For Release: June 25 , 2007
Les Paul ' s insatiable curiosity and experiments gave us the musical instrument of the modern era -- the solid-body electric guitar -- and the predominant studio recording technique -- multi-tracking. American Masters "Les Paul: Chasing Sound" features Paul in his own words along with archival and current performance footage; home movies; and interviews w ith Jeff Beck, Tony Bennett, Ahmet Ertegun, B.B. King, Steve Miller, Bonnie Raitt and Phil Ramone among others. The program airs Wednesday, July 11 at 9/8 p.m. CT on KET1 .
"Les Paul: Chasing Sound" forgoes a narrator so that Paul's life story comes across through his own anecdotes. The story begins in Waukesha, Wis . , where he was born in 1915, and winds through musical meccas of the 20th century : Chicago during the Depression, with piano titan Art Tatum and trumpeter Louis Armstrong; New York in 1937, wow ing radio audiences coast to coast a nd Hollywood in 1942, backing Bing Crosby.
B ut even more than Paul's knack for the right riff, his desire to achieve new sounds would drive his career. After experiments amplifying his guitar strings with telephone parts and a phonograph needle, he eventually arrived at his solid-body prototype: six strings and a pick-up mounted on a four-by-four. After his guitar attracted the interest of the Gibson company, the instrument reached its apotheosis with the late-1950s "sunburst" red-orange models. In the hands of such legends as Chuck Berry, Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton and Keith Richards, it became rock 'n' roll's most iconic and enduring instrument.
"Les Paul: Chasing Sound" also details Paul's invention of sound-on-sound recording, or "overdubbing," as revolutionary a development as the solid-body electric guitar. By adding an additional record head to his first tape machine, Paul was able to record his own playing, then go back and dub a second track over the first, ad infinitum.
American Masters "Les Paul: Chasing Sound" is produced by WNET / New York . More information about KET programming and education services, as well as how to support KET, can be found at www.ket.org.