COURTESY OF FRANK DRIGGS COLLECTION
Charlie Christian's short life wielded undying influence.
Christian changed his world
Review by Seth Markow
smarkow@starbulletin.comEvery generation and mainstream style has its guitar heroes -- from Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia and Eddie Van Halen to B.B. King, Chuck Berry and Stevie Ray Vaughan; Roy Clark, Chet Atkins and Duane Eddy; Wes Montgomery, Barney Kessel and George Benson; and Robert Fripp, John Scofield and Tom Morello.
"The Genius of the Electric Guitar"
Charlie Christian
Columbia/LegacyBut their roots can all be traced to Charlie Christian.
It was a scant two years from the time this extraordinary young man popped up from Oklahoma to when tuberculosis forced his retirement -- he died nine months later at 25 -- but it was just long enough for him to change the world.
Christian started out on bass and ukulele. After his father was struck blind, he accompanied him in street-corner performances that helped keep their family afloat during the Depression. He picked up the guitar, played in several obscure "territory" bands and by 1939 had his own group in Oklahoma City which netted him a big $2.50 a night.
Word of his prowess reached record producer John Hammond, who brought him to Los Angeles to audition for Benny Goodman. The King of Swing returned from an intermission to find that Christian had been sneaked onstage. To put him in his place, Goodman called a difficult tune at a brisk tempo. After 45 minutes of inspired jamming, Christian was hired, joining Goodman's musical and social crusade. (You think a band mixing Blacks, Jews and Anglos had it easy?)
There were several fine guitarists who played electric before Charlie Christian did; Eldon Shamblin, Les Paul and Christian's pal T-Bone Walker had brought the instrument out of the background and onto equal footing with horns in the front line. None, though, had his tone, his improvisational flair (elongated, inventive lines based in the style of tenor saxophonist Lester Young), his attention-grabbing attack (he used downstrokes almost exclusively) or his versatility (pianist Mary Lou Williams told this writer that Christian could play the entire "Rhapsody in Blue" by himself). When listening to him now, nothing sounds dated -- his cohorts, maybe, or some of the material, but not that guitar, so commanding, stinging, flowing, swinging.
Aside from a few sideman dates and impromptu jams -- toward the end, he was a vital part of the innovative sessions at Minton's Playhouse in New York, with Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie and others -- Christian's recorded legacy is with the Benny Goodman Sextet. The combo's studio dates have all been gathered together on "The Genius of the Electric Guitar," a new four-CD box set packaged to look like a vintage amplifier. Each disc begins with master takes, the issued versions of the tunes; alternate takes follow, with dozens released or easily obtainable for the first time.
Goodman's clarinet playing was rarely better than during this 1939-41 period, and there is stellar work by vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, trumpeter Cootie Williams and others. The tunes are a mixture of standards and originals, several of which were riffs that Christian brought from the southern Midwest, where riffs, swinging the blues and the Count Basie band were born. A private recording date with Basie brings Christian together with Lester Young, and a session with all-star poll winners attests to the guitarist's meteoric rise to recognition.
You've got to hear "Solo Flight," a big-band arrangement that, excepting a short passage for Goodman's red-hot clarinet, puts Christian in the spotlight from start to finish. You'll recognize licks copped by string-slingers of all stripes. Long, daring melodic lines flow from Christian's imagination; percussive ones dart and jab. The band swings hard, powered by the magnificent drummer Dave Tough. Christian caps it off with a startling unison figure you've heard since -- but here's the source.
Guitarists and devotees really ought to spring for this set or find it under the Christmas tree (Kwanzaa bush, Hanukkah shrub, whatever). The sound quality is the best yet for the previously released material. For folks not willing to go whole hog, Columbia's identically titled single-disc anthology is available, as are a few hair-raising jams at Minton's.
By any means, get to know Charlie Christian. You'll have fun listening to a crucial piece of American musical history.
Click for online
calendars and events.
