Watch a short documentary of The Richard Hambleton Retrospective featuring the photography of Hank O'Neal at Phillips de Pury , New York City from September 9 through the 13th, 2011 presented by Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld and Andy Valmorbida in collaboration with Phillips De Pury & Giorgio Armani.  Click here   Hank's photographs of Richard Hambleton as featured in the June issue of Bliss Magazine.  Download the PDF here: Bliss article   Hank's latest show: Portraits 1970-2010 at The Lancaster Museum of Fine Art. This one man photographic exhibition features noted portraits Hank has taken over the last four decades.  The show will run through February 27th.  For more information please visit the museums web site here: http://www.lmapa.org/exh.html Hank's Portrait of Robert Indiana during his reception at the Four Season's Restaurant in New York City, featured in Art in America: http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-opinion/news/2011-01-26/robert-indiana-hope-four-seasons/ Hank's Photographs of Richard Hambleton's Shadow Men on display @ The Dairy, London:  http://arrestedmotion.com/2010/12/viewpoints-openings-richard-hambleton-pop-up-show-the-dairy-london/img_3876_p-nguyen/   Hank's photography graced the facade of the AMFAR pavillion, Cap D'Atibes France, May 20, 2010 C-Span July 2010 —The American Association of University Professors, features The Ghosts Of Harlem American Edition as one of it's choices for The "Best of The Best" University Editions. "The Best of The Bests" Program program, offers librarians the opportunity to share advice and recommendations with their colleagues, and recognizes the valuable contribution that university press books can make to both public and secondary school libraries. (note:The Ghosts of Harlem feature begins at 11:40 and ends at 14:40) :Please Have a look at the video here: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/294474-1 Jazz Times Interview June 2010 — Hank O’Neal: Chasing Ghosts ArtNews Article, March 2010, Friendships In Focus - Berenice Abbott, PDF Hank O'Neal's Lower East Side Project Featured On Swiss T.V. Seventh Man Magazine - "Richard Hambleton — New York" in Milan Featured Artist on Valmorbida.com Artists We Love, Featured Photographs of Richard Hambleton Street Art Swide, Hank O'Neal's Portraits of Richard Hambleton, showing in Milan oneartworld.com - Featuring Hank O'Neal's Richard Hambleton Related Prints for Sale Abitare - Richard Hambleton in Milan featuring a portrait by Hank O'Neal

I knew Les Paul for over thirty years but never worked with him. I visited with him in Mahwah many times, helped him get back into the swing of things at Fat Tuesday’s in the 1970s, organized a Beacons In Jazz Award for him in 2003 and even managed to convince him he should send his old recordings of Stan Hasselgard from his studio days in California to a Swedish archive, but I never gave him a dollar or vice versa. Not that I didn’t try.

I really wanted Les to be part of a Floating Jazz Festival. I even suggested we’d dedicate an entire festival to him, but he wouldn’t budge because Les didn’t need to work for a living. He’d already done all the work he needs to pay his bills until he’s 193, but he does need to play, and play regularly. He needed the Monday night gig at Fat Tuesday in the late 1970s, to keep his hands working and to try out new material and equipment. He had his Monday night gig for thirty years and didn’t want to miss one night. When Fat Tuesday’s shut down, Les transferred to the Iridium, then headquartered in the basement of the Empire Hotel. When that club shut down and moved to its present location on Seventh Avenue, Les transferred with it and kept playing until he couldn’t play any longer. When he died in 2010 his Monday nights were the longest running, regularly scheduled performance in New York, half of the people in the audience were not even born when he started it, celebrities were always on hand and he never disappointed.

I first met Les in 1975. Bill Gallagher set up the meeting. Bill and Les were pals from their days at Columbia, where Bill was doing everything possible to invigorate Les’ during a time when he was having some hard times.  Since I was working with Bill, Les assumed I was OK and I stayed OK for the duration.

First visits with celebrated people are often a lot of fun. The first time I drove up Les’ driveway in Mahwah I was surprised. I’d been told to come around to the back of the house and did as I was told. That day there was an old rusting Lincoln and a small mountain of magnetic tape of various sizes in residence. The pile of used tape was maybe five feet high, perhaps twelve feet across, about the same size as the car. There was probably enough music on that tape to have launched a couple of independent record companies. Once inside, I was given the grand tour of a remarkable house. The only room that didn’t contain a recording system was a bathroom I visited, and I wasn’t to sure about that because Les had told me he’d once wired an outhouse out back so he could frighten anyone who used it.

I have a lasting memory of a stack of beer cases in the living room. The stack was floor to ceiling. This may not seem like much, but my guess is the ceiling in the living room is about twenty-five feet high. I have no idea how the last few cases made it to the top, but Les isn’t called the Wizard of Waukesha for nothing. I wish I’d taken a picture of that but didn’t.

In all the years I knew Les, we did little more than tell stories and listen to music. I’d taken a few snapshots, but never tried to take serious photographs. I think the most interesting story he ever told me was about playing duets with Charlie Christian in Harlem around 1940. I assumed it was a tall tale but then one day I was talking with Erskine Hawkins who said, “Did I ever tell you about the time Les Paul came up to the Golden Gate and played with Charlie Christian?” So much for my skepticism and I never doubted anything he ever told me again.

In 2000 my young cousin, Jennifer Stroup, telephoned and asked if I knew Les Paul; that she was in charge of organizing a feature story about him for a fledgling publication, Madison Magazine. I said I did, made arrangements for her to meet him and for the first time took some serious cameras along to Mahwah.

I hadn’t been there for a couple of years and there was a new old Lincoln rusting in the driveway, along with a smaller pile of discarded electronic gear. No guitars were in the pile. Once inside I noticed some changes. The office was still as messy as ever, but now there was a large room where all the inventions and assorted tape recorders and guitars were on display. Les, Jr. was there and I could only assume this kind of organization was his doing, but it was a terrific display. While Jennifer spoke with Les, I took photographs of everything in sight.

When I finished with that, I asked Les if he hold still for some photographs with my large format view camera. He held still for more than one and was fascinated with my old camera. It wasn’t as old as he was, eighty-five at the time, but it was pretty old and still working, and just like Les, it delivered the goods.

It is now a few years later. Les worked right up to then end, he died about a year ago at the age of 94, the shows always still sold out and there was always another generation of fans standing in line. Monday nights at Iridium are still billed as the Les Paul Trio with new guitarists each week to perform with the group that accompanied him. He’d probably be happy about that.

Les Paul At Home 2, Mahwah, New Jersey July 15, 2000