Charlie Christian
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Charlie Christian | |
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 Charlie Christian, 1939
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| Born | July 29, 1916 Bonham, Texas, USA |
| Died | March 2, 1942 New York City, New York, USA |
Charlie Christian (29 July 1916 – 2 March 1942) was an American jazz guitarist.
Christian was an important early performer on the electric guitar, and is cited as a key figure in the development of bebop.
[edit] Biography
Chistian was born in Bonham, Texas, USA and was raised in Oklahoma. In the late 1930s, he came to the attention of record producer John Hammond, who introduced Christian to bandleader Benny Goodman. Goodman hired Christian to play with the Goodman Sextet starting in 1939. Initially reluctant to hire Christian, due in part to the fact that electric guitar was a relatively new instrument, Goodman was so impressed by Christian's playing that he changed his mind.
The story of their meeting on August 16, 1939 is notable: an encounter that afternoon at the recording studio had not gone well, but Hammond decided to try again: without consulting Goodman, he installed Christian on the bandstand for that night's set at the Victor Hugo restaurant in Los Angeles. Displeased at the surprise, Goodman called "Rose Room", a tune he assumed that Christian would be unfamiliar with. After listening to the changes a couple of times, Christian came in with his solo — which was to be the first of about twenty, all of them different, all unlike anything Goodman had heard before. That version of "Rose Room" lasted forty minutes; by its end, Christian was in the band. In the course of a few days, Christian went from making $2.50 a night to making $150 a week.
Christian's solos are frequently referred to as "horn-like," and in that sense he was probably more influenced by horn players such as Lester Young than by early acoustic guitarists like Eddie Lang and jazz/bluesmen Lonnie Johnson and Scrapper Blackwell, although they all had contributed to the expansion of the guitar's role from "rhythm section" instrument to a solo instrument. The single-note style of the Belgian gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt actually predates Christian's, at least in recordings, and Reinhardt's influence on Christian (and Christian's on Reinhardt) is apparent. Although there had been electric guitar soloists before—trombonist/composer ("Topsy") Eddie Durham had recorded with Count Basie; and Floyd Smith recorded "Floyd's Guitar Blues" with Andy Kirk in March 1939, using an amplified lap steel guitar—Christian was the first great soloist on the amplified guitar.
Guitarists who followed Christian and who were to varying degrees influenced by him include Mary Osborne, Oscar Moore (Nat King Cole trio), Barney Kessel, Jimmy Raney, Tal Farlow, and—a generation later—Jim Hall.
Christian paved the way for the modern electric guitar sound that was followed by other pioneers, including T-Bone Walker, Les Paul, Grant Green, Wes Montgomery, B.B. King and Jimi Hendrix. For this reason Christian was inducted in 1990 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an "Early Influence."
Though known mainly for his influence on electric guitar, Christian was also an important developer of bebop. His contributions at jam sessions at Minton's Playhouse in New York City were landmarks in the evolution from the then-popular, radio-friendly, accessible swing music to the more experimental bebop. This transition is readily apparent in recordings the Goodman Sextet made on one particular day. With Goodman absent, Christian and the rest of the Sextet recorded "Blues in B" and "Waiting for Benny", which were basically bop jam sessions. The free flow of these sessions contrasts with the more formal swing music recorded after Goodman had arrived at the studio. An even more striking example is a series of recordings made at Minton's by a fan named Jerry Newman in 1941. Newman captured Christian—accompanied by an almost inaudible Thelonious Monk on piano and Kenny Clarke on drums—stretching out far beyond what the confines of the 78 RPM record would allow. His work on "Swing to Bop"—clearly a title that was added well after the fact (the term "bop" didn't exist in 1941, and tune eventually becomes recognizable as Eddie Durham's "Topsy")—is a stunning example of what Christian was capable of creating.
Christian contracted tuberculosis and pneumonia, and died at the age of 25, at what is now called the Old Seaview Hospital in Staten Island.
