A friend gave me the difficult news that Jean-Herve was killed in his home in Haiti in March of this year. He was 54 years young. I won’t go into the grisly details, preferring to recall a little about Jean-Hervé.
I met Jean-Hervé on the phone about 18 years ago when he said he wanted to order a guitar with 7 strings. We had many amiable conversations about the prospective instrument. He wanted the best wood, spruce and African Blackwood. He was a musician who played many instruments. He was a friend of another customer Huayna Jiminez. At the time they were both in Florida.
Here is a recording of him providing backround music to the reading of the Haitian constitution. The words are somewhat inspiring.
Article 6 of the Haitian Constitution:
The house of every citizen is an inviolable asylum.
I’ll write more about the guitar later. It’s a fun one. For now, I’ll just note that I know he loved the guitar and posted pictures he shared a few weeks ago on a social media platform.
Jean, thank you for touching lives with music. May the music of the universe be with you.
Here is what I wrote to JHP 17 years ago.
“Enclosed herein find documents for 7 string classical guitar Velveteen.
Thank you for your faith, trust, honesty, vision and persistence. It has been a valuable experience working with you. I think we succeeded together.
A small builder like me depends upon word of mouth and testimonials from customers.
When you have a moment, I would so much appreciate your sending some information about your impressions of the guitar, and the experience of building it with me.
Your builder,
Steve Ganz
“
Pingback: Jean-Hervé’ s 7 string | Ganz Guitars Blog