If you were asked to name the greatest guitarist in the history of jazz, you wouldn’t go wrong by answering either Charlie Christian or Django Reinhardt. Christian (1916-42), the first important electric guitarist, was a pioneer in the development of the modern jazz movement, while Reinhardt (1910-53) remains all but unchallenged as the greatest non-American jazzman. Last year, both guitarists were elected to the Jazz at Lincoln Center Hall of Fame, which is named after the late producer Nesuhi Ertegun. This weekend, JaLC paid tribute to Christian and Reinhardt with a concert at Rose Hall spotlighting three famous contemporary guitarists: Bobby Broom, Russell Malone, and Frank Vignola.

The show was originally announced as a four-guitarist salute, but Bireli Lagrene, the French gypsy who, at 41, is still regarded as a prodigy and is perhaps Reinhardt’s greatest living successor, failed to appear. Mr. Lagrene, who also went AWOL at a scheduled appearance at the Annual Django Reinhardt Festival at Alice Tully Hall in 2003, apparently follows in the Reinhardt tradition of unreliability as much as in musical brilliance.

The three guitarists who did show up were backed by an exceptional rhythm section of the pianist Mulgrew Miller, bassist Peter Washington, and drummer Lewis Nash, who also served as the program’s musical director.

The evening was laid out as a series of solo features, with each of the three stars stretching out on at least one ballad and one faster piece, as well as duos by Mr. Malone and the other two (though, oddly, not by Mr. Broom with Mr. Vignola). When two guitarists get together, the result is often a competition as much as a collaboration, like swordsmen in a duel, trying to lay down the most notes in the fastest tempo. This is exciting, but it can grow tiresome during the course of an entire evening. Thankfully, the three headliners only slipped into this tactic a few times (as on “A Smooth One,” which transmutes the melody of the standard “Love Is Just Around the Corner” into a fast blues).

The three players also seemed to be competing with one another on their ballads: The three slower features — Mr. Malone’s “Memories of You,” Mr. Vignola’s “Nuages” and “Stardust,” and Mr. Broom’s “These Foolish Things” — all began almost classically rubato, before kicking into tempo with the rhythm section. Mr. Malone’s use of what modern guitarists refer to as “harmonics” (which involves tapping the strings around the bridge) was especially impressive.

One advantage that Reinhardt, who lived to 43, had over Christian, who died of tuberculosis at 25, was that he developed into a superior composer in his 30s, although most of his tunes are rarely played, even at tributes to him. Contrastingly, nearly all the tunes associated with Christian are either standards or the blues. On Friday, Mr. Vignola made a point to play Reinhardt’s boppish “Swing 48,” as well as the Raymond Scott-like “Rythme Futur”; he also thoughtfully interjected a quote from “Tears” into “Stardust.”

In general, Mr. Vignola evoked Reinhardt’s technique and instrumental timbre, but in an American style. He didn’t play with the pomp rhythm essential to Reinhardt’s celebrated all-string band, Le Quintette du Hot Club de France. It would have been instructive to hear how a contemporary gypsy, such as the no-show Mr. Lagrene, plays in contrast. Mr. Lagrene was missed in other ways, as well, not the least of which was pure star power: Even though there were three outstanding players onstage, on the whole the presentation seemed more suitable for a more intimate space such as the Allen Room, rather than JaLC’s biggest arena.

Mr. Broom’s major zinger was his updating of the 1926 “I’ve Found a New Baby,” which, like the reading of the 1927 “Strike Up the Band” that opens his new album, “The Way I Play: Live in Chicago,” showcases his talent for seamlessly contemporizing 80-year-old classics. The Chicago-based picker was a formidable challenger on his duets, as well as on the Christian-centric opener (“Wholly Cats”) and closer (“Seven Come Eleven”), and the encore, “After You’ve Gone,” (recorded by both Reinhardt and Christian), all of which were retooled to feature all three guitarists.

Apart from the guitarists, much of the flavor of the evening was supplied by the host, Avery Brooks, who narrated in stentorian tones that were equal parts Henry V, Jesse Jackson, and Commander Sisko (of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” in case you don’t want to admit that you know that). Mr. Brooks’s increasingly exaggerated but still welcome voice-overs lent the evening the quality of a Ken Burns documentary re-enacted in person. The script, credited to Steven Rathe and David Marash, more than made its point that Reinhardt and Christian were soul brothers of a comparable artistic intent who were separated only by an ocean.

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That’s info-tainment! On Saturday, the 92nd Street Y launched the latest edition of “Lyrics and Lyricists” with “The 1959 Broadway Songbook,” which concludes tonight. At first, the idea seemed to have been borrowed from another long-running New York concert series, Town Hall’s “Broadway by the Years.” But the L&L program, which was hosted and produced by the cabaret singer Jeff Harner, turned out to be a highly ambitious graduate lesson in the etymology of the musical comedy. Using the 23 shows that were playing on Broadway 48 years ago, he took us step-by-step through a typical Broadway production of the so-called “Golden Era.”

The soprano Sarah Uriarte Berry and baritone David Burnham served as the romantic leads, and could have stepped out of a Disney musical. Mr. Harner also cast Sally Mayes and, with admirable modesty, himself, as what he called the “second-banana couple.”

The program illustrated the introduction of the characters with an “I Want” song (the beautiful “I Wish It So”), an “I just met a girl”-type song, a comedy number (“I Don’t Think I’ll End It All Today”), a romantic duet, a charm song, a wedding vow, and so on. For the big dance number, Donna McKechnie re-created Gwen Verdon’s Tony-winning turn in “Redhead.” Later, Ms. Mayes hit a home run with Billy Barnes’s touching “Too Long at the Fair,” a diva aria at the same level as anything in “Follies.”

But the standout of the evening was the host, who was funnier than I’ve ever seen him. His high point — literally — arrived in a routine that symbolized the kind of music one might hear on the street during a Broadway intermission, wherein he knocked out a stratospheric version of the “Theme from a Summer Place.” After watching Mr. Harner perform for decades, it’s something of a shock to discover that his greatest strength may not be in traditional cabaret material, but as a pop falsetto in the fashion of the Frankies — Lyman and Valli. It’s almost like he’s been holding out on us for all these years.

wfriedwald@nysun.com