I Am A Fan Of The Late Les Paul...
So when I heard by chance on the radio a few days ago someone attempting to perform a Les Paul song with a vocalist so similar to his wife Mary Ford my ears pricked up.
I later discovered it was another guitarist with a long history and reputation...Jeff Beck with Imelda May. Some further investigation resulted in my discovering that a concert or event had been held at the Iridium a Jazz Club In New York City honouring Les Paul who had passed away earlier in the year.
Over the decades many of the musicians that have gone on to play much of the music that is enjoyed today from heavy rock, rhythm and blues and so much more virtually all say Les Paul was the one that made them pick up a guitar in the first place, the list is too long to attempt to do it justice.
Its thanks to Les we have many of the recording techniques used today and a lot of what is done digitally, he was doing with analogue equipment, he was also doing this in the 40's and 50's.
So its very brave of Jeff Beck to attempt to produce and perform in a concert and on a CD his versions(but obviously using the arrangements that we know and love of Les)and doing a pretty good job of it. He obviously has a great affection for Les.
I say this as much as anything because Les had access to a lot of equipment and tapes etc...in his own studio and probably if he wanted to create a live performance sounding close to what was heard on record he'd have to bring some of that to the venue...I suspect Jeff is doing it all "Live" and that has to be really hard.
Having said that the album pays tribute to Les Paul there are many more great songs included by other greats in the business so all in all its a good album.
I haven't seen the album in the shops...we don't really have any record shops around here any more.
But some looking around the Internet and various places where you can download mp3 files I came across the whole album.
I have to say I am very happy to have found it and perhaps I can suggest that you may enjoy it too...
posted by The Great Gildersleeve | 2:08 am
4 Comments:
Good investigative skills there Gildy...or did you just need to pull a few strings
(I'll get my coat)
Span :-)
Jeff is a survivor and its more a case of what hasn't he done...I see that there is a DVD of the event too.
Amongst the selection Jeff plays an old instrumental by The Shadows "Apache" I always liked them.
Tomorrow(May 7th)for anyone with a quick enough internet connection he's at the New Orleons Jazz Festival which is being carried via a webcast and he's soon on tour again...
Coincidence?
I was looking through my tv listings guide at some stations I don't watch too often and this coming Tuesday they are showing a concert(Jamming Session)given by Les Paul at the Iridium and they are following it with...Jeff Beck's Rock 'n' Roll Party which was the album I downloaded a few days ago(so this is basically the DVD of the event)
So unless something unexpected happens I shall be watching.
The concert as shown on tv had another 7 songs to what was on the album and sitting in the audience was...David Bowie...
The DVD has apparantly another 70 minutes of material including behind the scenes footage but the tv version only showed the concert which gave approx another 30 minutes of music.
Post a Comment
<< Home