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Los Angeles Times
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
This rare, hands-on recording museum highlights the sonic legacy of guitar god Les Paul
About 80 years ago, guitarist and inventor Les Paul built a home recording studio in his Hollywood garage on North Curson Avenue and began developing his 'new sound,' which incorporated cutting-edge recording techniques such as overdubbing, close miking, echo and delay. Dissatisfied with the quality of the day's commercial recordings, Paul, who'd worked with pop stars including Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, and was a guitar virtuoso and bandleader, endeavored to push the practice forward — to make recording a kind of erudite art form. His instrumental single 'Lover' became the first commercial pop record to incorporate multiple layers of music, all of which were performed by Paul's dexterous fingers. 'Sextuplet guitar-ing,' Billboard magazine declared in its Feb. 21, 1948, review, '... technique so good it's ridiculous.' Today, a new studio in Hollywood celebrates the former Angeleno's legacy as a recording pioneer. Over the last three years, the Les Paul Foundation and a team of engineers have gone to extraordinary lengths to build the Les Paul Recording Studio, housed in United Recording on Sunset Boulevard. The facility includes Paul's original equipment, such as the first-ever multitrack Ampex tape machine and multitrack recording console, as well as a selection of Paul's customized guitars, including his namesake model for Gibson. Paul's recording equipment is monumental for its historical value but also because it still works. 'We have the Wright Brothers' plane in there and it actually flies,' said Michael Braunstein, executive director of the Les Paul Foundation, by way of comparison. The new studio is essentially a rare hands-on museum where students and commercial artists may study and perform the same techniques Paul employed, using his tools. Los Angeles-based musician Dweezil Zappa interviewed Paul on MTV in 1987, which created a fondness between the pair. During a phone call from the road — Zappa was on a tour celebrating his father's album 'Apostrophe' — he explained the importance of Paul's innovations. 'He was so far ahead of the game in so many ways, not only as a great guitar player, but also how he figured out ways to record music live,' he said. 'The foundation of the sound capture is still better than anything else that you would find today. The products that were put into use and the way that it was machined … it's unmatched.' Zappa says he's visited the new studio and intends to use it to record some of his own music after his tour concludes. The studio also has an educational mission. 'This is also a real opportunity for students to learn about analog recording from the master,' said Steve Rosenthal, a Grammy-winning producer who serves as the head archivist and music producer for the Les Paul Foundation. Rosenthal's also known for his Manhattan recording studio the Magic Shop, which closed in 2016, where he worked with David Bowie, Lou Reed, Sonic Youth, Ramones and many others. Groups from Carnegie Mellon University and Syracuse University have already participated in seminars at the studio led by Rosenthal and Tom Camuso, a Grammy-winning engineer who's also the Les Paul Foundation's director of audio engineering. 'The console looks like it's from a battleship, and we let students record on it and see how hard it is compared to today's digital audio workstations,' Camuso explained. 'The connection they make is that this is where it started, this is the first of all of it.' The idea for the studio began in 2022 amid Rosenthal's quest to source, organize, curate and restore Paul's vast catalog of music from the Library of Congress archives. 'It became clear to me that the best solution would be to mix the music on Les' original gear,' he said. He brought in Camuso, a longtime associate who'd worked at the Magic Shop, and the pair endeavored to repair the eight-track recording console nicknamed 'The Monster' that Paul built with engineer Rein Narma, which featured leading-edge in-line equalization and vibrato effects. They also retrieved Paul's Ampex 5258 Sel-Sync multitrack tape machine, familiarly known as the Octopus, which sits alongside the console, and was the first-ever eight-track. The studio also has a three-track machine that was in Paul's home in Mahwah, N.J., which he used to play tapes recorded at other studios. At the time, Paul was the only person with eight-track capabilities. 'That was his way of communicating with the outside world, so to speak,' Camuso said. The equipment was in varying stages of disrepair, and there was no documentation accompanying it. Many of the recording console's wires had been cut, and some of its modules were missing. Camuso and a group from Thump Recording Studios in Brooklyn spent 10 months replacing and repairing pieces that were missing or had failed, without changing anything about the way the machine was originally made. 'We had to source old stock parts from the '50s,' Camuso said, 'and there were little plastic pieces that had disintegrated. The team would drum scan those and then 3D print them in their original form.' An Ampex expert from Canada broke down the tape machines and then rebuilt them from the ground up, exactly as they were when Paul used them. Before he used the multitrack tape machine and recording console, Paul's early experiments with overdubbing, or what he called 'sound on sound,' involved two recording-cutting lathes, a record player, a mixer and hundreds of blank wax discs, all of which he used to layer tracks manually. In 1948, Bing Crosby gave Paul his first mono Ampex recorder, to which Paul added a second playback head, which enabled him to record multiple tracks on the same reel of tape. He and his second wife, Mary Ford, took this machine on the road, recording their songs in hotel rooms and in apartments. Ford was a skilled singer with perfect pitch who could execute lead vocals and harmonize with herself in very few takes using Paul's early version of multitracking, which was revolutionary but primitive and didn't allow for mistakes. Given the analog nature of Paul's setup, she had to sing everything live and unmanipulated. The pair recorded a string of 28 hit singles between 1950 to 1957, beginning with a cover of the jazz standard 'How High the Moon.' They were so popular that Listerine sponsored a widely syndicated television show, 'Les Paul & Mary Ford at Home,' during which they performed their intricate songs live. 'Their discs sell like dimes going for a nickel,' Florabel Muir reported in the Los Angeles Mirror in January 1952. The pair's 'Vaya Con Dios' spent 11 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Best Sellers in Stores chart (which was discontinued in favor of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1958). Paul and Ford's sultry version of 'Smoke Rings,' released in 1952, features in Todd Haynes' 2015 film 'Carol.' 'The only singer I've encountered in my life who can compare to Mary is Aretha Franklin,' said Gene Paul, Les' son from his first marriage, who became a recording engineer for Atlantic Records. 'Neither one of them ever hit a bad note. You couldn't pay them to.' The younger Paul learned about recording in his father's home studio in Mahwah and played drums in his touring band from 1959 to 1969. 'It took me years after my dad died to realize he was a genius,' he added. 'Yes, he had a studio in his house, and built his own guitar and his own eight-track, but I thought every dad did this.' Rosenthal and Camuso are in the process of restoring Paul's original recordings, including his hits with Ford. The pair is using demixing and speed correction software to create new stereo mixes of the songs, which don't have any of the crunchiness or distortion that were a byproduct of Paul's original experiments in multitracking. It'll be the first time any of Paul's music has been released in stereo. The project has created a library of multitrack stems, which is another singular feature of the new studio. 'Lana Del Rey could come in and sing with Mary Ford, or she could sing 'A Fool to Care' with the original Les Paul guitar parts,' Rosenthal said. Camuso says a number of famous musicians have already expressed interest in using the new studio. 'There's lots of people who would be in your record collection for sure,' he said. Its historical significance and superior sound quality is a major draw, but the Les Paul Recording Studio also provides a chance for musicians to work more intentionally. Though its equipment was once cutting-edge, by today's digital standards — in which there are unlimited tracks and effects and every mistake is erasable — Paul's console and tape machines are limited. To work with them, musicians must think about what they want to record ahead of time. 'The average person may not know what they're hearing, but they will feel it because the performances will be better,' Zappa pointed out. He views the new studio as a welcome counterpart to the too-perfect sonic monotony that can occur from every commercial recording artist using the same software. 'There's just so much music that's disposable today,' Zappa added. 'We've never had as many amazing tools to make stuff, and then have it be used in the lamest way possible.'
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Frank Zappa's Unaired Concert Special to Be Released After More Than 50 Years
In June of 1974, Frank Zappa and his rapturous band, the Mothers of Invention, invited a small audience to the their rehearsal hall on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, Calif. Together, they performed for over two hours while a small film crew captured the evening, and a mobile recording truck picked up on the audio. Unfortunately, the audio and video weren't synchronized. As a result, the June concert that Zappa planned to pitch to TV networks was never released — that is, until May 9, when the special dubbed 'Cheaper Than Cheep' is set to arrive via Zappa Records/UMe. More from Variety Frank Zappa's Recordings, Song Catalog and More Acquired by Universal Music Group Alex Winter on Telling the Story of 'Paradoxical' Frank Zappa in New Doc: 'It Took Us Years to Get it Right' 'Zappa' Review: Alex Winter's Documentary Hauntingly Captures the Skewed Passion of Frank Zappa, a One-of-a-Kind Rock Legend 'Ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to welcome you to the world's cheapest television special, which is being manufactured for your edification right here in the midst of our Mothers of Invention rehearsal hall at 5831 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, California,' Zappa says in the footage. 'Can you all turn around and look at each other so everybody who's watching this can tell where we are and what the inside of this place really looks like. As you can see it's cheaper than cheap.' Directed by Ahmet Zappa and produced by Frank Zappa, Vaultmeister Joe Travers and Ahmet Zappa, 'Cheaper Than Cheep' will be released exclusively on uDiscover Music and Sound of Vinyl in a variety of formats. A Blu-ray version (with Dolby Atmos) of the 'Cheaper Than Cheap' concert film will be available for purchase as part of a deluxe box set featuring a 2CD and 3LP of the performance. The box set also comes with an extensive 12-page booklet with rare images and informative liner notes from Travers alongside a detailed and heartfelt remembrance from musician Ruth Komanoff Underwood who performed percussion that evening. The Blu-ray includes four extras – two performances, a blooper reel, and a deep excerpt from the out-of-print Claymation film, 'The Amazing Mr. Bickford.' Additional options include a Blu-ray video and a 2CD set, in addition to a standalone soundtrack on 180-gram 3LP black vinyl. Watch the 'Cheaper Than Cheep' trailer below. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week What's Coming to Disney+ in April 2025 The Best Celebrity Memoirs to Read This Year: From Chelsea Handler to Anthony Hopkins
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How Pamela Des Barres Finally Transcended 'The Band'
Hearing wild tales of rock n' roll's past will always have appeal because, as Pamela Des Barres says, "people weren't there. They like to say they were there, but they weren't." The New York Times best selling author of I'm With The Band: Confessions of a Groupie, Take Another Little Piece of My Heart, and Let It Bleed: How To Write a Rockin' Memoir was not only there, she's been chronicling it all for most of her life. She's one of the most inspiring storytellers in L.A., a woman who's frank, honest and real retelling and sharing of her mind-blowing memories evokes a magical time in Southern while the word "groupie" may ever shed its carnal connotations, the author, performer and feminist cult figure has helped us all understand that devotion to rockstars, especially in her day, was so much more than sexual."We inspired these people," she asserts. "They wanted us around. Some people think of groupies as hangers on, or you know, as submissive. I've had to fight that battle like I've been out in a boxing ring— with the the public and the press... and I still get called a slut." Her books, recent speaking engagements and stage appearances serve up plenty of backstage debauchery, but they also delve into music's evolution and how its magnetic personalities, inter-personal relationships and power shifts reflect political and social changes in our world. "We have photos up in the huge screen behind me," Des Barres says of her new stage show, which comes to the Whisky a Go Go on Feb. 9. "And I use music clips from throughout my life, ones that inspired me, like Dylan and Dion and Elvis, of course. Also people I dated and the GTOs, Zappa and all kinds of stuff." Of Frank Zappa's influence she says: "He was my mentor. He we produced our album, but he kind of helped invent my persona because I was developing it as a teenager, 18 years old, and we became dancers for him— the Laurel Canyon ballet company. But he saw something in each one of us and it gave me some kind of confidence I never would have had. He was always trying to save moments. He wanted to get our lives on record, so we wrote about our lives." If Zappa put Des Barres on her path as a cultural chronicler, she had to find her own voice and inner strength to share many of her stories — including relationships and trysts with Jimmy Page and Mick Jagger, to name a couple— in a shameless way. She pioneered a sex-positive perspective long before younger generations advocated for sex workers and against slut-shaming. She opened minds about life choices and going for what one wants and it clearly resonated. She was just celebrated by revered music journalist Jessica Hopper and producer Dylan Tupper Rupert on the KCRW Lost Notes podcast Groupies: The Women of Sunset Strip, From the Pill to Punk. Reframing Des Barres and the women who came after her as empowered figures and muses in a male-dominated world, it explores how these young women paved the way for females to take agency over their bodies and to make their own music (which she did with the Frank Zappa produced group, Girls Together Outrageously aka The GTO's). Especially in the punk scene that followed, L.A.'s early groupies provided a daring DIY blueprint for making an impact, pursuing and partying with one's idols, which led to fanzines, friendships and ultimately, its own kind of notoriety. Produced by her manager Polly Parsons (Gram's daughter) her latest presentation sold out shows in NYC, Portland and Seattle. She's planning on making the Sunset Strip event special— after all it's where she reigned. She'll have special guests join her and she'll be selling a rack of her "top notch" vintage clothes, plus new merch including "long lost wood nymph shots for Playboy 55 years ago." The effortlessly chic look of the iconic 60's and 70's groupie has become, once again, in vogue especially for today's rock chicks. The platforms, the sparkle, the faux furs and the little dresses... it's a combination that's become timeless, recreated in films like Almost Famous (yes, Kate Hudson's Penny Lane was based on her) and TV's Daisy Jones and the Sixx."It was hippie child, gypsy chic," she describes of her style. "We were wearing 20's and 30's clothes, turn of the century stuff... I love dressing people up. That's part of my whole thing selling the vintage clothes. I like to style them." Beyond the alluring aesthetic, admiration has come from younger followers and music "stans" who view fandom differently (ie, the Swifties, Beyhive, the Beliebers). Still, Des Barres acknowledges that the stigma of the "groupie" may never be banished. All she can do is continue to share, provide context and encourage others to tell their own stories, which she does in a hands-on way via writing workshops. "All it means is someone hanging around with groups," she says of the "G" word. "But it quickly became a slur, because mainly, it was women. There are male groupies, of course, but mainly it was women and women weren't allowed to express themselves sexually.""Every generation gets a hold of I'm With The Band, so I get all these new young fans," she continues. "It's so great. They definitely see me as an empowered woman doing what she wanted to do against a lot of odds at that time. And by the way, there was no word "groupie," then. There was always more to it, because in the earlier days, people would wait around to get Elvis's autograph. We wanted more than that but it wasn't just sex. We just liked hanging out with them. We just liked being with the people that made us feel the music. Because that art was and is transferable... You know, it goes right into your being, as any great art does. So I always wanted to show my appreciation any way I could." More info on "An Intimate Evening with Pamela Des Barres" at the Whisky here.