Lou Pallo, legendary guitarist for The Les Paul Trio as well as a card carrying member of The New Jersey Guitar Mafia, man of a million inversions, and devout Caddy owner (I think he got a new one every year) and one of our dear friends has passed.
Lou played with Les Paul for over 28 years and their friendship started in 1963. Les started out visiting Lou’s gigs in New Jersey. Lou would record at Les’ house and Les would soon be jumping on stage with Lou and the rest is history. They began at Fat Tuesdays, a now defunct jazz club and then at Iridium for 14 years with Les Paul, where Lou played with such luminaries as Keith Richards, Paul McCartney, Jeff Beck, Eddie Van Halen and Slash. You never knew who was going to show up or the opportunity to listen up close to the banter and camaraderie amongst Les, Lou and whoever happened to be sitting in. As Les would often not know some of the artists, Lou acted as “Master of Ceremonies”.
After Les’ passing on August 13, 2009, Lou began fronting The Les Paul Trio as we presented special guest guitarists to “sit” in with The Trio and “play” Les for the evening in tribute to “The Father of The Electric Guitar”. We presented such diverse guests as Joe Walsh, Al DiMeola, Todd Rundgren, Keith Richards, Paul Gibert and many others. Lou could play with anyone and often give me colorful commentary of each guitarists “abilities”. One memory that stands out was how excited, as were we, when Gibson launched The Lou Pallo Les Paul- that was the night Todd Rudgren was guesting.
Another significant event was Lou Pallo’s CD “Thank You Les” a tribute to Les Paul which featured Keith Richards, Steve Miller, Billy F. Gibbons, Jose Feliciano, Slash and Bucky Pizzarelli.
Lou will be joining Les Paul, Russ Paul, and Bucky Pizzarelli, jamming among all the greats. Long Iive Lou Pallo!
