Witnesses attested that the group, sparked by Christian ’s brilliant inventiveness, improvised on the tune for 47 minutes! According to Bill Simon, in Jazz Guitarists: An Anthology, Hammond said he “never saw anyone knocked out as Benny was that night. Ever wary, Goodman called for “Rose Boom, ” thinking the Oklahoma “hick ” might not know the tune. CHARLIE CHRISTIAN TRANSCRIPTIONS FULLOn August 16, 1939, at the Victor Hugo restaurant in Beverly Hills, California, Christian, in full garish regalia, set up his Gibson EH-150 amplifier on Goodman ’s bandstand, preparatory to auditioning with the quintet. Hammond found Christian ’s playing “unbelievable ” and convinced a reluctant Goodman to grant the guitarist an audition. Hammond, benefactor to such jazz stars as singer Billie Holiday and bandleaders Count Basie and Benny Goodman, among others, flew to Oklahoma City enroute to a Goodman recording date in Los Angeles to hear Christian. Mary Lou Williams, startled by Christian ’s artistry, alerted John Hammond. 1928 played with father and brothers, then with other territory bands in Texas, Oklahoma, and throughout the Southwest performed and recorded with Benny Goodman Orchestra, 1939-1942 contributed to the birth of bebop during after-hours gigs, Minton ’s club, New York City, 1940-41.Īwards: Metronome poll winner on instrument, 1939-41 Down Beat poll winner, 1941-42. CHARLIE CHRISTIAN TRANSCRIPTIONS PROFESSIONALWhen he landed back in Oklahoma City in 1939, pianist-composer For the Record …īorn July 29, 1916, in Bonham, TX raised in Dallas, TX, and Oklahoma City died of pneumonia, March 2, 1942, in New York, NY.īecame professional guitarist/bassist, c. Wherever he played, he quickly established a reputation as an exciting, innovative talent, using his pickup-amplified guitar as a horn in conjunction with the saxophone and trumpet and taking extended horn-like solos. Attention of Hammond Led to Goodman GigĪs he immersed himself in playing, sometimes on bass, Christian joined and often led bands that took him as far as Minneapolis, Wyoming, and North Dakota. Floyd Smith, guitarist with Andy Kirk, may also have played a part in Christian ’s amplification of his guitar. In about 1937 Durham and Christian met, and Durham, a gifted composer and arranger as well, taught Christian what he knew about the amplified guitar. Early experiments, though, especially those by Eddie Durham, to play a guitar whose sound was amplified -at first mechanically, then electronically -showed some promise. Though some excellent acoustic guitar soloists had emerged - Lonnie Johnson, Eddie Lang, George Van Eps, Carl Kress, Dick McDonough, and the legendary Django Reinhardt -the guitar remained a minor solo voice. Until Christian, the jazz guitar had nearly always been relegated to serving as a rhythm instrument, a weaker version of the banjo. One of the major stylistic influences on Christian, perhaps as early as 1929 and more extensively in 1931, was the visiting tenor saxophonist Lester Young, whose long, arching solo lines made him a jazz icon. As family friend, novelist, and essayist Ralph Ellison averred in his Shadow and Act, the young guitarist was exposed to a wide variety of musical forms at home and in the Oklahoma City community at large. Christian ’s father, who was blind, earned a living playing guitar and singing, sometimes with his three sons, Clarence (on violin and mandolin), Edward (on string bass), and Charlie, whose earliest guitars often were hand-made from cigar boxes.Ĭharlie ’s skills were evident early, and he avidly absorbed the work of the many excellent southwestern blues and jazz players. And although his career -and his life -were brief, Christian ’s influence on the transformation that jazz underwent through the introduction of bebop remains unquestioned.īorn in Bonham, Texas, northeast of Dallas, in 1916, Christian moved with his family first to Dallas, then, around 1921, to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. From the moment he burst onto New York City ’s jazz scene with the Benny Goodman Orchestra, Charlie Christian changed forever the way jazz guitar would be played.
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