Hal Willner’s Harry Smith Project 

   at UCLA’s Royce Hall, April 25 and 26. Elvis Costello, Beck, Marianne Faithful, Philip Glass, PJ Harvey, T-Bone Burnett & Sam Phillips, Todd Rundgren, David Thomas, Van Dyke Parks, David Johansen, Percy Heath, Steve Earle, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, The Folksmen, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Bob Neuwirth, Gavin Friday, Bill Frisell, Smokey Hormel, Don Byron, Victoria Williams, and many others plus Richard Thompson (Wed. only) make up this stellar lineup. Having cut his teeth on Saturday Night Live during its glory days, Hal Willner, as music producer, brought unsung heroes and music gods alike to grace the SNL stage. In 1981, he organized a compilation LP Amarcord Nino Rota that brought together seemingly disparate musicians to pay homage to the man who created the musical poetry for Fellini’s movies. This is Willner’s brilliance, bringing together musicians from a variety of genres with the gestalt of mutual musical love for some overlooked composer, or a fresh appraisal of someone already celebrated. There were numerous compilation projects after that first one and the landmark TV series Night Music with David Sanborn as host, where Willner brought his stew to life, with the amazing “last jam session,” with mixes like Sun Ra playing with Sonic Youth, or Nick Cave, Toots Theilman and Charlie Haden playing Jimi Hendrix’s “Hey Joe.” This series of 3 concerts at the Getty and UCLA, are giving the props due to Harry Smith, the artist, archivist, and field- recording genius behind the famed Folkways Records and his seminal Anthology of American Folk Music. (See also April 21 for all acoustic show at the Getty)