« Back to Top Level | Chet Atkins & Les Paul

Chet Atkins & Les Paul - Chester & Lester / Guitar Monsters (1978)

Track listing:
  1. It's Been A Long Time 3:25
  2. Moonglow and Love ( Theme From Picnic ) 4:38
  3. Caravan 3:14
  4. It Had To Be You 3:27
  5. Out Of Nowhere 3:10
  6. Avalon 6:28
  7. The Birth Of The Blues 3:03
  8. Someday Sweetheart 3:18
  9. 'Deed I Do 2:27
  10. Lover Come Back To Me 2:39
  11. Limehouse Blues 2:46
  12. I Want To Be Happy! 3:35
  13. Over The Rainbow 2:29
  14. Meditation 2:25
  15. Lazy River 2:53
  16. I'm Your Greatest Fan 3:45
  17. It Don't Mean A Thing ( If It Ain't Got That Swing ) 2:52
  18. I Surrender Dear 3:58
  19. Brazil 2:32
  20. Give My Love To Nell 2:49
  21. Hot Toddy 2:52

Notes

After eight years away from the microphones, Les Paul joined forces with country music's Chet Atkins in a marvelously relaxed, tasty session of cross-cultural jamming. The sound of the backup band may be Nashville country, but the tunes, mostly drawn from Paul's repertoire, are jazz and pop standards ("Caravan," "It's Been a Long, Long Time," "Avalon," etc.). Both players improvise, duel and converse with the spontaneity of jazz always in the air — and unlike almost all of Les' recordings since 1947, there is no overdubbing except on "Caravan" and "Lover, Come Back to Me." You won't have any problem telling Chester and Lester apart on these tracks; Les' bright, almost metallic sound and twirling, yet now more economical flurries are a world away from Chet's mellow fingerpicking, lightly tarted with echo. Yet the two styles play brilliantly off each other; one potent example occurs as Chet superimposes the theme from "Picnic" from his repertoire over Les' statement of "Moonglow." A lot of the between-takes session chatter is intentionally left in, with Les's hotfoot voice trading quips with Chet's Tennessee drawl. On "Avalon," heard in two consecutive takes at different speeds, the dialogue is particularly funny, as Atkins mockingly tries to browbeat his old idol. This album (now on CD) had the effect of putting Les Paul well on the road toward canonization by young rock guitarslingers who noticed his name on Gibson instruments.

Chester and Lester went at it again in Nashville after the success of their first encounter, and the results are just about as marvelous. Reportedly, there was a lot of tension at these sessions, with Les being in a particularly foul mood and suffering from a cold, but it didn't seem to affect the splendid playing on tunes like "Limehouse Blues," and the rollicking "It Don't Mean a Thing" and nine others. The tension may have given a bit of a real-life edge to the hilarious mutual joshing of "I'm Your Greatest Fan," but who can say? The choice of tunes again falls mostly in Paul's territory, with old standbys like "Over the Rainbow," "Brazil" and "I Surrender Dear," but Atkins gets in Ralph Flanagan's lovable "Hot Toddy," and there is even a countrified take on Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Meditation." Atkins suavely handles both acoustic and electric guitars on the sessions, while Les' brittle, everywhere-at-once electric guitar is heard for the last time (so far) on a full-length album. Tracks from this album, along with those of Chester and Lester, can be heard on the CD Masters of the Guitar Together (Pair PDC-2-1230).