More proof that guitar playing prolongs life

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A couple of days ago, I posted an article about Dick Dale still doing concerts. Today Les Paul is in the news, and still performing. I never knew that, like Django Reinhart and Julian Bream, Les Paul has had to deal with the results of an accident to continue playing the the guitar.

Here’s some of the article from The Orlando Sentinel:

‘Watching Paul meticulously check his levels and fiddle with a battalion of electronics before a recent performance, it was obvious that at 91 years old, his musical curiosity is as undiminished as his love for performing.
“It takes your whole life, because you’re constantly thinking up new things,” Paul says in a backstage interview at New York’s Iridium Jazz Club, where he has commuted from his home in Mahwah, N.J., almost every Monday night since 1996.
Arthritis in his left hand prevents Paul from playing the lightning-fast scales of his heyday, but he has adapted his style to combine chords and single-note runs. He nearly lost his right arm in a car accident in 1948, but persuaded doctors to set it at an angle that would allow him to still play the guitar.
“I said, ‘Aim it at my navel and I’ll be just fine,’ ” he recalls.
The set list at Iridium varies but usually features standbys such as “Over The Rainbow,” “Embraceable You” and “Sweet Georgia Brown.” The shows are equal parts music and Borscht Belt comedy shtick. Rhythm guitarist Lou Pallo, bassist Nicki Parrott and pianist John Colianni play straight roles as Paul riffs on any number of topics.
During a recent performance he bantered with Colianni about what crosses a musician’s mind when he pauses during a solo.
“Know what I think about?” Paul asked.
“What’s that, Les?”
“My wife’s sister.”
The room shakes with laughter.
Paul was hospitalized last year with fluid in his lungs and missed the Grammys, but he has since recovered and says he plans to keep playing at Iridium on Mondays “even if they have to bring me here on a stretcher.” ‘

. . . and I couldn’t resist including this little gem from Spin.com:
Snagging a post-show comment, SPIN.com asked Campbell a little joke on account of the classroom sized audience…and of course, the new album — if a rocker strikes a chord in the wilderness, but no fan is around to hear it, does it make a sound? — to which he replied, “Abso-fucking-lutley, man! That’s the great thing about rock’n'roll – nobody has to be there.”

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