Jazz Articles about Les Paul

Les Paul: How High The Moon: Hits & Rarities From The Wizard of Waukesha

by George Kanzler
April 12, 2010

His name is on the classic Gibson guitar and his role in the development of the electric guitar, as well as in the creation of multi-track recording and overdubbing, is indisputable. But even though he spent the last two-plus decades of his life holding forth, as much as raconteur as musician, on Monday nights (Fat Tuesday's and, later, Iridium), Les Paul, who died at 94 last summer (2009), won't be remembered as a jazz musician. His musical tastes ran closer ...

Remembering Les Paul... with Lyrics!

by Randee Mia Berman
August 19, 2009

They called him the Wizard of Waukesha, and we're not talking Harry Potter. I'd first heard about Les Paul from my parents. My Mom played mandolin; my Dad was a jazz pianist, who raised me on Irving Berlin and Cole Porter. I remember listening to the famous guitar/vocal duets between Les Paul & Mary Ford, only later learned that Mary sang duets and trios with herself in songs like How High the Moon and Blue Skies, using the ...

Les Paul Live At Iridium, NYC

by AAJ Staff
December 16, 2008

Les Paul Iridium New York, New York Any Monday Night

It was 46 degrees in the rain, and 9:45p.m. outside the Iridium Jazz Club on Broadway. Yet there was a huge queue for Les Paul, the inventor of the solid body electric guitar, developer of multitracking and, now 93, about to play his third set of the night at Iridium. Paul plays at Iridium every Monday and first played professionally as a boy in ...

Les Paul: Jazz Guitarist

by Samuel Chell
September 26, 2007

Perhaps the greatest revelation of Chasing Sound, the DVD based on the recent Public Broadcasting Service telecast of the career of Les Paul, is that the icon is still a conscious, thinking human being and performing musician. After that dubious birthday album American Made/World Played (EMI, 2005), which trumpeted the return of the inventor of the electric guitar to the recording studio for the first time in 27 years, then covered up his playing with present-day rock-star guitarists, a listener ...

Les Paul: Chasing Sound!

by Charlie B. Dahan
September 4, 2007

Les Paul Chasing Sound! Koch Vision 2007

I dare anyone to spend the time to find one musician who can say they have not had their musical career influenced by Les Paul. Maybe they aren't aware of his career as a country and jazz great, but if they play guitar, record or listen to music from the last 50 years, they have been touched in part by the master, the wizard, himself, ...

Les Paul: Now!

by AAJ Staff
February 28, 2005

By Jennifer Odell

If you're craving new Les Paul tunes, the fourth generation release, Now! , is not where you'll find them. Not because it's not a great album--it is. Classical artist Michael J. Dutton's remastering allows you to hear more delicate elements of the different guitars' various tones and textures. But this album was originally conceived as a compilation for Les Paul. And now the compilation has been released three times without changing much. Most of the ...