Les Paul, a virtuoso guitarist and inventor who shaped the sound of rock ‘n roll, died on Thursday in New York state, Gibson Guitar company said. He was 94.
Paul “passed away today from complications of severe pneumonia at White Plains Hospital in White Plains, New York, surrounded by family and loved ones,” said Gibson, producer of the renowned Les Paul guitar.
Gibson called Paul “one of the foremost influences on 20th century sound.”
PHOTO: AFP
First known as a brilliant guitarist, Paul went on to change the course of music, pioneering the shift from acoustic to electric guitar and inventing multitrack recording.
Born Lester William Polsfuss in Waukesha, Wisconsin on June 9, 1915, Paul was a child guitar prodigy who dropped out of school at 17 to play with Sunny Joe Wolverton’s Radio Band.
He played jazz and hillbilly picking, made his first recordings in 1936, and in 1938 moved to New York to star on national radio.
By his mid-thirties, Paul was one of the country’s most sought-after guitarists in a career that saw him play alongside greats like Nat King Cole and Louis Armstrong.
Combining jazz, western swing and hillbilly sounds, he formed the Les Paul trio, a regular guest on Bing Crosby’s hit radio show. His first number one with Crosby and the trio, It’s been a long, long time, topped a million sales.
In 2005 he released a double-Grammy winning album, Les Paul and Friends: American Made World Played, with electric guitar heroes including Keith Richards and Eric Clapton.
His biggest achievements, however, were in the technical realm, where he helped pioneer solid-bodied electric guitars and multitrack recording, a technique allowing groups to record different parts at different times, then mix them together.
A tinkerer from the time he was a boy, Paul’s big idea came in 1940 or 1941 when he strung a flat board like a guitar and attached pickups.
“The log,” as it was dubbed, created an electronic signal that could be amplified and processed, opening a new realm to music.
Gibson Guitars began making the Les Paul model in 1952.
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