Thursday, May 25, 2006

Les Paul's 91st Birthday at the Iridium Jazz Club

The Iridium Jazz Club, the long-time home of guitar pioneer Les Paul, announced Les Paul's 91st Birthday Celebration Monday, June 12th, 2006. Les will be taking the stage with his regular working band, Lou Pallo-guitar, Nicky Parrott-bass, and John Colliani-piano for two sets at 8:30 and 10:30 PM. The five-time Grammy Award winner (Les won two Grammy's this year for his chart-topping Capitol CD "American Made World Played") and was also celebrated with a gala concert in his honor by music stars Slash, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Alison Krauss, Steve Lukather, Joe Perry, Joe Satriani, Neal Schon, Shayna Steele, Buddy Guy, and Edgar Winter.

Les Paul, the father of the electric guitar, was born June 9, 1915, in Waukesha, WI. The five-time Grammy Award winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is the inventor of the solid body electric guitar and the pioneer of multi-track recording, the use of reverb and other now-standard recording techniques.

Paul was honored throughout his 90th year with an array of new product releases, honors and awards fit for the father of the electric guitar. In addition to Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played, Capitol/EMI released Les Paul with Mary Ford: The Best of The Capitol Masters (90th Birthday Edition), a collection of Paul's finest Capitol recordings, with new artwork, bonus tracks and a package essay written by Paul himself. Last May, Paul was inducted into the National Inventors' Hall Of Fame at the Hall's Akron, OH headquarters. On June 9, 2005 the evening of Paul's 90th birthday, he was honored with the Songwriters' Hall Of Fame Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award. On June 19, an all-star group of guitarists took the Carnegie Hall stage for "All For Paul: Les Paul's 90th Birthday Salute, " a star-studded celebration presented by Gibson Guitar at the JVC Jazz Festival - New York. In addition, two new Les Paul books have been released: The Les Paul Legacy by Rob Lawrence (Hal Leonard Publishing) and Les Paul In His Own Words, a limited edition autobiography with each numbered copy signed by Paul (Russ Cochran Publishing). Guitarists around the world favor Les Paul's signature line of Gibson guitars, which debuted in 1952.

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