Hal Willner obit

Hal Willner, Music Producer and ‘SNL’ Veteran, Dies at 64

 He was not on the list.

Hal Willner, a record producer famed for his left-of-center tribute albums and concerts, and as the long-time sketch music producer for “Saturday Night Live,” has died of complications believed to be associated with the coronavirus, Variety has confirmed. He was 64.

A spokesperson says Willner, who had been ill for weeks, died at home and “had symptoms consistent with COVID-19, though he hadn’t been diagnosed.”

On his Twitter account, the producer had alluded to having the illness in a March 28 tweet, which included a map of coronavirus outbreaks across the United States with the New York area as a red epicenter. He described himself in the tweet as “in bed on upper west side” and said, “I always wanted to have a number one, but not this.”

“Pure Arch Oboler with Serling added,” Willner additionally wrote, apparently comparing the coronavirus to something out of Oboler’s classic “Lights Out” horror radio show or Serling’s “Twilight Zone” — just the kind of references that friends would have expected from Willner, who had a century’s worth of culture, pop and otherwise, at his command.

Among the artists for whom Willner produced albums were Marianne Faithfull (recently diagnosed with her own bout of COVID-19), Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed (including his final major studio release, “Ecstasy”) and Lucinda Williams.

He had been involved with “SNL,” as the man behind the music skits, since 1980. But Saturday wasn’t the only night of the week he was associated with; Willner was the music coordinator on the Lorne Michaels executive-produced “Sunday Night” (also known as “Night Music”), an eclectic weekly music series hosted by David Sanborn for two seasons in 1988-90, one of them on NBC and one in syndication.

But he remains perhaps best or most fondly remembered for the full-length salutes he helmed, like 1988’s “Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films,” which had artists as disparate as Ringo Starr, Michael Stipe, Bonnie Raitt, the Replacements, Yma Sumac, Ken Nordine, Harry Nilsson, Tom Waits and his beloved Sun Ra covering classic songs from Disney’s golden age in either faithful or deeply eccentric renditions.

Prior to the Disney collection, he produced “Amarcord Nino Rota” in 1981, “That’s The Way I Feel Now: A Tribute to Thelonious Monk” in 1984 and “Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill” a year later, employing guests ranging from Deborah Harry to Wynton and Bradford Marsalis and John Zorn. In 1992, he followed these sets with “Weird Nightmare: Meditations on Mingus,” a mostly instrumental salute to the jazz legend that also included vocal interpretations of his work from Elvis Costello, Henry Rollins, Dr. John, Leonard Cohen and Chuck D.

“He gets musicians together who wouldn’t get together,” NRBQ’s Terry Adams told the New York Times in a profile of Willner. “And it always works.”

“It’s not any kind of radical thinking,” Willner said in that same story. “That’s what we had growing up. Bill Graham would have Led Zeppelin preceded by the Bonzo Dog Band and Rahsaan Roland Kirk on the same show. How many people saw Patti LaBelle opening for Richard Pryor? So it’s just continuing a philosophy from that point of view. But people don’t do that anymore.”

His last major compilations came in 2006 and again in 2013 in the form of pirate-themed “Rogues Gallery” albums, which featured Bono, Nick Cave, Richard Thompson, Sting, Bryan Ferry, John C. Reilly, and the pairings of Michael Stipe with Courtney Love and Patti Smith with Johnny Depp.

Willner had been at work for years on a T. Rex tribute album, with tracks already in the can by U2 and others, that is yet to be released.

In later years, as major-label support for such unusual projects waned, most of his tributes took the form of concerts, including all-star salutes to Leonard Cohen in Canada and a 2001 tribute to “Harry Smith’s Anthology of Folk Music” in Los Angeles.

In October 2018 Willner was the subject of his own tribute show, which took place at a small venue in Brooklyn. The concert, covered by Variety, featured guests including Laurie Anderson and David Johansen, with taped salutes from Cave, guitarist Bill Frisell and singer Diamanda Galas.

Making self-effacing reference to how commercially questionable some of his passionate pursuits had been, Willner joked to the crowd saluting him that “I’ve spent the last 40 years as a producer creating things that would make sure this didn’t happen.”

In the Times’ 2017 profile, Willner lamented changes he saw in the passionate connections people felt with the strange and wonderful fringes of culture.

“Weird isn’t in right now,” he said. ““I don’t know what inspires people now,” he said. “Maybe they don’t need to be inspired in that way. Do these last two generations have heroes? I’m not sure they do. I go to Avenue A now and listen to what people are talking about, and it isn’t culture. When John Lennon died I couldn’t go to work for two days. I wonder if they have someone that they look at like that — an author, a poet, whatever. Those are people who made us what we are. … But then again, were we right?”

The final tweet on Willner’s account was in support of another coronavirus sufferer, John Prine. “Sending love to John Prine who is in critical condition with COVID-19,” he wrote. “John is a music giant. His songs are as good as it gets and he’s a spellbinding performer. Send good thoughts his way. ‘I sound like that old guy down the street that doesn’t chase you out of his apple tree.'”

He is survived by his wife, Sheila Rogers; his 15-year-old son, Arlo; his sister, Chari McClary; and his father, Carl.

Concept albums produced by Hal Willner

Amarcord Nino Rota (1981) Willner's first tribute album salutes Italian composer Nino Rota, and features interpretation of his music for Federico Fellini films by jazz musicians including: Wynton and Branford Marsalis; Carla Bley; Muhal Richard Abrams; Bill Frisell; Steve Lacy; and Jaki Byard; plus singer–songwriter Deborah Harry.[7][8]

That's The Way I Feel Now: A Tribute to Thelonious Monk (1984) features pop and jazz musicians including NRBQ, Steve Lacy, Dr. John, John Zorn, Donald Fagen, and Peter Frampton.

Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill (1985) features musicians ranging from Sting to Charlie Haden

Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films (1988) features performances of songs from Walt Disney movies by a large cast of artists ranging from Sun Ra to NRBQ, Michael Stipe, Ringo Starr, Yma Sumac and Ken Nordine

Weird Nightmare: Meditations on Mingus (1992) is a tribute to Charles Mingus, featuring instruments designed and built by American composer Harry Partch, on loan from his estate. Performers include Bill Frisell, Vernon Reid, Henry Rollins, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Don Byron, Henry Threadgill, Gary Lucas, Bobby Previte, Robert Quine, Leonard Cohen, Diamanda Galás, Chuck D, Francis Thumm, and Elvis Costello

September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill (1994) re-creation of the previous Weill tribute as a Canadian TV special directed by Larry Weinstein. A CD was issued including performances by Nick Cave and PJ Harvey. The list of performers on this recording is different from the list of performers on his previous Weill tribute. Some of those that are on both tributes, such as Lou Reed and Charlie Haden, provide new recordings of the pieces they contributed previously. Many of the songs included are the same, although the new recording tends toward more historical recordings (Lotte Lenya, Bertolt Brecht, and Weill himself), while the previous one tended toward more avant-garde tributes.

Stormy Weather: The Music of Harold Arlen (2003) another Larry Weinstein TV program. The CD includes performances by Rufus Wainwright, Debbie Harry, David Johansen, Eric Mingus and Sandra Bernhard

Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man (2006) soundtrack for Lian Lunson's documentary film about Willner's Leonard Cohen tribute event Came So Far for Beauty

Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys (2006) Double CD includes performers ranging from Bono to Van Dyke Parks.

The Harry Smith Project: Anthology of American Folk Music Revisited (2006). Recorded at Hal Willner's Harry Smith Project events in London (1999), Brooklyn (1999) and LA (2001), plus a DVD documentary.

Son of Rogues Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys (2013) is a compilation album of sea shanties and the follow-up to 2006's Rogue's Gallery.

AngelHeaded Hipster : The Songs of Marc Bolan & T. Rex (2020) is a compilation album that pays tribute to Marc Bolan and his group T. Rex. Willner relates in the notes to the album that he was a fan of Bolan since the 1970s. Decades later, BMG approached Willner to produce a tribute album to Marc as a composer, and AngelHeaded Hipster is the result. The double CD and vinyl album includes performances by Kesha, Nick Cave, Joan Jett, Devendra Banhart, Lucinda Williams, Peaches, BORNS, Beth Orton, King Khan, Gaby Moreno, U2 and Elton John, John Cameron Mitchell, Emily Haines, Father John Misty, Perry Farrell, Elysian Fields, Gavin Friday, Nena, Marc Almond, Helga Davis, Todd Rundgren, Jesse Harris, Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl, Victoria Williams and Julian Lennon, David Johanson, and Maria McKee, with vocal contributions from Richard Barone, Jenni Muldaur, and Rolan Bolan. The album was released in September 2020, following Willner's death.

Themed concerts produced by Hal Willner

Greetings from Tim Buckley (Brooklyn 1991)[9]

Nevermore: Poems & Stories of Edgar Allan Poe (Brooklyn 1995),[10] which led to the album Closed on Account of Rabies (1997), then Hal Willner's Halloween Show: Never Bet the Devil your Head (Los Angeles 2002), then Closed on Account of Rabies: Poems and Tales of Edgar Allan Poe (Los Angeles 2001)[11]

Tribute to Allen Ginsberg (Los Angeles)

Marquis de Sade's writings (New York 1998)

The Harry Smith Project (London 1999, Los Angeles 2001)

The Doc Pomus Project (New York City 2001)

Came So Far for Beauty, An Evening of Songs by Leonard Cohen (Brooklyn 2003, Brighton 2004, Sydney 2005, Dublin 2006)[12][13][14]

Dream Comfort Memory Despair: The Songs of Neil Young (Brooklyn 2004), followed by Hal Willner's Neil Young Project (Vancouver 2010)[15]

Perfect Partners: Nino Rota & Federico Fellini (London 2004)

Shock and Awe: The Songs of Randy Newman (Los Angeles 2004)

Let's Eat: Feasting on The Firesign Theatre (Los Angeles 2004)[16][17]

Forest of No Return: Hal Willner Presents Vintage Disney Songbook (London 2007), followed by Stay Awake: 20th anniversary of the classic recording of Disney songs (Brooklyn 2008)[18] (Hal Willner's Stay Awake at UCLA was scheduled for October 30, 2008, but was cancelled due to unavailability of some performers)[19]

Rogue's Gallery (NYC 2007, Dublin 2008, London 2008, Gateshead 2008, Sydney 2010)

Hal Willner's Bill Withers Project (Brooklyn 2008)

Begats: Readings of the Work of Burroughs, DeSade & Poe (Brooklyn 2009)[20]

Gotta Right to Sing the Blues? Music and Readings from A Fine Romance, Jewish Songwriters, American Songs (NYC 2010)[11]

An Evening with Gavin Friday and Friends (New York, Carnegie Hall, 2009) [21]

Hal Willner's Freedom Riders Project (Brooklyn 2011)[22]

Shelebration: The Works of Shel Silverstein (New York 2011)[23]

Hal Willner’s Amarcord Nino Rota (London, The Barbican, 2013; New York, Lincoln Center, 2018)[24]

The Bells: A Day Long Celebration of Lou Reed (New York, July 30, 2016)[25]

'Tomorrow Is A Long Time: Songs from Bob Dylan's 1963 Town Hall Concert' (New York Town Hall Thursday, May 24, 2018)[26]

Spoken word recordings

With the increasing prevalence of tribute albums in the late 1980s (such as Red Hot + Blue), Willner decided to turn his attention to spoken word recordings.

 

Dead City Radio (1990) by William Burroughs has musical backing by Sonic Youth, Donald Fagen, John Cale and others.

Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales (1996) by William Burroughs with music by The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy.

The Lion for Real by Allen Ginsberg (Mouth Almighty Records 1989) features musical accompaniment by Bill Frisell, Philip Glass, Paul McCartney and others.

Closed on Account of Rabies (Mouth Almighty Records 1997) consists of readings of Edgar Allan Poe poems and tales by Iggy Pop and others. As Willner's only "spoken word" tribute album, it fits in the context of his other music-based tributes.

In with the Out Crowd (Mouth Almighty Records 1998) by poet Bob Holman.

Let the Buyer Beware (2004) is an authoritative six CD box set of historic recordings by the comedian Lenny Bruce.

Film-related projects

The Carl Stalling Project: Two CDs of music composed and/or arranged by Carl Stalling for Warner Brothers cartoons. The first CD was released in 1990; "Volume 2" was released in 1995.

The soundtracks to Robert Altman's films Short Cuts (1993) and Kansas City (1996).

Music Supervisor or Producer for The Million Dollar Hotel (Dir. Wim Wenders, 2000), Finding Forester (Dir. Gus Van Sant, 2000), Gangs of New York (Dir. Martin Scorsese, 2002), Talladega Nights (Dir. Adam McKay, 2006), and others.