Les paul: chasing sound

[Treblemaker]

Super cool show on PBS in the Bay Area last night with a fanastic bio on Les Paul with all sorts of special video snippets and interviews with guys like Tommy Emanuel, Steve Miller, Bonnie Raitt, BB King, Eddie Van Halen, and plenty of vintage footage of Les and Mary Ford, Art Tatum, Lester Young etc... Terrific live takes of Les at his regular Monday night gig at the Iridium in Times Square playing beautifully at 90 years young....

This was a vintage guitar nuts show with amazing footage of Les's original electric log, his L5, Django's actual Maccaferri Selmer and a rooms full of Les's guitars and recording gear.

At a few points in the program images of Les holding a mandolin were shown and one of Les Paul with Fred Waring - with Waring holding an F5 Gibson.

This was an absolutely riveting PBS program for this guitar/music/recording tech nut.

-Treblemaker
http://www.WorldWideTed.com

[Treblemaker]

Link:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet....7-07-12 (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/paul_l_stub.html?campaign=pbshomefeatures_2_americ anmastersbrlespaul_2007-07-12)

[crncob]

absolutely riviting show lots of jazz artists in 30S nyc. sound track with lots of jazz licks i wish i could play.

[MandoSquirrel]

I saw another thread on this first, here's what I posted there:

"Hey, I caught that, wondered about posting about it, myself. The next day, "How High The Moon" & "It's Been A Long, Long Time" were running in constant rotation through my head! It had a bunch of nice samples, & great comments from a variety of fields. I thoroughly enjoyed it, & wondered where my VHS of that Brooklyn Academy tribute with BB King, Van Halen, David Gilmore, et al is hiding. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif"

[Chippster]

It was refreshing to hear the narrator say "It's Been a Long Long Time" had this wonderful solo and the record was truly a duet, not just Bing Crosby singing with Les accompanying." Then the narrator SHUT UP and let us hear the solo in it's entirety!

[MandoSquirrel]

Yeah, a lot of the playing was actually allowed to be heard; last time I watched something like this, everytime it got interesting, someone started talking! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif

[Santiago]

Fantastic documentary!!!! I was fortunate to meet Mr. Paul on one or two occasions though I never heard him play live. I was intimately familiar with his inventions and developments. What struck me from the documentary -- aside from his story and how he crossed over from country music to jazz and made SURE he was at the right place at the right time -- was how GREAT those early overdubbed recordings with Mary Ford really were. He was SOOO far ahead of his time! Great man.