Les had it all. He could play. He could entertain, and he could invent. Boy could he invent! If you're interested in his journeyman days as a sideman with Art Tatum in Chicago or Bing Crosby in Hollywood, then you might want to check out the DVD, CHASING SOUND. If you think about those days (even way before my time), guitarists were almost always sidemen in the rhythm section. As an example, the real gems in Charlie Christian's discography come from jam sessions at Minton's and not from his day job with Benny Goodman.

In these days before rock and roll, Les stepped up to become the frontman, even allowing a second guitarist (Jimmy Atkins - brother of Chet) to trade licks with him. By the late forties and early fifties, Les and his wife, Mary Ford, ruled the Billboard charts with number one hit single after number one hit single. Rock and roll may have knocked him off the hit parade, but it also put him back in his workshop, where he worked magic with multi tracking recorders and tape loop delays. Les even invented a guitar with a multitrack recorder inside the body, so he could create three part improvisations on the fly. You would think that the sound on such a contraption would be distorted from all that excess gear, but Les made it come out clean.

The man was a genius.