Review by Steven I. Ramm
Rating:
Les Paul was a true renaissance man – a musician, an inventor, and a funny “rascal” too – during his 94 years, he made hit records, invented the solid body electric guitar and multi-track recording and spent every Monday night for 20 years playing on stage in the fairly intimate Iridium Jazz Club on Broadway in New York City. His audience on a Monday night consisted of tourists, longtime Paul fans and often a celebrity musician or two, who would often “sit in” with the master.

For Paul’s 90th birthday month in 2005, some big names were scheduled to appear with Paul and the 54-minute show that forms the core of this DVD captures some of those moments. After a basic intro to Paul, the performances commence. Many of those in the first part of the show are interrupted with comments about him, which were recorded later, but soon the numbers are presented uninterrupted. Australian guitar wiz Tommy Emmanuel, Jose Feliciano, mandolinist David Grisman and Steve Miller are in the program. So are jazz violinist Christian Howes and tap dancer Andrew Nemr – who jam with Paul – but they are never identified until the final credits. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Howes play with Paul when I had the opportunity to visit the Iridium, and I’ve seen the young Nemr do his fancy footwork as well. Keith Richards don’s a Les Paul model guitar to trade licks too, but the performance was inserted from a 2002 Richards visit to the Iridium.

Though the package lists “Tributes and Live Performances” by Bonnie Raitt and Tony Bennett, you see them in the same room with Paul. They appear in 4-minute interviews as part of the additional hour of “bonuses”. Emmanuel and guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli are there for similar interviews. The longest, and most interesting, comes from Steve Miller, who was practically raised in the Paul house in New Jersey from the time he was five years old. Miller has some great stories.

The other bonus on this wonderful DVD include a really grainy “Soundie” from the 40s of the Les Paul Trio and a complete five minute Les Paul and Mary Ford Listerine TV show from 1953 which is in beautiful condition. The true gem, at least for me, in the bonus section, is an 11-minute portion from the early 1950s TV show Omnibus with Alistair Cooke. Les and Mary demonstrate how multi-tracking works and its both educational as well as highly entertaining. We even get a recent six-minute interview with the sound engineer for the Listerine Show.

There are other video bios of Paul that have been released over the last 20 years (“Chasing Sound” is highly recommended). This DVD makes a great companion and has a lot more performance material, as well as Paul’s sometimes-risque humor. The DVD was produced by the Les Paul Estate and is distributed by Questar.

Steve Ramm

“Anything Phonographic”