{"id":806204,"date":"2020-04-08T19:44:42","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T01:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=980800"},"modified":"2020-04-08T19:44:42","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T01:44:42","slug":"elvis-costello-pays-tribute-to-dear-friend-and-producer-hal-willner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/elvis-costello-pays-tribute-to-dear-friend-and-producer-hal-willner\/","title":{"rendered":"Elvis Costello Pays Tribute to \u2018Dear Friend\u2019 and Producer Hal Willner"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Elvis Costello<\/a> has penned a heartfelt tribute to his \u201cdear friend,\u201d the late producer Hal Willner<\/a>, whom he worked with on a number of projects that spanned from recorded work to film and live events.<\/p>\n

Willner died<\/a> on Monday at the age of 64. The cause of death has not yet been publicly confirmed, but he was reportedly suffering from symptoms consistent with the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

In Costello\u2019s homage, which he posted on Facebook<\/a>, he recalled a recent meetup where they listened to the T. Rex tribute album Willner helmed as well as obscure songs from actor Albert Finney.<\/p>\n

Costello also reflected on how a producer\u2019s role can be misconstrued by people, with some producers applying \u201ctheir own vision to the music.\u201d With Willner, Costello said, it was different. \u201cHal\u2019s approach better resembled the beautiful chaos of a childhood chemistry set, in which all of the substances and elements were mixed with joyous but determined abandon to render coloured smoke, a delightful explosion or something of unlikely and uncommon beauty,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

The pair worked together on a number of projects, including the Willner-helmed Charles Mingus tribute album, 1992\u2019s Weird Nightmare: Meditations on Mingus<\/em>; 1994\u2019s video documentary, September Songs \u2014 The Music of Kurt Weill,<\/em> for which Willner served as music supervisor; and on \u201cPunishing Kiss\u201d from the soundtrack for Robert Altman\u2019s 1993 film, Short Cuts<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Costello described the Weird Nightmare<\/em> project in his dedication, detailing the experimental quality of the sessions and the variety of artists that participated, which included Dr. John, Henry Rollins, Keith Richards, Leonard Cohen and Chuck D.<\/p>\n

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Popular on Rolling Stone <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThis range of artists was not by any means unique in Hal\u2019s work, nor was it a matter of marquee billing or stunt casting,\u201d Costello wrote. \u201cTo engage with the gentle and curious assemblies of his productions was to surrender your fears and doubts, like discovering a box of paints full of previously unseen colours.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Condolences\u2019 seems a word of insufficient depth for the way many of us feel today but we must not be selfish or feel alone but rather look to the light and imagination with which we will perhaps emerge from this dark and melancholy hour,\u201d Costello said.<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elvis Costello has penned a heartfelt tribute to his \u201cdear friend,\u201d the late producer Hal Willner, whom he worked with on a number of projects that spanned from recorded work to film and live events. Willner died on Monday at the age of 64. The cause of death has not yet been publicly confirmed, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-806204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-16 19:15:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}