Harp guitars at Carnegie Hall? Believe it or not, yes!  113 years and counting!

The latest? Why, our very own Stephen Bennett, who else?!  SB was part of a large roster with one of his fans and friends, headliner Jason Ji.

But first, some context:

In 1912, black musicians made history when the Clef Club Orchestra played Carnegie Hall. I wrote about that groundbreaking event and what led up to it in my article James Reese Europe and the Clef Club Orchestra.

This famous photograph shows the Clef Club (James Reese Europe conducting) at their concert at Harlem’s Manhattan Casino a year prior but is representative of the larger group that played Carnegie Hall. Note that at this concert there were six 6-string guitarists and four harp guitarists.

For one particularly large concert at the Casino in 1910, the program listed “23 harp-guitarists”(!)  However, as no (6-string) “guitarists” were listed, they might have been embellishing; perhaps “harp guitars” sounded more novel.

For the 1912 Carnegie Hall concert, “15 guitars” were listed. Though harp guitars were not specifically mentioned this time, they undoubtedly appeared.

Thus, for historical discussion, I’ve taken our sole photo evidence ratio of 4 out of 10 (40%) to use as our general “Clef Club harp guitar estimate.”  This yields the largest number at the one Manhattan Casino concert to be approximately nine harp guitarists, and at the Carnegie Hall debut, six – still a decent number!  The minimum I think we could expect at any given full Clef Club concert in the 1910-1914 era is four, based on our image above.

All of these harp guitar players in the Clef Club – whatever their individual talent and interests might have been when not with the orchestra – would have been solely playing accompaniment, as with all plucked string instrument orchestras of the day.

As I wrote in my Europe article, in 1989, a unique “re-creation” of the Clef Club’s famous 1912 appearance was put on at Carnegie Hall.  It is written that they duplicated the concert as accurately as they could, including scores of banjos, mandolins and the 10 upright pianos, but “harp-guitar players proved difficult to find.”  I’m not surprised!  But in fact, a harp guitarist was found, and appeared in the concert: Ragtime music historian and player Bob Ault, who sadly passed away in 2012.

Bob told me that he was proud to represent the harp guitar’s role in the historic event. Like the original concert, Bob played only accompaniment on his giant 12-sub-bass Gibson.

But Bob’s was not the second appearance of a harp guitar at Carnegie Hall, but actually the third.

In 1988, fingerstyle guitar legend Michael Hedges went on tour with Leo Kottke (the original legend). Though no direct evidence exists, we are virtually certain that Hedges played his Dyer harp guitar at Carnegie Hall, and was thus the first solo harp guitarist to ever do so. Hedges’ biographer Jake White kindly shared with me much evidence that confirms that Hedges played from one to three of his famous harp guitar solos in every show on the tour. (Specifically, “Because It’s There” most notably, and, per Jake: “Hedges also played Bach’s ‘Prelude’ on harp guitar throughout that tour and sometimes did ‘The Double Planet.’ So, there were definitely shows on that tour where he played three harp guitar tunes in his set.”)

YouTube clip from Cleveland Ohio 3/4/88

Despite the instrument’s popularity since that time, it was 37 years before another harp guitar graced Carnegie Hall (another Dyer, in fact!).

With such a historic occasion, how could we miss it?!

Jaci and I drove down and stayed overnight. Before the show we had dinner at the Rooftop restaurant. Here’s a 180-degree pan shot just before sun set. Gotta run!

We were literally on the same block as the Hall (as were the Bennetts in their hotel, next door to ours. These shots are from the following morning.

From the Carnegie Hall web site:

This was Jason Ji’s second trip to the Carnegie, and he invited four of his guitar friends, plus a drummer and a string trio. They performed in the downstairs Zankel Hall, which still counts! By the way, if you watch any documentary on benefactor Andrew Carnegie, you’ll learn it’s actually Car-NEH-gie.

Click on their playbill to see who’s who, and Stephen’s set. While only “harp guitar” was listed, he actually played his first tune on his 6-string.

Jason Ji is a great all-around player, more or less in the Tommy Emmanuel vein, with some tapping thrown in. His “Moon River” arrangement was incredible. He played with the string quartet and also with each of his guests.

Charles Bethoud, in the middle, was insane, both plucking, stroking and slamming his 4- and 6-string basses with the right hand, but more often playing two-handed a la Stanley Jordan. A picking and tapping electric guitar monster, it was Bernth’s first time in the States.  Yes, the string quartet joined them also, for some wild selections.

“Crossover classical” guitarist Lucas Tchen was indeed that. To some of the standard classical repertoire, he’s added tapping on the neck, percussion on the top and in the most interesting twist, throwing in a right hand fourth finger percussive strike while doing the 3-finger classical tremolo.

As expected, SB opened with some Carnegie-inappropriate quips.

I imagined that Stephen would be opening, but instead he ended the long two-set show. Which was perfect after all the raucous fretboard pyrotechnics. “Black Gunners” killed, especially after his introductory story. You could’ve heard a pin drop.

He then closed the show with “What a Wonderful World,” with Jason and string quartet. Kudos to Jason for so generously sharing the stage. Wonderful, indeed!

A standing ovation, and Stephen surely had a lot to do with it.

The next morning, Jaci and I took a quick stroll into Central Park two blocks away…

…then met Nancy & Stephen, his son Will & wife Erin, for breakfast.  Will and Erin flew in from California just for the event, and other friends had driven in from around the area.

Among the hundreds of guitar players and fans in the audience, we also spotted harp guitarists Stan Sullivan and Rob Mastrianni, along with Jayson Dobney of the MET.

It was epic!