By Jem Aswad
16.04.2020 - 12:15 / billboard.com
Tom Waits has remembered the late and legendary Saturday Night Live music producer Hal Willner with a touching essay.
The gravel-voiced all-rounder paints a picture in glorious detail of a one-off visionary and eccentric who could tell stories better than any book.
“Hal was the wry and soulful and mysterious historical rememberer,” reads a tribute co-authored by Waits and his wife Kathleen Brennan. “He specialized in staging strange musical bedfellows like Betty Carter and the Replacements or
The Hollywood actor also gifted Corona De Vries a typewriter.
The much loved music and television producer passed away last week
Tom Waits and his wife Kathleen Brennan have written a tribute to Waits’ late friend Hal Willner, posted to his website earlier today (April 15). According to Waits, they met when Willner approached him at a show in 1974, from which they built a lifelong friendship around music. Read Waits’ post in full below.
By Variety Staff
At the end of the very first “At Home” edition of “Saturday Night Live”, some special guests joined the cast to pay tribute to a longtime member of the show’s behind-the-scenes team: Hal Wilner, the show’s music supervisor since 1980. According to Rolling Stone, Wilner passed away on April 7 of complications consistent with COVID-19.
The Saturday Night Live cast all filmed their contributions to this week's episode from various locations, but their hearts were all back at Studio 8H for their moving goodbye to longtime music producer Hal Willner.
Film, TV, and music producer Hal Willner died at age 64 this week with symptoms consistent with COVID-19. Willner was a long-time producer of Saturday Night Live’s music sketches and produced records for Lou Reed. In a tribute to their late colleague, several stars from SNL’s history paid tribute to Willner by singing the chorus of Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day.” Watch it happen below.
Saturday Night Live is saying goodbye to the music producer Hal Willner.
By Nellie Andreeva
Seth Meyers paid tribute to late Saturday Night Live music producer Hal Willner and musician John Prine on Wednesday's episode of Late Night.
By Chris Willman
Jimmy Fallon paid tribute to late Saturday Night Live music producer Hal Willner on Tuesday's episode of The Tonight Show. Willner died on Tuesday apparently due to coronavirus complications (he had symptoms consistent with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus but had not been officially diagnosed).
On this particularly tough day during which we learned of Hal Willner's passing, Lucinda Williams is casting her mind to all the good things.In a message to Billboard, Williams recounts her collaboration with the Saturday Night Live music producer on West, her eighth studio album release from 2007.“Hal produced my ‘West' album and let’s just say those were tumultuous times, for many reasons,” the celebrated country artist recalls.
Lou Reed and Marianne Faithfull producer Hal Willner has died, aged 64.
Saturday Night Live music producer, Hal Willner has sadly passed away due to alleged coronavirus complications. He was 64 years old.
The family has lost one of their own.
Film and TV music producer Hal Willner, who worked many years on Saturday Night Live, has diedapparently due to coronavirus complications, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed. He was 64.
He is reported to have been suffering from coronavirus