Noah Greenberg

Laurie Anderson will perform as part of the June 28 tribute to Leonard Cohen.

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Nick Cave and Laurie Anderson are just the latest two in a long list of respected artists who have jumped aboard Celebrate Brooklyn’s June 28 tribute to the Canadian music god, Leonard Cohen.

The one-night-only event, "Came So Far For Beauty," is being organized by Hal Willner, who has also recruited Rufus Wainwright, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Martha Wainwright, Mark Ribot, The Handsome Family, Linda Thompson, Teddy Thompson, Steve Bernstein, Rob Berger, Perla Batalla and Julie Christensen - who have accompanied Cohen on his last two tours - to perform songs by the poet and songwriter.

This official tribute has been OK’d by Cohen himself, according to Willner, and is sponsored by the Canadian Consulate.

Performance artist Anderson is a frequent visitor to Brooklyn, having performed with her band at St. Ann’s Warehouse last fall, and created a multimedia production, "Songs and Stories from Moby Dick," which opened the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 1999 Next Wave Festival.

"Obviously, Laurie Anderson is one of the premier performance artists of our time," said Celebrate Brooklyn Director Jack Walsh. "Her interest was piqued by this project and what it means. We’re thrilled she’s going to be a part of it."

Cave, of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds fame, "performs fairly irregularly" in the area, said Walsh.

"He’s an incredibly interesting artist who has a very long career as a great storyteller, sort of from the dark side," Walsh said. "He’s a gloomy balladeer, uniquely suited as an interpreter of Leonard Cohen’s work."

According to Willner, Cave will be rehearsing Cohen’s "I’m Your Man," for the show, but anything could happen and Willner hesitated to say what any artist might be performing, chalking it up to both wanting to keep the evening a surprise and wanting the artists to have the chance rehearse their chosen Cohen song first.

"Sometimes they work and sometimes not," said Willner.

Cave performed as part of Arts at St. Ann’s tribute to Harry Smith, a collector of original recordings of American folk music, in November 2000, another project curated by Willner.

"He’s a genius! He’s brilliant!" St. Ann’s artistic director Susan Feldman said of Willner. "His love of music is matched only by his knowledge of pop music of the last 50 years.

"He can draw on musicians from so many different genres - he knows them all," said Feldman. "They know Hal projects.

"[Willner’s] very real. He’s a child of the ’60s, when music was an important means of expression. He hasn’t sold out."

Feldman recalled that the massive Smith tribute took place over two days, four hours each night, and also brought together Wainwright, the McGarrigles and Sonic Youth.

Willner told GO Brooklyn that he applied that same thorough approach to the Cohen tribute.

"I went through all of Leonard’s songs," Willner said. "I counted 101 of them and narrowed it down to 37, then down to 30 - a mixture of well-known and obscure and parts of each of his records or periods. I sent the list with suggestions to all the artists and got it back. Some [musician-song pairings] might seem obvious, and sometimes an artist would like something that you wouldn’t expect."

The artists will rehearse just two nights before putting on the show at the Prospect Park Bandshell.

"I couldn’t think of a better body of work to do this," said Willner, a "huge fan" of Cohen, who also arranges the sketch music and adaptations for "Saturday Night Live" and was formerly the music producer for NBC’s "Night Music."

"I’m looking to put on something that I’d like to hear," he said. "I come from the late-’60s and early ’70s, fortunately, and heard the early FM radio stations that changed genres every two songs. I love those kinds of nights and those kinds of records.

"There will be a lot of working together and pairing off, duets playing behind," Willner said, adding, "They’re just vehicles to put together all of these artists you wouldn’t ever see together otherwise."

"Came So Far For Beauty: An Evening of Songs by Leonard Cohen Under the Stars" will take place Saturday, June 28, at 7:30 pm, at Celebrate Brooklyn in the Prospect Park Bandshell. Enter the park at Ninth Street and Prospect Park West. Admission is free, with a suggested donation of $3. For more information, call (718) 855-7882, ext. 45, or visit the Web site at www.brooklynx.org/celebrate. Rain or shine.

©2003 Community Newspaper Group