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Monday June 9th, 2003

Happy 88th birthday Les Paul!

Eighty-eight years ago today, Les Paul was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Les is "still playin' joints," holding down a regular Monday night gig at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City.

Les Paul was already a well-known guitarist by the 1940s, when he became the leading proponent of the solidbody electric guitar, playing a homemade instrument he nicknamed The Log. His electronic innovations, such as the six guitar parts he played on his 1948 hit Brazil, would earn him recognition as the father of multi-track recording and a Technical Grammy in 2001. His million-selling recordings with his wife Mary Ford, including Mockin Bird Hill and How High the Moon, made him the most famous guitarist in the world by the time he and Gibson joined forces in 1952 to design Gibsons first solidbody electric guitar.

"He has been experimenting with electric guitars for as long as there have been electric guitars," says Henry Juszkiewicz, Chairman and CEO of Gibson Guitar.

Happy birthday Les from your admiring colleagues and friends at Gibson. Long live Les Paul.

Stay tuned to gibson.com this week for more news about Les Paul's birthday.