He was in his 90s when I saw him live at Iridium in 2007. I didn't go there to hear him play like he did in his prime. I went there to spend an evening with HIM. I spent two hours close enough to reach out and touch his foot while he played, and actually got to speak with him for a minute when he autographed a CD I'd bought. He was most gracious, a truly refined gentleman, and I will treasure the memory of those few seconds for the rest of my life.
Every time he goes on stage he has a different Gibson tuned and configured by him back in his last hey day some of those are prototypes Gibson sent to him back in the early 50s
Oh! I'm amazed! When I saw to my Epiphone Les Paul Custom I remember what I desired this model. And when I see the man, the genius behind of this guitar icon I just say: Thank you Ms. Les Paul, for you music, for your iconic idea of guitar and I glad to say: I stand your council: LP black to show my hands slide on the neck. Thank you.
Les was in awe of Django they actually became friends Les very generously payed for Django,s funeral and was given Django,s cherished maccaferi selmer 501 guitar. if you have not heard Django play this tune it will blow your mind bearing in mind it was improvised
Django Reinhardt recorded his famous version of "Sheik of Araby" in 1937 but he didn't write the song. It was already a fairly well known standard by then.
Check out the sweep picking @ :58! HA! So many guitarists think their favorite guy was the first to do this or that, but someone usually did it before them.
Maybe Paul felt the song didn't need a piano part. I think he was good at demonstrating "admirable restraint" (as per Robert Fripp's comment about Bill Bruford, who chose to sit out while the rest of King Crimson played a live improvisation that later became known as Trio when it was released on the Starless And Bible Black album) when it was needed.
It's was pop but you could call this proto rock or swing jazz. Les Paul is mostly considered a pioneer in jazz, so I would call this swing even though it is very rock sounding.
Nope, it's not jazz, at least the jazz we have been knowing in the last 60 years (be bop, hard bop etc...) It's a sort of rockabilly and some kind of Dixieland ...
You mean compared fifteen year olds doing RU-vid shorts from their bedroom? Their music is worthless and trivial. This guy left an enormous and meaningful legacy.
I'm sorry he has no rhythm. Rhythm is the key to play an instrument 🎸 This is a Sad thing about les Paul. All that playing but no Rhythm. Why all that reverb. Van Helen learns from Hendrix technique. But Van Helen is a Racist. Go google Kurt Cobain about Van Helen's racism. To learn blues rock is from Hendrix. Hendrix is a pioneer of Blues Rock or hard Rock blues. Van Helen bit his tongue from not saying his learning technique is from Hendrix. Go listen to the Jimi Hendrix Band of gypsy albums from Fillmore East of N.Y.. Especially the song Power of love and Machine gun. Hendrix did a lot of stuff before Van Helen came out . But that reverb is too high of Les Paul. What it sounds like without that reverb and no rhythm. It will sound like crap. People got fooled listening to Les Paul. He has no rhythm? You can hear it of his playing.. To play fast does not produce rhythm. Old black blues cats can tell you that. There are some blues Grass players or country guitar players, or Jazz Players is better than Les Paul. Les Paul is ok on his scales but no rhythm.. Van Helen is nothing but noise and he can't play the blues of turning the volume down of distortion.... like BB king 👑. Jim Hendrix can play the blues. Not just hard blues rock. Hendrix can turn down the amp. That makes Jim Hendrix a better guitar Player than Van Helen. Van Helen is nothing but noise. Van Helen is just not the number one guitar player in Hard Rock. It's Jim Hendrix's number one guitar player. Number one in blues are BB king and Albert king. Hendrix learned from those blues cats. Don't get me wrong about Les Paul and Van Helen. They are not all that. I like Steve Ray Vaughan on delta blues. But I don't like Texas blues. It's not real blues. I like Steve Ray Vaughan than Van Halen. Not much into Van Helen. I'm more into Jimi Hendriix's. I'm a guitarist and musician myself.
Les admitted that he would never be able to play like that. He was more important as an inventor than a guitarist…but he could still trade licks with the best of them.
