Les Paul
The guitarist-inventor who built the tools modern music is made with
Lester William Polsfuss was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, in 1915 and was tinkering with sound as a boy, taking up harmonica, banjo and guitar. As a teenager he performed country music on the radio, later adopting the hillbilly persona Rhubarb Red, while also falling in love with jazz and the playing of Django Reinhardt. In 1937 he formed the Les Paul Trio, which moved to New York the following year and won a spot on Fred Waring's popular radio program.
Frustrated by the feedback and short sustain of amplified hollow-body guitars, he built The Log around 1940, a solid block of fir fitted with a pickup and attached to an archtop's body wings, working after hours at the Epiphone factory in New York. His trio backed Bing Crosby on the 1945 number-one hit It's Been a Long, Long Time and opened for the Andrews Sisters in 1946. Crosby also gave him an early Ampex tape recorder, which he modified to create sound-on-sound multitrack recording.
In January 1948 a car crash in Oklahoma shattered his right arm, and he had it set at a fixed angle so he could still hold a pick. That year his layered instrumental Lover showcased his experiments, and with his wife, singer Mary Ford, he produced a string of multitracked hits, including Mockin' Bird Hill, How High the Moon and Vaya con Dios. In 1952 Gibson released the Les Paul solid-body guitar, which would become one of the most famous instruments ever made.
He pushed recording technology further with an eight-track machine built by Ampex to his specifications, and he and Mary Ford hosted their own television show in the 1950s. After a period of semi-retirement, he returned with the Grammy-winning Chester and Lester alongside Chet Atkins in 1976. From 1996 he played weekly at the Iridium jazz club in New York well into his nineties. He died of complications from pneumonia in 2009, at the age of 94.
The 10 greatest Les Paul solos
- 1Les Paul and Mary Ford · solo by Les Paul · 1951
- 2Les Paul · solo by Les Paul · 1948
- 3Les Paul and Mary Ford · solo by Les Paul · 1951
- 4Les Paul · solo by Les Paul · 1950
- 5Les Paul and Mary Ford · solo by Les Paul · 1952
- 6Les Paul · solo by Les Paul · 1948
- 7Les Paul · solo by Les Paul · 1952
- 8Les Paul and Mary Ford · solo by Les Paul · 1953
- 9Les Paul and Mary Ford · solo by Les Paul · 1953
- 10Bing Crosby with the Les Paul Trio · solo by Les Paul · 1945
The sound
Les Paul's playing blends Django Reinhardt's speed and flash with American swing and country, delivered with a bright, clean electric tone. He loved rapid descending runs, trills, and slick chromatic flourishes, and he used tape tricks, varying the speed of recordings to produce shimmering, impossibly fast lines and a signature chiming sound. His arrangements stack many guitar parts into layered orchestral textures, with echo and delay treated as instruments in their own right. Behind the gadgetry was a genuinely swinging jazz player with a playful, showman's wit.
- The Log (guitar) His homemade solid-body prototype of around 1940, built from a fir post at the Epiphone factory.
- Modified Epiphone archtops (guitar) Heavily reworked Epiphones he used as test beds for his solid-body ideas in the 1940s.
- Gibson Les Paul (guitar) Gibson's 1952 solid-body built to his specifications, which paid him royalties and became an icon.
- Gibson Les Paul Recording (guitar) A later low-impedance model reflecting his interest in studio-quality electronics.
- Ampex Model 200A tape recorder (effect) A gift from Bing Crosby that he modified with an extra head to create sound-on-sound recording.
- Ampex eight-track recorder (The Octopus) (effect) An early multitrack machine built for his home studio, which he designed with Ross Snyder.
Covers
- How High the Moon, originally by Morgan Lewis and Nancy Hamilton (songwriters) A jazz standard reinvented as a futuristic multitrack pop record.
- Lover, originally by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart (songwriters) A show tune used as the canvas for his most daring studio experiment.
- Tiger Rag, originally by Original Dixieland Jass Band The early jazz classic reborn at warp speed through tape tricks.
- Brazil, originally by Ary Barroso (Aquarela do Brasil) A Brazilian classic arranged for a one-man guitar ensemble.
- The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise, originally by Ernest Seitz and Gene Lockhart (songwriters) An old parlor song given a modern, glittering pop sheen.
- Mockin' Bird Hill, originally by Vaughn Horton (songwriter) A country waltz transformed with layered harmonies and bright guitar.
Timeline
- 1915 Born Lester William Polsfuss in Waukesha, Wisconsin
- 1937 Forms the Les Paul Trio
- 1938 Moves to New York and joins Fred Waring's radio show
- 1940 Builds The Log solid-body guitar at the Epiphone factory
- 1945 Backs Bing Crosby on the number-one hit It's Been a Long, Long Time
- 1948 Releases Lover; survives a car crash that shatters his right arm
- 1951 How High the Moon with Mary Ford tops the charts
- 1952 Gibson launches the Les Paul solid-body guitar
- 1988 Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Jeff Beck
- 2009 Dies in White Plains, New York, aged 94
Facts
- He was born Lester William Polsfuss.
- Early in his career he performed country music under the name Rhubarb Red.
- After his 1948 car crash, he had his broken arm set at a fixed angle so he could keep playing guitar.
- Bing Crosby gave him one of his first Ampex tape recorders.
- He is the only person inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
- Vaya con Dios with Mary Ford spent eleven weeks at number one.
- His album Chester and Lester with Chet Atkins won a Grammy.
- He played a weekly Monday-night gig in New York until shortly before his death in his nineties.
- Gibson paid him royalties on the guitars bearing his name.
- He helped pay for the funeral of his hero Django Reinhardt in 1953.