Les Paul Brings Sizzling Six-String Back to Stage, Studio

Just to the right of the compact stage area in Fat Tuesday’s, a jazz club in Manhattan, there is an enlarged reprint of a magazine story headlined “The Les Paul Fan Club.”

That’s an appropriate place for the story to hang, because it appears that the ever-expanding Paul fan club seems to descend on Fat Tuesday’s each Monday night, where the 75-year-old legendary guitar innovator performs with his trio.

With a mischievous twinkle in his eye, Paul leads guitarist Lou Pallo and bassist Gary Mazzaropi through two unrehearsed sets of guitar tunes.

“The audiences are extremely grateful,” Paul said after a recent performance. “They love what we’re doing. They know we don’t rehearse, that it’s impromptu, that they’ll never hear it again the same way.”

With the exception of his sound check and the two shows he does each Monday, Paul never plays his guitar because of severe arthritis in his hands, which nearly crippled his guitar playing until he learned how to play with his disability.

“When I play, I can only use two fingers,” he said. “It took me from ’83 until now to play half of what I want to play, but I’m getting there. It’s encouraging, because I can see the light, that I’m going to make it and play all the things I can play in my mind. It’s a gradual process of winning the battle of playing with two fingers.”

With the four-record deal he signed with CBS Records earlier this year, he will have the opportunity to dazzle his fans even further. He will make rock, jazz and country albums and a retrospective of his entire recording career. The rock album is now in production.

“I signed for four, but it’ll be more,” he said.