Hal Willner - Paying Respect - The Tributes

This is our second post about Hal, whereas the first one focused on his one band/artist productions and occasional performances, this one is all about his tributes to artists, authors, projects, and themes… 
His personal preferences in music were all encompassing; from jazz to theatre to avant-garde rock to spoken word and almost anything in between.
As a result, his approach to paying respect to a musical giant or theme was similarly widespread, and he encouraged participating musicians to collaborate and, at times, get out of their comfort zones…
Listening to those tributes was often an educational experience as well; it certainly was for me, as these introduced a lot of new artists and genres to me at the time.
Also notable, his tributes were carefully created and visually packaged, full of informative sleeve notes, which were a pleasure to read.
Therefore, it is such a shame that most of these fascinating collections are not available anymore.
My tribute here includes one track from each of the following albums:

Amarcord Nino Rota was Willner’s first tribute album, saluting Italian composer Nino Rota, and features interpretations 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 Deborah Harry. 

 

That's the Way I Feel Now: A Tribute to Thelonious Monk features musicians ranging from John Zorn to Peter Frampton. 

 

Lost In The Stars: The Music Of Kurt Weill features musicians ranging from Sting to Tom Waits.

 

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

 

Weird Nightmare: Meditations on Mingus is a tribute featuring instruments designed and built by American composer Harry Partch, on loan from his estate. It features musicians ranging from Vernon Reid to Elvis Costello.
 

September Songs: The Music Of Kurt Weill was a re-creation of the previous Weill tribute as a Canadian TV special directed by Larry Weinstein, including performances by Nick Cave and PJ Harvey. 

 

Closed on Account of Rabies: Poems and Tales of Edgar Allan Poe consists of readings of Poe's poems and tales by Iggy Pop and others. 

 

The Harry Smith project - Anthology of American folk music Revisited was recorded at Hal Willner’s Harry Smith Project events in London (1999) & Brooklyn (1999), focusing on new intepretations of folk songs from Smith's 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music, featuring artists like Steve Earle, Marianne Faithfull, Beck, a.m.o.

 

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

 

Rogue's Gallery (Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, & Chanteys) is a 2x double CD that includes performers ranging from Bono to Van Dyke Parks. 

 

AngelHeaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan & T. Rex is Hal Willner’s last production, and he considered it his best work, his “white album”. It celebrates the songs of T. Rex’s founder and singer, Marc Bolan, with 26 tracks that Hal produced between 2016 and 2018 and which feature Kesha, Nick Cave, Joan Jett, Devendra Banhart, Lucinda Williams, a.m.o. 

 

I'll Be Your Mirror - A Tribute To Velvet Underground & Nico is Hal's posthumous tribute to their eponymous 1967 album and features recordings of the original album's 11 songs by artists including St. Vincent, Sharon Van Etten, Bobby Gillespie, and Iggy Pop, among others.

 

It seemed fitting to include 2 tributes to Hal himself as well:

 

Waltz for Hal Willner - Bill Frisell
Song for Hal - U2

 

More tributes can be found on YouTube.

 

Hopefully, this compilation will encourage readers to check out the original albums!