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Tuesday June 10th, 2003

Guitar slingers gather for Les Paul's birthday

Les Paul celebrated his 88th birthday last night the best way he knows how - playing music at his regular Monday night gig at the Iridium Jazz Club with admiring musicians who came to celebrate with Les, aka Lester Polfuss, aka "Red Hot Red" -- a name conferred upon him by his mother.

Les had come a long way from the 13-year-old boy in Waukesha, Wisconsin, who created his first electric guitar by jamming a phonograph needle into the top of his Sears Silvertone and amplifying the sound with a telephone mouthpiece connected to a radio. His boyhood experiment lead to the infamous "Log" in the early 1940s, consisting of a maple four-by-four with two pickups, a metal bridge and an Epiphone guitar neck. That early solidbody guitar foreshadowed the Les Paul model which Gibson would take to the world, and rock and blues guitarists would adopt as their own from the '50s into the new century.

As a musician he became a star with the Les Paul Trio. He later wed Mary Ford and they partnered to sell millions of records and star in their own television show. Les had become the most famous guitar player in the world by 1952, when Gibson enlisted him to help launch the companys first solidbody guitar. The endorsement agreement is now the most successful in the history of musical instruments, with over 100 different Les Paul models through the years and sales of over a million of the signature guitars.

Less recording career led to more electronic and recording innovations that earned him recognition as the father of multi-track recording and a Technical Grammy in 2001.

Yet last night he was playing a gig with an electric guitar with his name on it to celebrate a lifetime well lived. Perfect.

Everybody sing! Happy birthday to you....

Mr. 335, Larry Carlton (l), and "Red Hot Red"

Jazz pianist Monty Alexander wishes Les well

Jazz guitarist Russell Malone and the birthday hero

Les and Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones

Larry and Les

Pat Martino and Les share a hug

Photos by Shahar Azran