on a better boombox (Panasonic RX-D55) has clarified several things, incl. that xpost U2-Eltie "Bang A Gong" is actually good all the way through; he and the horns should sign up for a longer tour ov duty, all rootie. Also lots of words, like "Let's do it lik we're friends, do it like we're friends," and maybe that will happen for us as well, and even Emily Haines's vocals all through "The Ballrooms of Mars,", where "John Lennon knows your name and I've seen his," fair enough.

Sorry, listening again and it's "John Lennon knows your name and I've seen his," still fair and also little zing

On the other hand, it's clearer than ever that, while the musos do real good, esp. into finale, Perry Farrell only lends a nerf vocal to what still seem like built-in limitations of "Rock On," heard here as plodding rehash of "Bang a Gong," to which maybe it was the follow-up, like they used to do back then, for inst. whatever it was that was meant to milk a little more "Rhinestone Cowboy" feel and money.
(Perhaps this is more apparent because "Rock On" has to Disc 2's opener, Father John Misty's "Main Man"---and every other strong track, now revealed to be all of Disc 1.

has to *follow* Disc 2's opener

Never really listened to his tribute albums but did go to a Raymond Scott event he was a part of. Saw him on a few panels

2 years after his passing, his wife did a tribute show @ St Ann's in NYC. Tom Waits did some songs as did others

First Tom Waits public performance in a while at a Hal Willner tribute event last night. Three songs: "Shenandoah" (from Willner's pirate-songs album), Sinatra's "I'll Be Seeing You" (name of event), and ??. A few photos from IG, but tell me someone took video… pic.twitter.com/dssLKgcI56

— Ray Padgett (@rayfp) April 7, 2022

https://www.nme.com/news/music/tom-waits-gives-rare-live-performance-at-hal-willner-tribute-event-3201089

I did find some short video clips on IG, but not of Waits. One was of Elvis Costello and John C. Reilly's duet, but they only uploaded the first minute, which is the band slowly starting up and Reilly's opening verse.

A Facebook friend of mine shared a Tom Waits video clip on FB, but she didn't set the privacy for public (only her FB friends can see it)

How had I not heard of this?! Or had I:

Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man is a 2005 film by Lian Lunson about the life and career of Leonard Cohen. It is based on a January 2005 tribute show at the Sydney Opera House titled "Came So Far for Beauty", which was presented by Sydney Festival under the artistic direction of Brett Sheehy, and produced by Hal Willner. Performers at this show included Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker, The Handsome Family, Beth Orton, Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, Teddy Thompson, Linda Thompson, Antony, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, with Cohen's former back-up singers Perla Batalla and Julie Christensen as special guests. The end of the film includes a performance by Leonard Cohen and U2, which was not recorded live, but filmed specifically for the film at the Slipper Room in New York in May 2005.

Antony now Anohni , new alb w the Johnsons out July 7. Perla Betalla had an album that I really liked, didn't seem much like anything else.

Shimmy-Disc Announces Edgar Allan Poe
Spoken Word & Music LP,
Shares Lydia Lunch "Dreamland"
Single + Video via BrooklynVegan

EDGAR ALLAN POE - To One in Paradise (for Hal Willner) Compilation LP ft. Joan As Police Woman, Lydia Lunch, Eric Mingus, Jennifer Charles, Allen Ginsberg, Britta Phillips, Teller, Thurston & Eva Moore + others (w/ music by Kramer) Out 10/18 via Shimmy-Disc

Kramer and Shimmy disc are back? ! Wow