Les Paul 100th Anniversary Special Edition with the Photography of Robert Knight

Here’s a classic 2015 post, written by ASCAP award winner/rocker Debra Devi, and photography by the legendary rock photographer, Robert Knight – Rick201

by: Debra Devi

Photography by Robert Knight

The Les Paul Big Sound Experience Truck – photo credit: Robert M. Knight

“I want a sound that has never been heard before,” Les Paul famously remarked, and during his life he really delivered–as a creative guitarist who came up with fresh licks, chord sequences and fretting techniques that blew away his peers, and as the pioneering developer of the solid-body electric guitar and many recording innovations, including multi-tracking, tape delay, phasing and reverb.

Les Paul was probably not thinking of the cacophonous sound of Steve Vai squealing out supersonic pinch harmonics while Joe Bonamassa shredded up the blues, but that never-heard-before blend is what drifted up toward heaven when Vai and Bonamassa joined Joe Satriani, Warren Haynes, Neal Schon, Johnny A. and Steve Miller for the final jam of the evening at Les Paul’s 100th birthday celebration at the Hard Rock Café in Times Square on Tuesday, June 9.

The massive talents onstage did a great job, actually, of not stepping on each other’s superstar toes during the jam. It was nimbly conducted by the evening’s musical director, SNL’s G.E. Smith, and led vocally by Les Paul’s godson Steve “The Joker” Miller–who groused that to give this lineup only eight minutes to jam together was “a freaking travesty!”

The rockers were still lumbering through Freddie King’s “Tore Down” twenty minutes later, to the crowd’s delight.

That morning, New York City had proclaimed June 9 “Les Paul Day.” Journey guitarist Neil Schon accepted the proclamation at 10 am in Times Square on the steps of Les Paul’s “Big Sound Experience,” the 53-foot interactive mobile touring exhibit kicking off a national tour this summer.

Steve “The Joker” Miller – photo credit: Robert Knight

By 6 pm, the red carpet was rolled out at the Hard Rock, and the music legends were rolling in, pausing for photos and TV interviews. Once inside, musicians and audience were treated to a beautiful exhibit of Lester William Polsfuss treasures, including dusty Ampeg tape machines and jerry-rigged studio devices, handmade picks, one of Mr. Paul’s first acoustic guitars, his favorite coffee table, his iconic blue turtleneck and the last guitar Les ever played before he passed away at 94, on August 12, 2009.

Paul was still going strong in his nineties, delighting jazzheads and metalheads during Monday night concerts at the Iridium that became a pilgrimage for illustrious sit-in guests like Paul McCartney, Slash and Mark Knopfler. Anyone who met him there could attest to his gentle and encouraging demeanor toward any and all types of guitarists. If you were a guitar player, you spoke his language.

The Les Paul Trio—guitarist Lou Pallo, bassist Nicki Parrott and pianist John Colianni—still plays the Iridium every Monday night, with guitar heroes like Jeff Beck and Robert Randolph filling in for Paul.
Upon entering the Hard Rock, Paul’s beloved band was already swinging, led by Pallo, who backed Paul for almost forty years. The group performed “Blues Skies,” “The Lady Is a Tramp,” and “Sweet Georgia Brown,” the last song Paul ever played at his Monday night hang.

Next up at the Les Paul 100th Birthday celebration was Little Kids Rock, a student band from a music education program sponsored by the Les Paul Foundation. During the changeover, video interviews with Sammy Hagar, BB King and other artists were screened, attesting to Paul’s incredibly wide-ranging influence.

As Nancy Wilson noted, “He gave music muscle.”

Obviously thrilled to pieces, Little Kids Rock performed sweetly solid versions of “Smoke on the Water” and Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll.” A new generation of rockers is born and hitting the streets with the rock of ages! Very cool…

Everybody rocked and for next year, it would be cool to see this celebration grow to include an even bigger assembly of guitarists take to the stage, including some of my personal favorites: Nile Rodgers, Oz Noy, Bonnie Raitt, Jennifer Batten, Tom Morello, Stanley Jordan, Orianthi, Gary Clark Jr., Kaki King, Ana Popovic, Buckethead, Bibi McGill.

The MC, Q104.3 “New York’s Classic Rock Station” DJ Ken Dashow, who crowed that if Les Paul were there in the flesh he would be looking into the audience asking, “Where are the babes?” A guy in an oversized “Disco Still Sucks” t-shirt nodded sagely.

Neal Schon – photo credit: Robert M. Knight

Next up was Neal Schon, who brought his classic monster tone from the ‘80s and beyond to the next generation – so drenched in fractal-generated delay and chorus his attack was barely discernable. Schon zoomed through instrumentals “NS Vortex” and “The Calling” with fierce shredding harkening back to his early Journey days. His set included jazz fusion keyboardist Rachel Z. Hakim, who’s worked with Stanley Clarke and the inimitable Peter Gabriel.

Between sets, Paul’s manager Mike Braunstein and the Executive Director of the Les Paul Foundation, shared interesting tidbits like the fact that when Paul talked about recording Bing Crosby, Paul said he was “the laziest man I’ve ever met.” Crosby liked to quit at noon, so Paul got Ampeg to send over another tape head, and drilled a hole in it, cobbling together the first makeshift multi-track machine.

Johnny A. performed next, wearing his signature Gibson guitar, one of the company’s most popular models. Two instrumentals showcased his clean tone, clear phrasing and fine sense of melody—“And Your Bird Can Sing” and a touching “Wichita Lineman”–backed by G.E. Smith and the house band.

After Johnny A., a buff Joe Satriani emerged with a grin to shouts of “Satch!” rocking a cleanly shaved head and wraparound shades.

“Les Paul was the first guitar hero,” Satriani declared.

Joe Satriani – photo credit: Robert M. Knight

Satch was followed by the two blues/rock stars in the house, Joe Bonamassa and Warren Haynes. Bonamassa, pale and twitchy in his sharp black suit, brought hyperbolic and precise shredding and sweep picking to Muddy Waters’s “All Aboard” and a charged-up “Double Trouble” by Otis Rush. It looked like Bonamassa was rocking his favorite ’59 Les Paul Gold Top.

Haynes upped the ante, though, through the sheer force of his soul, standing stock still center stage as he played exquisitely felt and phrased guitar solos on “Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home.” Haynes used his warm, rough-hewn voice to turn “Soulshine”, by the Allman Brothers, into a elegiac gospel hymn for Les Paul.

After Haynes took us to church, Steve Vai bounded onstage all angular limbs and floppy bangs to remind us just how far out there one can take an electric guitar. Flourishing his patented pitch-shifted dive bombs and space-age effects. Vai dug into his arsenal for a frenetic, shred-tastic “Racing the World” and the jazzier “Tender Surrender.”

For the finale, instead of the radio hits Steve Miller could have played, he chose old classics and did what his godfather, Les Paul, would have done—invited players to sit in.

Steve Vai – photo credit: Robert M. Knight

He opened with “One Mint Julep” with Bonamassa and Satriani trading licks, and Satch playing against type with a flawless, simple, quiet blues solo. Miller brought Haynes and Vai up for “Blues with a Feeling,” featuring New York City blues scene staple Jon Paris on harmonica, and coaxed a super-tasty solo on “Tore Down” out of G.E. Smith, who was playing a gorgeous black 1960 Les Paul.

The music continued into the early morning hours at a festive private party at the Iridium, where waiters plied guests with plates of bruschetta, tiny quiches and other fortifying snacks. Les Paul was clearly family to the owners of the Iridium, who were there to honor him and make sure everyone was having a good time.

Booze flowed as our ears were pinned back by the Southern hard rock sound of Count’s 77 from Las Vegas, led by singer Danny “Count” Koker of HISTORY’s hit TV series “Counting Cars.”

The band played a few originals and then began bringing players up to sit in, starting with some young rockers like 17-year-old Canadian musician Lyric Dubee and adding Earl Slick, Joe Lewis Walker, Lou Pallo, Joe Berger and Jon Paris to the mix as they eventually made their way up Broadway from the Hard Rock.

It was a wonderful New York City night that Les Paul would have loved, worthy of becoming an annual tradition in his name.

GALLERY