!Les Paul - Chasing Sound!
​Les Paul - Live In New York!
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Few American musicians have had the impact and widespread influence in as many areas as Les Paul (1915-2009).  As a guitarist, inventor, and performer, he expanded the sonic and musical palettes of American popular song.   In over eighty years in show business, he appeared in every venue from vaudeville through pay-per-view, recording in every medium from acetate disc to digital drive.   His pioneering work designing the solid body electric guitar,  non distorting guitar pickups, multi-tracking and overdubbing recording techniques all remade what it was possible to do with sound.  All musicians, not just guitarists, have benefited; from such tools they have fashioned the sounds of our world today.
 
Les Paul enjoyed three long careers, more than most artists.  In the 1930s and ‘40s he was a star swing-era jazzman, holding touring with bands and his famous trio, appearing on radio and in theaters.  In the next two decades, he became a pop star, recording with his wife Mary Ford.  Their million selling hits still sound fresh and remain in demand today.  Then, in the last three decades of his life, Les transformed himself into a nightclub institution, a hero who embodied the history of American music for fans, guitar geeks, and fellow musicians who made a pilgrimage to New York City to  see  him and witness some history.
 
The films Les Paul - Chasing Sound! and Les Paul Live In New York collectively capture Les’ long life in American music. For over 20 years Les performed every Monday in Manhattan with his trio, featuring guitarist Lou Pallo and pianist John Colianni.  Those weekly gigs were love-fests where friends, fans, and other musicians came from all around the world to see him play,  to secure his autograph on their own Gibson Les Paul guitars, and to pay homage to the streams of  music he brought together in his playing - jazz, country, blues and pop.  At these gigs, Les mostly performed swing classics and old hits,  genially holding forth with a mixture of cornball humor and sweet reminiscence.  Artists from every genre showed up at these gigs to see their idol.  Over time, as his arthritis worsened, making it very difficult to play, Les happily shared the stage with these friends old and new.  The Monday gigs became an event where you were likely to see not just Les Paul but other legendary musicians as well.
 
Most of those years Les played at the Iridium nightclub.  Close friends and family knew that these weekly gigs were his lifeblood. He loved playing for an audience.  Film maker John Paulson has gathered a number of these performances, most of them from 2005, when Les celebrated his 90th birthday.  That any musician could be working at all at that age is a minor miracle, but Les played, mc-ed and hammed it up with the energy of a 20 year old.  As this film shows, his enthusiasm and joy were infectious, sweeping both the musicians and the crowd up in delight.   They also show,  as singer Tony Bennett says in the film, that Les Paul’s music is  “timeless.”  His style combined jazz, blues and country, strains that also eventually gave birth to rock ‘n’ roll that influenced the younger musicians who came to jam with him.  “Everything we do is at least seventy years old,” Les says at one point, with only slight exaggeration.  Jazz, blues, standards and country all are mixed together in this program. Maybe not seventy years old, but roots music just the same.
 
In the bonus materials included on the DVD version of Les Paul Live In New York, guitar patriarch Bucky Pizzarelli says that in the 1930s, all the pickers tried to imitate the great gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt.  Les was no exception, but he was more successful than most at incorporating Django’s fire and speed into his own style - just check out his lightning quick runs on the Soundies Film of “Dark Eyes.”   Mandolin master David Grisman, himself a Reinhardt devotee, takes the stage with Les for “Limehouse Blues” a signature tune the Reinhardt played with his Quintet of the Hot Club of France.  Grisman spins off lick after lick, while Les delightedly eggs him on with exclamation and chords of encouragement. 
 
Les pays homage to his country music roots, revisiting “Tennessee Waltz”; this beautiful melody was a three time hit for Les and Mary, for Patti Page, and in its original hillbilly version for the great Pee Wee King.  But never too somber or sentimental, the Les and the trio quickly break into a rollicking boogie that threatens to disintegrate from the warp speed, but the group brings the tune to a close in one piece.
 
Another highlight is Tommy Emmanuel’s duet with Les on Rodgers and Hart’s “Blue Moon.”  The Australian virtuoso duets with Les, providing all the rhythmic and chordal backup while the pair trade riffs and phrases.  The delight and respect the two have for one another are so evident that, even with the sound turned off, the viewer can sense how much fun the pair are having. 
 
The strongest common musical element in these performances is the blues.  That foundational music is the core of these performances: the sophisticated swing of “Route 66" (with vocalist Sonya Hensley), Steve Miller’s wry “You Cant Take it with You,  Nicki Parrot’s sexy “Happy Birthday Lester,” Jose Feliciano’s intense workout on “Unchain My Heart”and Keith Richards’ raunchy “Pork Chop Blues.”  Keith’s delight is evident, as he dons a Les Paul Guitar in place of his customary Fender Telecaster and throws in some trebly bends and runs reminiscent of Les’ own playing.   Steve Miller’s relationship with Les is special; as he relates in the extended interview included here,  Les was his godfather and encouraged him in music from the time Miller was five.  One of the film’s most arresting moments is Miller’s simple rendition of “Nature Boy” a haunting tune made famous by Les’ old friend Nat Cole.  For listeners accustomed to Miller’s rock and roll bravado, it’s a revelation, a testament of love and affection across the decades.
 
The films show how much arthritis constrained Les’ playing in his late years.  Even his abundant energy and determination could not overcome a disease that nearly immobilized his left hand.  Where ribbons of notes once cascaded from his guitar without limit, here his playing is spare, thoughtful, evocative, and supportive.   The trademark elements of his sound - heavy reverb, crisp echo,  trebly and twangy tone, bends and glissandos - were  never more effective.  In these pieces,  Les punctuates the music around him like the great Count Basie, with commentary and  encouragement.  He is content to let his guests shine, and he saves his energy for short statements.  The late jazz pianist Tommy Flanagan once put his own musical mission clearly: to do “the best I can with the tools I’ve got.”  In this film Les Paul exemplifies that dictum to the utmost.
 
Whether a first time listener or longtime aficionado, anyone encountering this music will hear and see why Les had millions of fans all over the world.   The songs are packed  with joy,  an enthusiasm and an embrace of the moment, an appetite for fun and for surprise.  The performances are hardly perfect or elegant, but instead show musicians grateful for a chance to share common musical roots and shared respect.  No one had more fun on the gig than Les. This film shows why.  Thanks Les!
 
Charles McGovern
 
Charlie McGovern teaches American studies at William and Mary; as a longtime curator at the Smithsonian Institution he interviewed Les Paul several times and has written exhibitions and articles on electric guitars and American popular music.

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