Les Paul Plays an Electric Tune (circa 1952)

Written by Michael Black...a fictional account

As I enter the Iridium Jazz Club on West 63rd, the stage is hardly visible due to the perpetual haze of smoke that seems to be characteristic of such homely joints. In fact, about the only thing able to permeate the mist is the soaring sound of the rolling guitar lead. Tonight there is a packed house of New Yorkers seeking refuge from a bleak winter evening, and they are here to see to jazz great Les Paul.

While Les Paul is a musical luminary in every sense of the term, the particular intrigue of tonight's performance lies not in the songs he plays but rather what he is playing them with. It looks similar to most guitars barring one key ingredient, there are no apparent sound holes; he is essentially drawing sound out of a block of wood with the help of some electrical circuitry. The sound he is pulling out of his guitar is as sleek as his greased black hair, and the melodies are as pure as the smile on his face. Les Paul's graceful stage presence and wry grins of approval suggest that he indeed knows that he is on to something. Paul closes out the set with a flaring blurry of notes and steps off stage. As the applause dies down he sees me in the corner, pulls up a chair, and immediately orders a drink.

Only one year after releasing the number one song of 1951, "How High the Moon", Les Paul is still riding high at the peak of his career. Picking up the guitar for the first time at age nine, his years of work are finally paying off for him now in his mid-thirties. It seems as if he has nowhere to go but down. He has sold over 2 million records in the past year, his main recording partner is his wife/singer Mary Ford, and he is quickly becoming noticed just as much for his technical innovations as his music. Known by acquaintances as a great storyteller and a delightful conversationalist, Paul could likely small talk all night, and his lumbering laugh commands attention to our table as if people were not watching his every move anyway.

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