An American producer born in Philadelphia on April 6, 1956, and who died of the Covid-19 coronavirus in New York on April 7, 2020, Hal Willner worked with many artists, including Lou Reed, Marianne Faithfull, Leonard Cohen, Bill Frisell and Allen Ginsberg. He is also known for having established the tribute album as a genre in its own right, with compilations of various artists devoted to Nino Rota(Amarcord, 1981), Kurt Weill(Lost in the Stars, 1985) and Leonard Cohen(I'm Your Man, 2006). In 2006, he coordinated the covers project based on Harry Smith's folk anthology and the accompanying documentary. Hal Willner also recorded a single experimental album under his own name, Whoops I'm an Indian (1998).
