RIP Hal Willner

The pandemic has taken a number of musicians I've respected and admired, Manu Dibango, Bucky Pizzarelli, Ellis Marsalis among them. The one that's hit me most to the bones is Hal Willner, the brilliant producer and musical thinker, whose cross-genre compilation albums were a bedrock influence on the Unpopular Music webcasts.and on my musical outlook in general.

I posted this about two-and-a-half years ago, and that's the way I feel now.

Here's a small sample of his work. A lot of these tracks have been presented in various Unpopular Music programs, but bear repeating. The first half is the brighter of the two.




See the playlist and notes after the break...


The Monk tribute album is one of my all-time favorites. We have three tracks, kicking things off with NRBQ's rollicking take on Little Rootie Tootie. Later on, we have one of the odder entries from that record from Eugene Chadbourne's group Shockabilly, and we close with an ebullient version of Bye-Ya, where longtime Carla Bley sideman Steve Slagle somehow gets top billing over Dr. John, Steve Swallow and Ed Blackwell.

Hal had two shots at Kurt Weill. The first, Lost in the Stars from 1985, features Mr. Sting before his pretensions got the better of him, doing Mack the Knife, whom he was playing on Broadway around that time. Dagmar Krause, from the group Slapp Happy, theatrically brings us Surabaya Johnny, and Swordfish Trombones era Tom Waits delivers What Keeps Mankind Alive.

I don't know the story, but a decade or so later a documentary called September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill apparently wanted to use Lost in the Stars for its musical soundtrack, but rights issues prevented it, so a new album was created with some, bit certainly not all of the same people. From this album, we have Charlie Haden and Fred Hersch playing Speak Low, incorporating Weill and Lotte Lenya's 1940's recording into the arrangement.

Willner's Disney album balances light and dark better than I did here. Tom Waits is back with the Seven Dwarves' work song, and Sun Ra and the Arkestra bring a delirious version of Pink Elephants on Parade, from Dumbo.

Many of the tracks on Weird Nightmare combined Charles Mingus' music with the homemade micro-tonal instruments of Harry Partch. Bill Frisell's arrangement of Reincarnation of a Lovebird (with Gary Lucas' dobro performance of Haitian Fight Song tacked on the end) is one of the jazzier entries, The biggest extravaganza is Art Baron's arrangement of Eclipse, complete with Leonard Cohen reciting Mingus' poem The Chill of Death, while Diamanda Galás wails in the background.

Leonard Cohen also shows up with his performance on Night Music (aka Sunday Night) on which Willner served as music producer. This allowed him to indulge in some cross-pollination by assembling the various guests for some amazing ad hoc performances. So here we have Cohen along with Sonny Rollins, Was (not Was) and various members of the house band. Rollins apparently asked at one point if "Mr Cohen likes what I'm doing?" Cohen's rapturous gazes at him during the solos should provide the answer.

Willner first appeared with Amarcord Nino Rota, a collection of mostly jazz artists (but a broad selection thereof) performing music Rota composed for films of Federico Fellini. Here we present Carla Bley's medley of music from 8½.

Willner produced Marianne Faithfull's 1987 album Strange Weather. The title song, written by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, features Bill Frisell and Robert Quine on guitar, an inspired paring, and also Garth Hudson from The Band on accordion.

While Willner produced Lou Reed's kind of terrible Edgar Allen Poe album The Raven (Ornette's guest appearance not withstanding), he also produced the compilation Closed On Account Of Rabies. This track features the voice artist Ken Nordine reciting The Conqueror Worm with suitably ominous accompaniment.

While Willner is not generally considered a composer, what he does on Apocalypse counts as such in my book. Using his access to NBC's music library from his "day job" as Saturday Night Live's music coordinator, he backs up Burroughs' recitation with a collage of  what Willner describes in the notes as "authentic American music."

artist	title	album	comments	label / date
NRBQ and the Whole Wheat Horns	Little Rootie Tootie	That's the way I feel now - A tribute to Thelonious Monk	Terry Adams (p) Al Anderson (g) Joseph Spampinato (b) Tom Ardolino (d) Donn Adams (tbn) Keith Spring (ts)	A&M 1984
Sting and Dominic Muldowney	Mack the Knife (from The Threepenny opera)	Lost in the Stars - The Music of Kurt Weill	Sting (voc) Dominic Muldowney (syn, arr) Juan Mosalini (bandonian) Mike Zwerin (b trp, tbn) Branford Marsalis (ss) John Marle (ts) David Roach (as, bs) Kevin Morgan (tba) Mark Peru (bnj) Kenny Kirkland (p) music by Kurt Weill, text by Bertolt Brecht translation by Ralph Manheim and John Willett	A&M 1985
Sun Ra And His Arkestra	Pink Elephants on Parade	Stay Awake (Various Interpretations of Music From Vintage Disney Films)	Sun Ra (p, arr.) Marshall Allen (flt, as) Elo Omo (b clt, as) John Gilmore (ts) Kenny Williams (bs) James Jackson (bsn) Fred Adams, Martin Banks, Michael Ray (trp) Vincent Chancey (hrn) Tyrone Hill (tbn) Bruce Edwards (g) Pat Patrick (b) Aveeayl Ra Amen, Buster Smith, Tom Hunter (d) Owen Brown Jr. (vln) Art Jenkins, T.C. III (voc) Music by Oliver Wallace Lyrics by Ned Washington	A&M 1988
Bill Frisell	Reincarnation of a Lovebird / Haitian Fight Song	Weird Nightmare: Meditations on Mingus	Lovebird - Don Alias (cng, dumbek, clappers) Don Byron (clt, b clt) Michael Blair (d, whirly tube, clappers, Chromelodeon II, fngr cymb) Bill Frisell (g, Surrogate Kithara, arr.) HFS - Greg Cohen (b) Hal Wilner (snd fx, smp) Gary Lucas (g)	Columbia 1992
The Carla Bley Band	8½	Amarcord Nino Rota	Carla Bley (arr, cnd, org, glk) Michael Mantler (trp) Gary Valente (tbn) Earl McIntyre (tba) Gary Windo (ts) Courtenay Wynter (ww) Joe Daly (euph) Arturo O'Farrill (p) Steve Swallow (b) D. Sharpe (d) music by Nino Rota	Hannibal 1981
Dagmar Krause	Surabaya Johnny (from Happy End)	Lost in the Stars - The Music of Kurt Weill	Dagmar Krause (voc) Jason Osborn (p, arr) Paul “Wix” Wickens (syn) song by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, translation by Michael Feingold	A&M 1985
Charlie Haden	Speak Low	September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill	Charlie Haden (b) Fred Hersch (p, arr) Lotte Lenya (voc) Kurt Weill (p) song by Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash	Sony Classical 1994
Marianne Faithfull	Strange Weather	Strange Weather	Marianne Faithfull (voc) Bill Frisell, Robert Quine (g) Fernando Saunders (b) J. T. Lewis (d) Garth Hudson and/or William Schimmel (acrd) song by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan	Island Records 1987
Shockabilly	Criss Cross	That's the way I feel now - A tribute to Thelonious Monk	Eugene Chadbourne (g) Mark Kramer (p, org, b, alt tbn, clocks, tapes) David Licht (d, prc)	A&M 1984
Ken Nordine	The Conqueror Worm	Closed On Account Of Rabies - Poems and Tales of Edgar Allan Poe	Ken Nordine (voice) Howard Levy (p, syn) Larry Kohutt (b) Music by Howard Levy, Ken Nordine, Larry Kohutt; text by Edgar Allen Poe	Mercury 1997
Tom Waits	Heigh Ho (The Dwarfs Marching Song)	Stay Awake (Various Interpretations Of Music From Vintage Disney Films)	Tom Waits (voc) Marc Ribot (g) Mitchell Froom (Chamberlin) Tchad Blake (Optigon) Larry Taylor (b) Val Kuklowsky (sfx) music by Frank Churchill, lyrics by Larry Morey	A&M 1988
Leonard Cohen	Who by Fire	Night Music	featuring Sonny Rollins, David Sanborn, Don Alias, and Was (not Was)	1989
Tom Waits	What keeps mankind alive? (from The Threepenny Opera)	Lost in the Stars - The Music of Kurt Weill	Tom Waits (voc) William Schimmel (acrd) Eddie Davis (bnj) Greg Cohen (b, arr.) Michael Blair (prc) The Uptown Horns (Crispen Cioe, Bob Funk, Arno Hecht, “Hollywood” Paul Littral) song by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, translation by Ralph Manheim and John Willett	A&M 1985
William S. Burroughs	Apocalypse	Dead City Radio	William S. Burroughs (voice) NBC Symphony Orchestra music by Bill Giant; Eugene Cines; Frank Denning; Ray Ellis montage by Hal Willner	Island Records 1990
Art Baron	Eclipse (including "The Chill of Death")	Weird Nightmare: Meditations on Mingus	Art Baron (wood flt, didjeridoo, grt b rcdr, tbn, prc, Cloud Chamber Bowls, arr.) Diamanda Galás (voc) Don Alias, Michael Blair (prc) Greg Cohen (cone gong, crychord, b, prc) Leonard Cohen (voice) Bill Frisell (g, prc) Don Byron (b clt) Francis Thumm (prc) Hal Wilner (prc, sfx)	Columbia 1992
Steve Slagle	Bye-ya	That's the way I feel now - A tribute to Thelonious Monk	Steve Slagle (as) Dr. John (p) Steve Swallow (b) Ed Blackwell (d)	A&M