Hal Willner

Hal Willner (born 1957, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American music producer working in recording, Films, TV and live events. He is well known for assembling tribute records featuring a wide variety of artists and musical styles (jazz, classical, rock, Tin Pan Alley). He is often credited as the inventor of the 'modern' tribute record with Amarcord Nino Rota in 1981. He has also produced records for Marianne Faithfull, Bill Frisell, William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, among others. He produced a live tribute concert to American singer-songwriter Tim Buckley, that ultimately launched the career of Tim's son Jeff Buckley.

Spoken word recordings

With the increasing prevalence of tribute recordings in the late 1980s, Willner decided to turn his attention to spoken word recordings.

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• Dead City Radio (1990) by author William Burroughs has musical back-up from Sonic Youth.
• Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales (1996) by William Burroughs.
• The Lion For Real by poet Allen Ginsberg features musical accompaniment by longtime Willner associates such as Bill Frisell, and a few new ones like Philip Glass and Paul McCartney.
• Closed On Account of Rabies (1997) consists of readings of Edgar Allan Poe poems and tales.
• In With The Out Crowd (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.