Les Paul Rides into the sunset...

Happy Trails ole saddle pal

 

I had Les Paul tied into the Festival, and in fact just had talked to him some a few weeks ago, and made a tape of the recording, which I would do when we would talk on the phone, he and I would talk about Jimmie Rodgers and Slim Bryant.  MORE ON SLIM AND LES LATER...I told Les that we wanted have him part of the festival, and that we would have a camera and tech crew at his club gig on the regular Monday night, and we were going to patch him into the Festival via the Internet and give him

an award and show it on a screen at the festival.  He was excited to try the new technology and be part of the Festival

Les Paul

Les Paul, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, five-time Grammy Award winner, pioneer of the electric guitar and inventor of numerous recording techniques, such as reverb and multi-track recording was born June 9, 1915 in Waukesha Wisconsin. As The Gibson Les Paul line of guitars is universally hailed as the best and is played by legendary musicians, Iridium has been the host to countless musicians and celebrities who pay homage to "The Father Of The Electric Guitar". Musicians such as, Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Tony Bennett, Paul Schaeffer, Steve Miller, Brian Setzer, Joe Beck, Al Dimeola, George Benson and many others have "jammed" with Les on Monday nights at Iridium. You never know who will show up at Iridium to jam and joke with Les and the band!

Les says his greatest God-given gifts are perfect pitch, a love for music with the ability to learn it quickly, and the curiosity and persistence of an inventor who wants to know "how things tick". His first professional job, as "Red Hot Red", was as a guitarist and harmonica player when he was just thirteen. One fateful night while performing in front of an outdoor crowd, Les became frustrated that people farther back couldn’t hear him. Les Paul created an electric guitar and amplification system out a radio, the earpiece of a telephone and a needle from a family record player that he jammed into the fret board as a "pickup"! Les?guitar and voice were now heard by all.  However, the resulting vibration and resulting feedback had to be contained. Les experimented by stuffing clothes and plaster of paris in the guitar; he even went so far as attaching a string to a hinge placed at the end of a railroad track. The sound was perfect. When Les showed his mother his accomplishment she replied, "You’ll never see Gene carrying that thing around". So he settled on using a 4x4 block of wood attached to an Epiphone neck. When the audience paid no attention to his playing because the instrument was too strange, he attaches two non-functional "wings" to the 4x4 so it looked like a normal guitar. The fans loved the sound and the solid body electric guitar was born! In 1950, Les started his design of the Les Paul model for The Gibson Guitar Company, which has become the world’s best selling line of electric guitars.

Les’ life long interest and ground breaking work in the recording studio resulted from a need to develop his own unique style. One night, Les’ mother commented that she heard him on the radio. Apparently she had heard someone else who was copying his style! Les became determined over the next two years to develop his own unique sound. The result of hundreds of multiple-disc recording experiments, some with delay, reverb, echo and other electronic techniques, revolutionized the recording industry and immediately led to a contract with Capitol Records. A string of top ten hits followed with his wife Mary Ford, the most famous one being "How High The Moon".

Soon Les Paul and Mary Ford were the stars of their own television show, The Les Paul and Mary Ford at home show, which was a top rated hit and ran from 1953 to 1960 and they became international stars!

Les Paul’s pioneering work with tape recording led to some of his most important contributions to recorded music. This again grew out of necessity. Les Paul had been talking to his friend, Bing Crosby about the need to develop a tape recorder that would give musicians the freedom of recording anywhere. Les found such a product and then began tinkering with it. One result of his experimentation was the development of sound on sound recording. This was accomplished with an additional recording head. No more was a studio needed for him and Mary- they could record anywhere! To solve the problem of recording with other musicians who were not present, Les conceived the idea of recording on eight separate tracks then blending them together. This is but a small sampling of the diverse and legendary career Les has enjoyed and his role as one of the most important figures in twentieth century music!

Les Paul, multiple Grammy Winner, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, and idol and legend to millions, plays every Monday night at Iridium! Set times are at 8:00 and 10:00, and Les gladly signs autographs and chats after every show! www.njinvent.njit.edu

Les Paul "The Wizard of Waukesha"

Lester William was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin on June 9, 1915 to parents George and Evelyn (Stutz) Polsfuss. Les' mother was related to the Stutz Bearcat automobile and Blatz beer people. Les says his greatest God-given gifts are perfect pitch, a love for music with the ability to learn it quickly, and the curiosity and persistence of an inventor who wants to know "how things tick". His first professional job, as "Red Hot Red," was as a guitarist and harmonica player when he was just thirteen. One fateful night, while playing to an outdoor crowd, a listener in the back complained that Les' voice could not be heard. To accommodate those farthest away, Les attached his mother's radio to the family's telephone mouthpiece creating a public address system. Again a critic voiced that his guitar could not be heard. So Les "borrowed" his father's radio, the other end of the telephone, and the needle from the family record player. Jamming the needle into the guitar bridge and joining the other components, Les' guitar and voice were now heard by all. Les actually created a stereo system, however with some feedback and acoustic vibrations. Les experimented by stuffing clothes and plaster of paris in the guitar to dampen the unwanted acoustic vibrations. The plaster worked but the guitar was too heavy! His final experiment was attaching a guitar string to a hinge placed at the end of a railroad track. The sound was perfect. When Les showed his mother his accomplishment she replied, "You'll never see Gene Autry (the most popular singing cowboy at the time), carrying that thing around". So he settled on using a 4x4 block of wood attached to an Epiphone neck. When the audience paid no attention to his playing because the instrument was too strange, he realized that "people hear with their eyes." To compensate for this Les attached two non-functional "wings" to the 4x4 so it looked like a normal guitar. The fans loved the sound! Les has donated his first practical solid-body electric guitar (1941), to The Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee where it is on permanent display. Les' solid-body electric guitar concept, however, was not appreciated by guitar makers until one was successfully marketed by a California neighbor, Leo Fender who was into electronics. Then the Gibson Guitar Company contacted Les who was called "the guy with the pickups on the broom handle."

Les applied for his first patent, "Combined Bridge and Tailpiece for Stringed Instruments", on July 9, 1952, a one pickup design which was granted on March 13, 1956, #2,737,842. A patent filed by Gibson president, the late Theodore M. McCarty, on Jan. 21, 1953, "Stringed Musical Instrument of the Guitar Type And Combined Bridge And Tailpiece Therefore", was granted on Aug. 2, 1955, #2,714,326. This two pick-up design appears to be the basis of the Les Paul model guitars in which Les says he had much input.

Back in 1946, Les' mother commented that she heard him on the radio on a particular night. Les explained that it wasn't him as he was on stage playing back-up guitar with the Andrew Sisters. Apparently someone was copying his style. Les was so dejected that someone could copy him good enough to fool his mother that he quit the Andrew Sisters and devoted the
next two years in secret experiments toward developing his unique sound. Hundreds of multiple-disc recording experiments, some with delay, reverb, echo and other electronic techniques, were made. Then at a party one night he quietly slipped in his new recording of "Lover" (1948). History again was made, and a contract with Capitol Records quickly followed. Capitol asked Les what this new sound should be called. Les keeping it simple, said "The New Sound", and that's how his records were marketed! After World War II, a Newark, New Jersey electronics engineer, Colonel Richard Ranger, showed Les a tape recorder which he located in a German military electronics laboratory. Les then informed Bing Crosby of the machine since Bing wanted to record away from the studio and have more time to play golf. When Les assured Crosby that the device would work, Bing said he wanted 50. The Rangertone Electronics Company could not mass-produce the recorders fast enough so the idea was submitted to the Ampex Corporation. Bing Crosby put up the capital and gave one recorder to Les. On the road to Chicago with Mary Ford (nee Colleen Summers) and the new recorder, Les thought that if he could put in one additional recording head he could do sound-on-sound recordings anywhere. So Les called Ampex and said he burned out the recording head and could they send another. The additional head was installed by a machinist named Mr. Goodspeed and it worked on first try. No more was a studio needed for him and Mary. Then to solve the problem of recording with other musicians who were not present, Les conceived the idea of recording on eight separate tracks then blending them together. He consulted Ampex again (1952) and they agreed to build him one at his cost. Les did not seek a patent on this concept or the "Sel-Sync" idea (1956-60), which made the now-famous multi-track possible. On Jan. 30, 1962 Les was granted patent # 3,018,680, "Electrical Musical Instrument", and on Apr. 3, 1973, # 3,725,561 "Method of Electrically Reproducing Music and Improved Electrical Pickup for Practicing the Same". Both were for improved pickups. He is presently working on ten electronic pickup modifications, in as many guitars, chasing after his quest of "the perfect sound." Not bad for a "tinkerer" wouldn't you say? Les was inducted into the New Jersey Inventor's Hall of Fame in 1996. On February 20th 2001, Les received his 5th Grammy, for his technical achievements, from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.

Copyright 2002 Charles Dzuba, 330 Paxinosa Road West, Easton, PA 18040-1322

FROM LES PAUL'S BIO AT THE WEBSITE FOR THE IRIDIUM CLUB IN NEW YORK...