In 2010, during a visit to New York City, Ben Harper stopped into the guitar mecca Rudy’s Music to check out instruments. He was sampling a series of top-of-the-line archtops when a guitar stopped him in his tracks: an instrument by renowned luthier John Monteleone. Though Harper is best known as a lap steel player who brought vintage Weissenborns into the limelight of contemporary roots-rock, he heard in that archtop a tone quality that he’d been seeking for years, and he wondered whether Monteleone would consider building a guitar for lap slide.
So began a years-long dialogue between Harper and Monteleone that led eventually to the creation of the Monteleone Radio City Special Deluxe acoustic lap steel—Monteleone’s first-ever guitar designed for lap-style playing (see “A New Kind of Lap Steel, ” below). This one-of-a-kind guitar has become one of Harper’s core instruments, and a new album provides its ultimate showcase.
Released in October, is a mesmerizing 30-minute journey on the Monteleone lap steel, with no singing and no other instruments. Harper conceived the music as a single piece with 15 movements, each named for a place, including Istanbul, Inland Empire (Harper’s home turf in Southern California), London, Toronto, and Islip—the Long Island town where Monteleone has his shop.
George Harrison's Son, Ben Harper Form A Band
Though Harper has never been a flashy instrumentalist, his lush guitar work has been at the center of his music since his 1994 debut album, Welcome to the Cruel World. He literally grew up in his grandparents’ music store, the Folk Music Center in Claremont, California, a hub for folk and ethnic music that introduced him to instrumental masters such as David Lindley, Taj Mahal, and Chris Darrow, who became his mentors. Harper’s prominence as a guitarist is evident in signature models created by Martin (a limited edition 0000 flattop), Asher (electric lap steel), and Dunlop (slide bar).
Follows a series of projects that reconnect Harper with his roots: the Grammy-winning Get Up! with bluesman Charlie Musselwhite and its follow-up,
Harper, now 50, loves talking guitars, and when I connected with him this fall, he spoke effusively about his new instrument and his lifelong quest for the ultimate tone. As this conversation explores,
Ben Harper And The Innocent Criminals Peel Back Years At Red Rocks (review)
I stumbled into the SoHo Rudy’s and was overwhelmed—it’s not just anywhere in the world you can play guitars like that, one after another. I’m not a big jazz guitarist, but I’ve always chosen flattops that have a little archtop sound to them, and I’ve always chosen archtops that have a little flattop resonance to them. I’d dreamed of being able to combine those [in one guitar] but had never been able to do it.
So there I was at Rudy’s, sitting there playing the D’Angelicos, D’Aquistos, the top level of archtops. As I sat there, Rudy [Pensa] came over and said, “Hey, man, try this.” I was mid-chord, and I just swapped them out. Didn’t take a close look. But what I heard from the very first note was a sound that I had been reaching for in one instrument and had not heard before. I had to take a second look: What is this? I could have sworn he handed me a flattop, but it was an archtop guitar, and I was stunned.
The more I played it, the more I was stunned. I knew of John Monteleone by reputation, and at that point I knew I had to find him.
Ben Harper On His New Album And Loving The Lap Steel Guitar
A part of me was so taken aback by the sound, I was an inch away from walking out of that store with that archtop and turning it into a lap steel—raising the nut and adjusting it all. But I couldn’t do that to the instrument.
Three main points: the sustain, the overtones, the projection. Weissenborns are incredible instruments, and they have carried me a long, long way. I will still be playing them live in every show. But John has a very rare understanding of what makes instruments not only sound great but thrive in a particular player’s hands.
John’s genius is not lore; it’s grounded and based in reality. I said to myself, if you were alive back in the day and had the means to obtain a Stradivarius from Stradivari, would you have done it? I went for it, and it was everything I had dreamed of sonically, and more. And that doesn’t take away from the Weissenborn and its place in the choir.
Ben Harper, Playing Weissenborn Lap Slide Guitar, Torhout/werchter... News Photo
I’ve been planning on doing an instrumental record for quite some time, and the Monteleone was a major arrival that ushered in the completion of the project.
It started out as an exploration of steel guitar. I have a very in-depth collection of lap steel guitars, and I had planned on using them all, or at least my A team. I was going to weave electric and acoustic tones in and out. But once the Monteleone got behind the mic, the producer/engineer, Sheldon Gomberg, just kept saying, “You know, let’s stay with that.” He and I agreed that the tone seemed fresh and original, and no other instrument could beat it. So we said, let’s just stay in this same lane.
Is written as one piece of music; let’s define that in the way that the old classical guitarists would have, on a single guitar.
Ben Harper's Guitar Rig Gear And Equipment
A few years ago, you talked about doing trio and orchestral arrangements for this project. Did you just decide the guitar felt complete on its own?
I wish I was that concise and precise. In full disclosure, I went into Capitol Studios and orchestrated this record to the moon. It was fully produced with percussion, symphony, piano. I put a great deal of time into that particular version of this record before it dawned on me that its strongest step forward and its purest voice was going to be just the guitar. I stripped it all back.
The challenging part was actually coming to that realization after it was done, as you can imagine. The silver lining was the experience, because it was wonderful working it up as a symphonic piece—to show myself that you can build a symphonic orchestration around a lap steel. And it’s even more gratifying that we have [orchestral versions of] “Joshua Tree” and “Inland Empire” as B sides. I’m very excited about those, in particular because the maestro, the great Robert Glasper, is on keyboards, as well as Christopher Bleth on duduk, Mike Valerio from the L.A. Philharmonic on upright bass, and Jimmy Paxon—drummer for myself and Charlie Musselwhite, the [Dixie] Chicks, Stevie Nicks—on percussion.
Ben Harper And The Relentless7
People ask, why did you wait till now to make this record? If I were any younger, I wouldn’t have been able to step back and remove that production. I would have been too tied to it. But I am at a place in my life where I have the presence of mind and clarity to know that I had gone too far.
I was surprised to learn that you recorded the album in 2019, because this really sounds like a quarantine project. The music is so intimate and meditative, and with place names in the titles, the album is like a travelogue in a time when we can’t travel.
Wild. I have debates with very close friends about how context redefines content, but boy, it has never been proven so clearly as now. You’re absolutely right.
Sold 2017 Ben Harper Signature Lap Steel #981 Satin Trans Orange
I actually had a friend call and inform me that, because she missed traveling so much, she actually felt like she was traveling by way of this record. And I thought exactly what you’re saying. I was moved that music without lyrics could take you on a sonic journey in that way.
In the age of the shuffle, it is unusual to have an album that follows a sort of storyline for the entire 15 tracks.
I’m so excited to hear you say that in an era where the album is on the ropes, so to speak, as far as how people receive music. To me this feels like an album that can only be an album. Some albums, even that I’ve made, I’ve looked back on them and said, I could have done an EP or I could have just done a few songs at a time. But this one I feel confident is an album from first note to last.
Deeply Rooted: An Interview With Ben Harper
In some ways, this music brings to mind steel-string soloists like John Fahey or Robbie Basho. Did you have any particular artists in mind as models?
Connected to my family’s music store was a coffeehouse called the Golden Ring, a renowned venue in the late ’50s, early ’60s, for traveling folk musicians. John Fahey was a mainstay there. I never met John nor heard him live, but my family has first-person contact with him and many stories. John Fahey gave birth to Leo Kottke, made way for Michael Hedges. . . . You know, Michael Hedges’ record
So yeah, I’ve long been an appreciator of that sound and that direction a guitar could go in, and I also had a healthy dose of David Lindley, Ry Cooder, Chris Darrow, who were all from the surrounding area and circled my
0 Response to "Ben Harper Slide Guitar"
Posting Komentar