Les Paul Gets Loose at 90

By I Jun. 27, 2005

Legendary guitarist Les Paul celebrates his 90th birthday with an upcoming album, Les Paul & Friends featuring a slate of guitar talents who learned a thing or two from the master artist. Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Steve Miller, Keith Richards and Kenny Wayne Shepherd are among the artists who show up on the nonagenarian’s first album in 26 years.

Paul, who still plays a weekly gig at New York’s Iridium Jazz Club, doesn’t possess the nimble fingers of his heyday, he is battling arthritis, so on the album he lets the younger guns take on the lead and solo parts, while providing some signature riffs, trill and staccato exclamations to the arrangements during post production.

Paul’s birthday is marked with other releases as well in the form of music, text and hardware. Capitol Records reissued Les Paul With Mary Ford: The Best Of The Capitol Masters on June 7. Hal Leonard Publishing is set to release The Les Paul Legacy in October, and Russ Cochran Publishing released Les Paul In His Own Words, a limited-edition autobiography by the guitar innovator. Gibson Guitars, which distributes the famous Les Paul guitar line will release 12 special edition guitars, one for each month of the year, to commemorate Paul’s 90th.