#Hal Willner

[nedison]

Garth Hudson and Marianne Faithfull onstage at Hal Willner's Harry Smith Project live show.

[folkimplosionmusic]

April 26, 1991

[krispyweiss]

Friday Flashback: Todd Rundgren, Taj Mahal and Michele Grey Tell “Night Music” Viewers “Never Mind the Why and Wherefore”

In character and in costume, Todd Rundgren, Taj Mahal and Michele Grey infused “Night Music” with a little Gilbert and Sullivan in 1989.

The three principals are at once serious and silly as they act out their version of “Never Mind the Why and Wherefore” from “H.M.S. Pinafore.”

The band includes David Sanborn on saxophone, Pat Metheny on guitar and Hal Willner on all-important triangle.

Rundgren, as the Captain, uses everything his nimble voice has to offer, plugging his nose at one point and inhaling and exhaling dramatically for effect.

As Sir Joseph and Josephine, respectively, Mahal and Grey are similarly ridiculous, with the former moving stiffly and the latter emitting and exaggerated, sex-kitten vibe, no doubt drawing on her time with the Tubes.

It’s a remarkable performance, made all the more so by the fact they’re all simply clowning around.

Friday Flashback is an occasional series in which Sound Bites looks back at memorable musical moments on television

4/21/23

[nonesuchrecords]

It was 20 years ago today: Bill Frisell's Unspeakable, which would go on to win the GRAMMY Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album, was released on Nonesuch. You can hear it here.

With vintage sound samples as the jumping-off point for the guitarist's playful, eclectic, and groove-oriented collaboration with producer Hal Willner, the album features Willner on turntables, Tony Scherr on bass, Kenny Wollesen on drums, Don Alias on percussion, Steven Bernstein on trumpet, Briggan Krauss on baritone saxophone, Curtis Fowlkes on trombone, Adam Dorn on synth, and The 858 Strings: violinist Jenny Scheinman, violist Eyvind Kang, and cellist Hank Roberts.

Design by Barbara deWilde. Illustrations by Noah Woods.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Photograph by Guido Harari.

* * *

"Lou was sick for the last couple of years, first from treatments of interferon, a vile but sometimes effective series of injections that treats hepatitis C and comes with lots of nasty side effects. Then he developed liver cancer, topped off with advancing diabetes. We got good at hospitals. He learned everything about the diseases, and treatments. He kept doing tai chi every day for two hours, plus photography, books, recordings, his radio show with Hal Willner and many other projects. He loved his friends, and called, texted, e-mailed when he couldn’t be with them. We tried to understand and apply things our teacher Mingyur Rinpoche said – especially hard ones like, 'You need to try to master the ability to feel sad without actually being sad.'

"Last spring, at the last minute, he received a liver transplant, which seemed to work perfectly, and he almost instantly regained his health and energy. Then that, too, began to fail, and there was no way out. But when the doctor said, 'That’s it. We have no more options,' the only part of that Lou heard was 'options' – he didn’t give up until the last half-hour of his life, when he suddenly accepted it – all at once and completely. We were at home – I’d gotten him out of the hospital a few days before – and even though he was extremely weak, he insisted on going out into the bright morning light.

"As meditators, we had prepared for this – how to move the energy up from the belly and into the heart and out through the head. I have never seen an expression as full of wonder as Lou’s as he died. His hands were doing the water-flowing 21-form of tai chi. His eyes were wide open. I was holding in my arms the person I loved the most in the world, and talking to him as he died. His heart stopped. He wasn’t afraid. I had gotten to walk with him to the end of the world. Life – so beautiful, painful and dazzling – does not get better than that. And death? I believe that the purpose of death is the release of love.

"At the moment, I have only the greatest happiness and I am so proud of the way he lived and died, of his incredible power and grace.

"I’m sure he will come to me in my dreams and will seem to be alive again. And I am suddenly standing here by myself stunned and grateful. How strange, exciting and miraculous that we can change each other so much, love each other so much through our words and music and our real lives.--Laurie Anderson on Lou Reed for Rolling Stone, November 6, 2013.

According to Will Hermes, in his biography "Lou Reed: The King of New York," Reed's final words to Laurie Anderson were “Take me into the light.”

[Follies Of God]

[sweetdreamsjeff]

Obituary: The son who soared: Jeff Buckley

Date: June 6, 1997

From: The Guardian (London, England)

Publisher: Guardian News & Media

Document Type: Obituary

Byline: ADAM SWEETING

FEW ROCK business careers began more tantalisingly than that of Jeff Buckley, who has drowned in the Mississippi river, aged 30 (his body was found on Wednesday this week). In 1991, record producer Hal Willner, known for assembling imaginative, star-studded tributes to Charles Mingus and Kurt Weill, put together a tribute concert for Jeff's father, Tim Buckley, at St Ann's Church, Brooklyn, New York. Tim had died of a heroin overdose in 1975, aged 28, but his early death ignited a slow-burning musical legend. It was founded on his recorded legacy in which soul, blues and jazz influences mingled freely, the process stirred by his arrestingly elastic vocal style.

His son Jeff, born in California during Tim's brief marriage to Panama-born Mary Guibert, had always been ambivalent about his father. Tim left Mary when Jeff was six months old, and his son was brought up by his mother and stepfather during a peripatetic childhood. 'We moved so often I had to put all my stuff in paper bags,' Jeff recalled. 'My childhood was pretty much marijuana and rock 'n' roll.'His decision to participate in Willner's tribute event launched Buckley Junior as a new phenomenon on the New York music scene, and simultaneously affirmed his quasi-mythic credentials, particularly when he performed his father's song Once I Was. 'It bothered me that I hadn't been to his funeral, that I've never been able to tell him anything,' said Jeff. 'I used that show to pay my last respects.'

Thus launched in public, Buckley was rescued from a string of odd jobs by joining the avant-garde combo Gods & Monsters, which featured Pere Ubu's ex-bassist Tony Maimone and Captain Beefheart's erstwhile guitarist Gary Lucas. But it was more a loose group of individuals than a real band and Buckley quit in early 1992 to pursue a solo career.

He began performing at small Manhattan clubs, particularly the Cafe Sin-e, where record company executives and A&R men were soon arriving by the limo-full, waving chequebooks. 'I went into those cafes because I really felt I had to go to an impossibly intimate setting where there's no escape, where there's no hiding yourself,' he explained.

Buckley's remarkable voice (his most obvious inheritance from his father) and movie-star looks left nobody in doubt that he was a star in the making, though the eclecticism of his shows confused some listeners. Buckley would pluck songs out of the air as the mood took him. It might be something by Van Morrison, the Hollies or Big Star, or a tune made famous by Nina Simone or Mahalia Jackson.

With a hippie-esque suspicion of large corporations, he turned down several deals before signing with Columbia at the end of 1992, apparently because he knew and trusted the label's A&R man Steve Berkowitz. The company previewed their new acquisition with a live EP, Live At Sin-e, following which Buckley travelled upstate to Bearsville to start work on his debut album, Grace.

The disc was released in 1994 to instant critical adulation. The sleeve pictured Buckley clutching a microphone and looking poetically dishevelled, while the music inside was a cornucopia of rockers, ballads, hymns and even a bold rendition of Benjamin Britten's Corpus Christi Carol, by no means standard rock 'n' roll fare. His voice was wild, passionate and sensual. If his music was hard to describe in a soundbite, it was bursting with hidden depths and infinite potential. Grace won Buckley the Best New Artist award from Rolling Stone magazine in 1995.

Buckley's inquisitiveness and musical ambition earned him acceptance across a broad spectrum of fellow performers. Elvis Costello brought him over in 1995 to perform at London's Meltdown Festival, where he easily held his own among string quartets and jazz ensembles, and last year he featured on Patti Smith's comeback album, Gone Again. He was also a fan of Eastern music, particularly the Islamic devotional Qawwali songs of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Buckley had been in Memphis since February, recording new material. He decided to go swimming in the Mississippi, fully clothed and carrying his guitar, but was apparently pulled under by the wash from a passing tug.

Jeff Buckley, rock singer, born August 1, 1966; died May 29, 1997

[burlveneer-music]

Ghost Train Orchestra & Kronos Quartet - Songs and Symphoniques: The Music of Moondog

On "Songs and Symphoniques: The Music of Moondog," Ghost Train Orchestra teams up with the trailblazing Kronos Quartet to celebrate and reimagine the music of Louis Hardin, aka Moondog, the ground-breaking composer and poet who lived on the streets of New York City in the 50s and 60s, and influenced the minimalists Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Terry Riley. A blind composer who moved from Kansas to New York City and built his own instruments and mythology, Moondog's story and music continue to be an inspiration to many. Along with guests Sam Amidon, Jarvis Cocker, Petra Haden, Karen Mantler, Marissa Nadler, Aoife O'Donovan, Rufus Wainwright and Joan Wasser, the two groups explore Moondog's sense of whimsy, wonder and adventure through a cross-section of songs and instrumentals for large ensemble, string ensemble, percussion and voice. The vinyl and CD packages include an essay by biographer Robert Scotto, Moondog's song lyrics, extensive in-studio photographs by Dan Efram, and an interview with Kronos Quartet founder David Harrington and Ghost Train Orchestra founder Brian Carpenter, mediated by music historian Irwin Chusid. Kronos Quartet David Harrington - violin John Sherba - violin Hank Dutt - viola Sunny Yang - cello Ghost Train Orchestra Brian Carpenter, trumpet, harmonica, vocals Andy Laster, alto saxophone, flute Dennis Lichtman, clarinet Matt Bauder, bass clarinet, tenor, baritone saxophones Sara Schoenbeck, bassoon Curtis Hasselbring, trombone, guitar Ron Caswell, tuba Brandon Seabrook, guitar Chris Lightcap, bass Rob Garcia, drums David Cossin, marimba, percussion Maxim Moston, violin Colin Stetson, bass saxophone Guests: Sam Amidon, Jarvis Cocker, Petra Haden, Karen Mantler, Marissa Nadler, Aoife O'Donovan, Rufus Wainwright, and Joan Wasser All new arrangements by Ghost Train Orchestra Dedicated to the memory of Hal Willner

[nedsecondline]

Marianne Faithfull, singer and Rolling Stones muse, dies at 78 - Los Angeles Times - RIP

Across 50 years as an artist, she issued solo albums including 1979’s bracing comeback, “Broken English,” 1987’s Hal Willner-produced “Strange Weather” and 2018’s “Negative Capabilities” with Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. Source: Marianne Faithfull, singer and Rolling Stones muse, dies at 78 – Los Angeles Times

[nedison]

Past, Present and Future - Marianne Faithfull (2011)

Marianne sings The Shangri-Las. 100% chance that this cover was producer Hal Willner's idea. RIP to them both.

But don't try to touch me Don't try to touch me Cos that will never happen again...

[chez-mimich]

BILL FRISELL, “FOUR”

Nel grandioso programma di JazzMi 2024 ho scelto, per motivi sentimentali, Bill Frisell e il suo “Four”, che si sono esibiti, venerdì scorso, al Teatro dell’Arte di Milano; “Four” è anche il titolo del suo ultimo lavoro, quello che è stato riproposto a JazzMi. In realtà questo concerto era doppio, con uno spettacolo alle venti e uno, diverso, alle ventidue: come da buona abitudine del jazz, meglio non essere troppo abitudinari. Con Bill una formazione che come li definisce il programma ufficiale, è costituita da “spiriti indipendenti e menti affini” che rispondono ai nomi di Gerard Clayton al pianoforte, Johnathan Blake alla batteria e, naturalmente Greg Tardy, al sax e al clarinetto. Un lavoro magnifico che armonizza vecchio e nuovo, con vecchi pezzi elegantemente insinuati e rivisitati in altre nuove composizioni, tutto senza scossoni eccessivi per un pubblico, piuttosto maturo (ma questa non è una novità nel Jazz), che dava l’impressione di essere lì per essere rassicurato dalla musica di Frisell e non certo per essere sconvolto da travolgenti novità. Giusto così, anche se i dischi di Frisell non sono mai “troppo uguali”, non si può certo dire che in essi non sia presente quel “marchio di fabbrica” costituito dalla sua chitarra dolce, intima e insinuante. Frisell, però è riuscito a mettere insieme un gruppo di talentosi musicisti e concede ampi spazi al suo collaboratore preferito, ovvero quel Greg Tardy che incanta col suo sax e seduce col suo clarinetto, senza mai diventare protagonista assoluto. Un jazz caldo e pastoso che lascia spazio ad una improvvisazione misurata, ma con la barra del timone ben stretta nelle mani di Frisell che riporta sempre ogni divagazione “ab origine”, tornando sulla minimalissima melodia iniziale. Potrà sembrare strano, ma molti dei brani ascoltati questa sera, e presenti nel disco in uscita l’undici novembre per l’etichetta “Blue Note Records”, sono stati composti durante il lockdown, che da un punto di vista della creazione artistica, possiamo ben dire non sia stato certo un periodo poco felice, visto che in tutti gli ambiti le creazioni sono state fiorenti. Nel concerto per JazzMi, un brano su tutti ha raccolto il favore del pubblico, ovvero “Walz for Hal Willner”, dedicato al produttore scomparso, che, ricordiamo, ha prodotto tributi a tanti altri grandi musicisti di generi diversi come Thelonious Monk, Kurt Cobain e Leonard Cohen. (Per chi volesse “assaggiare il prodotto”, corredato da raffinate e delicatissime immagini può trovare il video del pezzo a fondo di questo articolo). Un altro omaggio in “Dear Old Friend” è dedicato ad un compagno di scuola, Alan Woodward. Magnifico anche il rockeggiante “Lookout For Hope”, anche questo un brano del passato, riproposto con qualche variazione (Frisell non è certo tipo da lacrimare per la nostalgia) al pubblico di Milano. Più sperimentale e di ricerca è certamente “Blues from Before”, mentre struggente e malinconico un altro brano del passato (prossimo) come “The Pioneers”. Nel dolce sapore novembrino ascoltare Frisell è quasi un dovere morale, ascoltarlo in un luogo pieno di suggestioni come il complesso della Triennale di Milano, un grande piacere, ascoltarlo dal vivo, ovviamente, una delizia…

[twoblackcats-com-blog]

look out for hope by Dave Binyon Via Flickr: Please : Right Click and select "Open link in new tab" www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2VF8ZMDs4k Bill Frisell: Look Out for Hope, Blues from Before, Strange Meeting, Waltz For Hal Willner

[chorusfm]

Allen Ginsberg – “Don’t Grow Old” (Song Premiere)

Today is a great day to share the news that Allen Ginsberg has returned with a new single called “Don’t Grow Old.” The newly reissued double album of The Lion For Real is available starting today. With equal parts spoken word, jazz, rock, and ambient, this beautiful record was originally produced by Hal Willner, and features musicians like Mark Bingham, Bill Frisell, Kramer, Arto Lindsay, Marc Ribot. I was also able to catch up with one of the collaborators, Kramer, for a brief interview below. https://chorus.fm/features/allen-ginsberg-dont-grow-old-song-premiere/

[custerdome2]

☝︎ 詳しくはこちらのブログ レコード評議会 をご覧ください。

[infiniterichesinalittleroom]

Not just a physical release, although there is that, too, but to be held by an artist at the crucial moment of expression — to be awed, second by second, at the way a song or piece of music unfolds, to be held on the edge of tears by the drama of it all, and to be, as an audience member, an essential participant in the drama itself. That is a wonderful thing. With Nina Simone, of course, and The Saints, many times. Neubauten in their prime. The Dirty Three. I experienced it the first time I saw Crime and the City Solution in some shithole in Sydney in the late seventies — a kind of crucial beauty. Swans. The Cramps. Johnny Cash. Emmylou Harris singing at a Hal Willner event, Led Zeppelin in Kooyong Park in Melbourne back in the mid-seventies, Bryan Ferry singing 'The Butcher Boy' alone at the piano, Bob Dylan in a tiny club in Rio. So thank God, quite literally, for music, because it's one of the last remaining places, beyond raw nature, that people can feel awed by something happening in real time, that feeling of reverence and wonder. Fucking Al Green running up and down the aisles, screaming his head off, a James Blood Ulmer gig in a tiny club in London, Martin Rev's legendary fifteen-minute gig upstairs at the Garage in Islington, back in the nineties. These are sacred moments.

Nick Cave • Faith, Hope and Carnage