The Early Years: Cole, Armstrong, & Crosby
Les Paul, born Lester William Polfuss in 1915, started playing the harmonica at age eight and eventually made his way to the banjo and finally to the guitar, the instrument he will forever be associated with.
He started playing country music professionally at the age of thirteen, and by the time he was seventeen he was a high school dropout playing full time with Wolverton's Radio Band in St. Louis. He eventually found his way to Chicago in the 1930s and played jazz guitar and recorded an album under his pseudonym Rhubarb Red, and recorded another album with blues singer Georgia White.
It was in the 1940s when Paul really started to make a name for himself and accompanied such accomplished artists as the Andrews Sisters, Nat King Cole, and Bing Crosby, who featured him on his radio show and also funded some of his experiments in the recording studio. He also formed his own jazz trio, The Les Paul Trio, which recorded several albums for the Decca recording label.
In 1945, Paul met the woman he would marry four years later, singer Mary Ford, and it was their recordings as a duo where he achieved his greatest musical successes. They had a string of Top Ten hits in the early 1950s recording under the Capitol Records label, including "Bye-Bye Blues," "The World is Waiting for the Sunrise," and the number one hits "How High the Moon" and "Vaya Con Dios", which sat at the top of the charts for nine and eleven weeks, respectively.
Their radio-friendly style included elements of country, jazz, and pop standards of the day, and their sound was unique thanks to Paul's multi-track recording innovations. Their popularity declined in the latter part of the 1950s, and in 1964 the couple's marriage ended with a bitter divorce.
The Middle Years: Ford, Clapton, and Atkins
While Paul went into semi-retirement from recording and performing music in the 1960s, rock musicians such as Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck made the Gibson Les Paul guitar the premier instrument of the genre.
In 1967 Paul re-recorded some of his earlier hits on an album titled "Les Paul Now," and then virtually disappeared from the music scene again until 1976 with the recording of the album "Chester and Lester," which won a Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance and climbed as high as number 11 on Billboard's Country Album chart.
Paul and Mary Ford were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1978, and a decade later Paul was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Jeff Beck, who gave Paul's induction speech, commented that he had "copied more licks from Les Paul than I'd like to admit".
Between these two inductions, Paul remained pretty much out of the music scene, but around the time of his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction he started performing again on a regular basis.
The Later Years: Iridium Club, Richards, & McCartney
He continued performing pretty much right up to his death in August 2009, and for most of the last twelve years of his life played every Monday night at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City accompanied by a trio that included pianist John Colianni, bassist Nicki Parrott, and guitarist Lou Pallo.
He was often joined at the Iridium by a who's who of musicians such as Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, and Keith Richards, who all gave tribute to the man and his music. Paul picked up two more Grammys for his 2005 album "American Made World Played", which he recorded at age 90 and which featured cameos by Keith Richards, Jeff Beck, Peter Frampton, and Buddy Guy.
While his name will continue to be known to future generations of guitarists who consider the Gibson Les Paul the finest instrument of its kind, Les Paul, Grammy Award winning musician, should not be forgotten.
Sources
Les Paul: In his Own Words by Les Paul and Michael Cohcran
The New York Times (8/14/09) – "Les Paul, Guitar Innovator, Dies at 91"
The Iridium Jazz Club – "The World Has Lost a Remarkable Innovator and Musician: Les Paul Passes Away at 94"
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
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