The Only Book You'll Ever Need - Guitar by Editors of David & Charles

Author:Editors of David & Charles
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781446355176
Publisher: F+W Media, Inc.
Published: 2011-04-15T21:00:00+00:00

Charlie Christian (1916–1942)

Charles Christian was born on 29 July 1916 in Bonham, Texas, into a musical family. His mother played piano to silent movies, his father sang and played both trumpet and guitar, and brothers Clarence and Edward, also played professionally.

The family moved to Oklahoma City in 1918, and Christian’s first instrument was the trumpet, a choice that no doubt helped formulate the horn-style, single-note guitar improvising that later made him famous.

Novelist and family friend Ralph Ellison said that at the age of 12, Christian ‘would amuse and amaze us at school with his first guitar – one that he made from a cigar box … playing his own riffs. But they were based on sophisticated chords and progressions that Blind Lemon Jefferson never knew.’

Throughout Christian’s early teens, he played in the family band and performed in Oklahoma City clubs. It was there that he first heard and met the great tenor saxophonist Lester Young. The meeting was a seminal moment for Christian.

‘Lester Young didn’t bring Charlie Christian out of some dark nowhere,’ Ralph Ellison commented. ‘[Charlie] was already out in the light. He may only have been 12 or 13 when he was making those cigar-box guitars in manual training class, but no other cigar boxes ever made such sounds. Then he heard Lester and that, I think, was all he needed.’

By the early 1930s, Christian doubled on bass and guitar in a band fronted by his brother Eddie and was busy learning solos of Django Reinhardt and Lonnie Johnson. After briefly leading his own band, he played bass and/or guitar with a variety of well-known regional bands.

The second seminal moment in Christian’s life was in 1937, when he discovered the electric guitar. The amplified electric guitar was still an experimental novelty, although electric guitarist and trombone player Eddie Durham was already playing it as a solo instrument in Jimmie Lunceford’s band. The new invention made the jazz guitar solo a practical reality for the first time. With the exception of Lonnie Johnson and Eddie Lang, guitarists were part of the rhythm section, strumming chords. Now, guitarists could revel in the volume and sustain provided by an amplifier – in other words, they could produce a sound like a saxophone or trumpet.

Christian and Goodman

Christian quickly realized the potential the electric guitar unleashed, and he soon developed a saxophone style of playing that was reminiscent of his hero, Lester Young. He got himself a Gibson ES-150 (listed in 1936 at $77.50, including a 15-foot cable), and by 1938, he was playing electric guitar in the Al Trent Sextet.

By 1939, Charlie Christian’s innovative guitar style had won the admiration of many influential musicians in the jazz circuit, including pianists Teddy Wilson and Norma Teagarden. Pianist Mary Lou Williams recommended him to record producer and jazz promoter John Hammond. In August 1939, Hammond arranged for Charlie to have an audition with Benny Goodman, known at the time as ‘The King of Swing’, and Hammond’s brother-in-law. Goodman, who was white, was not only a great clarinet player, he was also a pioneer in touring with a mixed-race swing band.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.