Three-hour celebration would've blown Hendrix's mind

No guitars were harmed during the Experience Hendrix concert Thursday night at the Paramount. Of course, borrowing from Seattle-born Jimi Hendrix's bag of tricks, one was picked behind the head. And another was played, this time with inimitable style by influential bluesman Buddy Guy, with overalls and a drumstick.
In celebration of rock's most influential guitarist, whose meteoric career ended with his death in 1970, instruments were caressed, coaxed and cajoled to maximum, this-one-goes-to-11 effect. It was a star-studded night of electric-guitar heroics and, save a brief appearance by Seattle's Kim Virant singing "Little Wing," a total testosterone fest.

The three-hour blowout featured some of the best guitarists of the past half-century, from Chicago blues legends Guy, 72, and Hubert Sumlin, 76, to young phenoms Jonny Lang (he was truly phenomenal here), Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Eric Gales. Playfully, lefty Gales, who wielded his guitar upside down in the familiar manner, opened with the behind-the-head maneuver and by repeating the classic mishearing of the "Purple Haze" lyric, " 'Scuse me while I kiss this guy."

The local representatives alone indicated the breadth of Hendrix's influence. It comes as no surprise that Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready is a fan, or that his trio Shadow '86 is a tribute. Here, McCready, bassist Rick Friel and drummer Chris Friel brought the raucous crowd to its feet (OK, it was cheating a bit) with a full-band version of Hendrix's Woodstock-classic reworking of "The Star Spangled Banner."

More intriguing was the effect on '80s-concept-metal rockers Queensryche, with singer Geoff Tate declaring that hearing Jimi's rendition of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" made him want to rock. And while the contrast between Tate's slick vocals and Hendrix's nonchalant-sounding ones was jarring, Scott Rockenfield very impressively doubled up on Jimi Hendrix Experience veteran Mitch Mitchell's drum parts.

Once one of rock's most explosive percussionists, the frail-looking Mitchell was reduced to the role of nostalgic reminder. That wasn't the case with bassist Billy Cox, the longtime Hendrix sideman who shepherded Thursday's ever-changing lineup for a good portion of the evening.

Cox took to the microphone for "Stone Free," playing off of Mato Nanji of the Native American band Indigenous, and later sang on "Red House" as Lang, Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford, Robby Krieger of The Doors and the still-vital Guy dueled behind him.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com
Mikel Toombs can be reached at mikeltoombs@gmail.com.

Guitar hero Les Paul ready for Rock Hall tribute

CLEVELAND (AP) — When Les Paul's grandchildren are jamming on the video game "Guitar Hero," it's not lost on him that he made it all possible.

Paul, known as the "Father of the Electric Guitar," will be honored at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's annual American Music Masters series, a weeklong event that starts Monday.

Paul is a rock 'n' roll da Vinci, part artist, part inventor, and at age 93 still performs weekly at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City.

"It's therapy," Paul said Thursday.

Paul recalled that the first time he heard a guitar on his mother's radio he knew he had to have one. By age 13, he was performing semiprofessionally as a country-music guitarist.

He built a solid-body electric guitar in 1941 — an invention born from his frustration that audiences were unable to hear him play.

Paul remembers the moment when inspiration hit. He was playing at a barbecue stand somewhere between his hometown of Waukesha, Wis., and Milwaukee when a man told him his guitar wasn't loud enough.

It took Paul 10 years to sell the Gibson guitar company on the concept.

"They thought it was a crazy idea to make a guitar come through an amplifier," he said.

In 1952, Gibson introduced the Les Paul model, which became the instrument of choice for musicians such as Duane Allman and Jimmy Page.

"We now could be king because you could turn the level up and you could be heard and you could play things that you could never have played acoustically," Paul said.

Paul's other innovations include recording techniques like close miking, echo delay, overdubbing and multitracking. He also made his mark as a jazz-pop musician, recording hits like "How High the Moon" with his second wife, singer Mary Ford.

Paul was inducted into the early influence category of the Rock Hall in 1988.

He said he still tinkers with new ideas and is busy designing four new amplifiers and two new guitars for Gibson, including a model that beginners can afford but still fall in love with.

"Most of the people that I know that have a guitar love that guitar like they do their wife," he said.

Paul will perform at a tribute concert Nov. 15 that caps the American Music Masters series. He will be joined by a legion of guitar virtuosos, including Slash, Duane Eddy, Billy Gibbons and the Ventures.

"I'm very grateful to the generation that came after me and picked up the instrument and carried on with it," Paul said. "If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be where I am."

http://www.lespaulonline.com