The Waukesha County real estate market and the City of Waukeshahas had it's share of very famous musicians, many and many of them, some such as The Bodeans, Boz Scaggs, Steve Miller, and the most famous deemed the wizard of Waukesha who is Les Paul. Les Paul is a music icon who developed the
electric guitar, and the semi hollow electric guitar. These
changed music for ever and every famous and non famous musician will tip their hat to this amazing man. Les Paulstill plays in his club in New York and is now 93. He resides in New Jersey. He grew up close to the corner of moreland and north st. The corner which is in the SE intersection by the fox river bridge. I myself have had Gibson Firebirds, Flying V,and Les Paul customs; a 60 cherry finish, and a 79 black beauty. Les Paul was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin on June9th, 1915 and he will be 96 years old in a few days. Please see www.lespaulonline.com. He is an accomplished jazz and Rock musician, and is credit for developing many
inventions such as the electric guitar,and in recording inventions he developed recording studios, overdubbing, delay effects, tape delay, and multitrack recording phasing effects. In the 1930s, Paul worked in Chicago in radio, where he performed jazz music. Paul's first two records were released in 1936. One was credited to Rhubarb Red, Paul's hillbilly alter ego, and the other was as an accompanist for blues artist Georgia White. Paul was dissatisfied with the acoustic
guitars that were sold in the mid 1930s and began experimenting with a few designs for an electric model on his own. Famously, he created "The Log," which was nothing more than a length of common 4" x 4" lumber with bridge, guitar neck, and pickup attached. For the sake of appearance, he attached the body of an Epiphonehollow-body guitar, sawn lengthwise with The Log in the middle. This solved his two main problems: feedback, as the acoustic body no longer resonated with the amplified sound, and sustain. Paul was dissatisfied with the acoustic guitars. In 1938, Paul moved to New York as part of a trio that included Jim Atkins (older half-brother of guitarist Chet Atkins) and bassist/percussionist Ernie Newton. Paul moved to Hollywood in 1943, where he formed a new trio. As a last-minute replacement for Oscar Moore, Paul played with
Nat King Cole and other artists in the inaugural Jazz at the Philharmonic concert in Los Angeles on July 2, 1944. Also that year, Paul's trio appeared on Bing Crosby's radio show. Crosby went on to sponsor Paul's recording experiments. The two also recorded together several times, including a 1945 number one hit, "It's Been A Long, Long Time." In addition to backing Crosby and artists like The Andrews Sisters, Paul's trio also recorded a few albums of their own on the Decca label in the late 1940s. Les Paul and "the Les Paul" Paul's innovative guitar, "The Log", built in 1939, was one of the first solid-body electric guitars.[3] (Leo Fender also independently created his own solid-body electric guitar around the same time and Adolph Rickenbacher had marketed a solid-body guitar in the 30s). Gibson Guitar Corporation designed a guitar incorporating Paul's suggestions in the early fifties, and presented it to him to try. He was impressed enough to sign a contract for what became the "Les Paul" model (originally only in a "gold top" version), and agreed never to be seen playing in public, or be photographed, with anything other than a Gibson guitar.
The arrangement persisted until 1961, when declining sales prompted Gibson to change the design without Paul's knowledge, creating a much thinner, lighter, and more aggressive-looking instrument with two cutaway "horns" instead of one. Paul said he first saw the "new" Gibson Les Paul in a music store window, and disliked it. Though his contract required him to pose with the guitar, he said it was not "his" instrument, and asked Gibson to remove his name from the headstock. (Others claimed that Paul ended
his endorsement contract with Gibson during his divorce, to avoid having his wife to get his endorsement money.) Gibson renamed the guitar "Gibson SG" (which stands for "Solid Guitar"), and it also became one of the company's best sellers.The original Gibson Les Paul guitar design regained popularity when Eric Claptonbegan playing the instrument a few years later (although he also played an SG and an ES-335). Paul resumed his relationship with Gibson, and has endorsed the original Les Paul guitar design ever since (though his personal Gibson Les Pauls are much modified by him - Paul always uses his own self-wound pickups and customized switching on his guitars). To this day, various models of Gibson Les Paul guitar are used all over the world, by both novice and professional guitarists. A less expensive version of the Les Paul guitar is also manufactured for Gibson's lower-priced Epiphone brand. In 1947, Capitol Records released a recording that had begun as an experiment in Paul's garage, entitled "Lover (When You're Near Me)", which featured Paul playing eight different parts on electric guitar, some of them recorded at half-speed, hence "double-fast" when played back at normal speed for the master. ("Brazil", similarly
recorded, was the B-side.) This was the first time that multi-tracking had been used in a recording. These recordings were made not with magnetic tape, but with acetate disks. Paul would record a track onto a disk, then record himself playing another part with the first. He built the multi-track recording with overlaid tracks, rather than parallel ones as he did later. There is no record of how many "takes" were needed before he was satisfied with one layer and moved onto the next.
Paul even built his own disc-cutter assembly, based on auto parts. He favored the flywheel from a Cadillac for its weight and flatness. Even in these early days, he used the acetate disk setup to record parts at different speeds and with delay, resulting in his signature sound with echoes and birdsong-like guitar riffs. When he later began using magnetic tape, the major change was that he could take his recording rig on tour with him, even making episodes for his 15-minute radio show in his hotel room. Les Paul and his wife Mary Ford at work recording during the late 1940s. Paul had hosted a 15-minute radio program, The Les Paul Show, on NBCin 1950, featuring his trio (himself, Ford, and rhythm player Eddie Stapleton) and his electronics, recorded from their home and with gentle humour between Paul and Ford bridging musical selections, some of which had already been successful on records, some of which anticipated the couple's recordings, and many of which presented dazzling re-interpretations of such jazz and pop selections as "In the Mood," "Little Rock Getaway," "Brazil," and "Tiger Rag." Several recordings of these shows survive among old-time radio collectors today. 1. Biography 1.1 "The Log"1.2 The Les Paul Trio 1.3 Les Paul andthe Les Paul" 1.4 Multitrack recording innovations 1.5 Top 40 with Mary Ford 1.6 Radio and television programs 1.7 The "Les Paulverizer" 1.8 Later career
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Hi Tom, Waukesha sure is lucky to have him as part of our history.nice tribute!
What a great tribute to Les Paul Tom. I didn't realize he was getting up that much in age. You certainly know of him well.
Great Localism post TOM We just had to have the flywheel replaced on our car LOL - great search term also!
Sincerely,
Grace
Tom, What a facinating post. I think of Les Paul from more of my mother's era and had no idea he was still around (God bless him!) at that age! Interesing reading about his life. I'm also a big Boz Scaggs fan and didn't know he was from there!
Krisitn
Waukesha is real lucky to have had a guy like this
Jeff and Grace
I can replace to that old flywheel
Gary
This guy is walking history and has change the world as we know it.
Carole
He was a couple generations fro me; but his style is unique. I used to love that "silk degrees" album by Bozz Scaggs.
Happy Birthday (tomorrow to Les Paul). He gave a lot people happy birthdays!!!
Glenn
Imagine, 96 and bending all those strings. Wait a minute; I am the one that goes through strings, he probably is a lot more stationary
Tommy,
Great post!!! A true living legend! Thanks, Fran
Fran
This guy is as cool as they come. It was just his birthday on the 9th of this month.