Swinging the Harp

Robert Maxwell, 28, is one of the top supper-club attractions in Manhattan just now because 1) he learned to play the harp in a good school (Juilliard) and 2) he soon got tired of classic tempos. The Maxwell contribution to Manhattan's current nightlife: harping in swing style.

A typical Maxwell performance one night last week began with a fast, explosive samba, went on to a sentimental arrangement of Kurt Weill's September Song and a plunky version of I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover. The final numbers: a medley of Gershwin tunes and a swing arrangement of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. Says Maxwell: "I play Liszt as I think Liszt would play if he were alive today." The supper-club crowd hushed down to devoted silence for Maxwell's 20-minute performance, even when their glasses stood empty.

There is nothing especially unorthodox in Maxwell's technique; the novelty is in what he uses his big harp for, and in his arrangements. "There just aren't arrangements for what I want to do, so I have to make them myself." Bronx-born Maxwell won a harp chair with the NBC Symphony at 17, quit after 18 months. Says he: "A harpist doesn't get to play any more often than the triangle-player. He sits there quietly for 684 bars, then plays two of his own. It's frustrating."

Maxwell took his harp and joined an eight-piece dance band, began working out some of the arrangements he needed. Then he joined the Coast Guard and got a chance to play for a while in Lieut. Rudy Vallee's bluejacket orchestra. Since then, he has been what he wants to be: a soloist. Some nightclub managers shudder at the thought of a swing harpist, but Maxwell is making inroads and good money. Income last year: $20,000.

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