Chester and Lester

[Guitar55]

The thread on Chet Atkins mentioned this great duo recording and it made me think about the contrasts between these two legendary players. I've always thought about Chet in terms of accuracy and execution, while I think of Les Paul in terms of flash, "trickery" (effects) and humor, all in the best possible way, of course. Thoughts?

[Beagle1]

Yes, lots of great playing on "Chester & Lester!" One cool thing about Chet is that he made a lot of records with other great players..."Me & Jerry" with Jerry Reed, the "Travis/Atkins Traveling Road Show" with Merle Travis, "The Day the Fingerpickers Took Over the World" with Tommy Emmanuel, plus guest appearances on other albums by guys like George Benson.

I wish more of the great players today would do these sorts of records...I was listening to Brad Paisley's "Play" the other day and really appreciate that he got people like Steve Wariner, Buck Owens, BB King, and Keith Urban to play on the album. Love the recent Larry Carlton/Robben Ford collaboration too!

[duckbunny]

As per the chatter heard between cuts on the album, Les says "Lets just wing it!" to Chet. Chet replies to Les "I'm not much of a 'winger!'"

Oh, and Beagle is right - check out Chet's duos. Especially ones with Lenny Breau. Just incredible!




-db

[lhallam]

One of my all time faves.

Story goes that they went over a bunch of tunes and then Chet said to Les, "OK we'll record them for real tomorrow" and Les said "No I'm out of here in the morning."

So basically Chet thought they were rehearsing. Incredible.

[Birddog]

I love that these Chet threads popped up in the last couple of days. For the first time in a long time, I put "Chester & Lester" in the CD player and listened to it through my PA....what a blessing these two gents are/were. The good humored chatter from one while the other is taking a solo is simply priceless.

Two legendary gentlemen, and pure joy to this guitar player's ears.

[blood5150]

I ordered that CD about 6 months ago... so cool to hear them between takes... must have been a fun session....

http://www.ljplus.ru/img3/l/e/lestp/chesterleser.jpg

[mc5nrg]

There is a second Les Paul and Chet Atkins duet LP also.

[JSeth]

Well, both of their styles come roaring through on this recording, without doubt! They are interesting foils for each other - Les definitely loosens up Chet a lot; the LP had a lot of the "live" mic chatter between them on the tracks - the version I bought in the early 90's on CD (from Les at Fat Tuesday's in Manhatten!!!) had all that wonderful talk edited out!
The recording reminds me (thanks Les!) to loosen up and have fun when I'm playing, not get too hung up in "perfection" and just give out what I love about the instrument, and music in general.

IMHO, Les Paul is EXTREMELY under-rated as a player - I listen to his old stuff and realize that EVERY important rock guitarist has copped his licks in one way or another....

[jimfog]

I've always thought about Chet in terms of accuracy and execution, while I think of Les Paul in terms of flash, "trickery" (effects) and humor, all in the best possible way, of course. Thoughts?

Check out Les Paul's swing trio recordings, pre-Mary Ford and overdubbing, etc.......

Talk about "accuracy and execution"....good lord, it doesn't get much better!

[Ogre]

Great stuff! Chet Atkins did so much that will not likely be surpassed.

[DiazDude]

There is a second Les Paul and Chet Atkins duet LP also.

Yes..."Guitar Monsters".
The CD I have has both albums on one disc. I don't know if it's still available that way.

[mojocaster.com]

That CD was a gift, quite simply. What talent. Chet remains my personal #1.

[nondeplume]

Anyone know what phaser Chet was using on the Chester/Lenny albums? I know Gretsch had made the Super Axe with built in effects but that was 77' which was after the Les Album and he'd stopped using Gretsch btt of the Lenny Album afaik...it's such a sweet smooth sound.

I'm not up on his setup for the most part and any research seems most people 'ignore' his use of effects in their discussions of him.

Thanks for reminding me of these two albums though, dusted them off (literally) and dropped the needle...I think they'll be in constant rotation for awhile.

[tedzepplin]

I've always thought about Chet in terms of accuracy and execution, while I think of Les Paul in terms of flash, "trickery" (effects) and humor, all in the best possible way, of course. Thoughts?

Yes, Les Paul has a good sense of humor and enjoys having fun. It's the kid in him that allows him to invent things. I think Les has a knack for finding out what an audience likes and giving it to them. He used to have a corny, goofy, hillbilly country radio show in the morning - he was known as Rubarb Red. Then at night He'd go play with the serious Jazz cats.

His mother told him she couldn't tell him apart from the other guitarists on the radio. So he developed his own identifiable style/sound and part of if came from his recording techniques. - speeding up and slowing down the recording, plugging the guitar in direct, many overdubs.

He had his Les Paulverizer device that we fooled audiences with by pretending he was multi tracking right on stage when in fact it was just an on/off switch controlling a pre-recorded tape player backstage.

Many of Les's more popular songs do have his flashy, high speed, recording trickery, but if you dig deeper, he has many serious recordings too. Find a cd with his recordings made before he invented all of his overdub equipment. Those are more "serious" sounding.

I saw Les play a couple months ago and was happy to see him laugh so hard at his own jokes. He was having a ball playing and kidding around. he would through in funny little things like as he's playing a chord his middle finger slowly rises out as he plays a difficult chord- at first you don't notice it, but then you look and it looks like he's flipping the bird at the audience then he reaches over with his picking hand and pushes the finger back into place. the crows roars, they love it. He does things like that. and he will play funny out of place single e string notes that make people smile. I was sitting right up front - first row - I could have untied his shoe - I was so close. when he'd play a funny note he's laugh and look right at me smiling because I was laughing right along with him and he seemed to like that. when others gave a good loud laugh, he'd turn and look and smile and make a comment.

Seeing him play is a must for any fan. he still plays every monday at the Iridium. He stays after the show and signs guitars (preferably a les paul guitar - but he will sign other) and he'll sign cds, records - anything.