Blues in B / Charlie Christian(1916-1942)

[Freedom0467]

Man this dude makes chills run down my back when i hear him play lead.Kick ass guitarest who influeneced my heros , Wes Mongtomery and Hendrix...

[ErnieHollerhagen]

.@taildragger. Eddie Durham played trombone, not trumpet.

[boobtuber06]

a little octave play there I hear, decades before Wes!

[alexjrmarino]

@boobtuber06 Well, Charlie was Wes's biggest inspiration..He knew his solos by heart!

[MartaBtrp]

lovely... :)

[kevinherbert]

Nice work Easyace...thanx

[dorkdoll]

i never knew he passed away so young he was a genius sadly missed but never forgotten a constant inspiration

[lowgrau]

nobody knows

[warehambears13]

Midnight 10 seconds ! Love this music

[postatility]

Put simply,if no Charlie Christian,then no Wes Montgomery,no George Benson,and on from there....

[taildragger53]

@postatility If you extend that thought...if you didn't have Lester Young you wouldn't have had Charlie Christian because Lester was the inspiration behind CC.

[postatility]

Put simply,if no Charlie Christian,than no Wes Montgomery,no George Benson,and on from there....

[bareknuckles2u]

Sooooo good!

[lifternate]

If you listen closely around 0.20 it sounds like someone says "what the hell key are we in?" LOL - I could be wrong but it sure sounds like it.

All electric guitarists should recognize the importance of Charlie Christian

[1doctoma]

Benny Goodman should feel honoured to have such a guitarist.....

[Kramnosnits]

Les Paul was the 1st electric guitarist...ever.

[bigfootnells]

@spyguys Les Paul did not invent the electric solid body guitar. The first was the Rickenbacker Electro Hawaiian "Frying pan" 1931. Even though they were selling and applied for a patent for the "Frying Pan" in 1932. Delays in approving the patent until 1937 allowed others to market other electric guitars in the meantime. Les Paul didn't build his "Log" until 1941. Even then Gibson didn't think it was worthwhile to build a solid body. Until the success of the "Telecaster" cut into their sales.

[bigfootnells]

@bigfootnells I forgot to mention Les Paul didn't even make the 1st "Spanish" style solid body electric guitar. Which the Gibson "Les Paul" was. The Slingerland Songster was probably the 1st "Spanish"style solid body. Which was made at the latest in 1935 and was featured in the Slingerland catalog until 1939. Slingerland stopped manufacturing electric instuments in 1940. Vivi Tone made a "solid" body as early as 1933 but since it had removeable pick-up drawers it wasn't really a solid body

[spyguys]

@bigfootnells Yes and no. The Rick you speak of is a lap steel and was not intended to be played like a normal "Spanish" style guitar. So, arguably you could say it was the 1st electric solid body; however to claim it is what people think of as a "regular" guitar may be off the mark a bit. I guess you could say that Slingerland made a Spanish style soliid body guitar as did a few other makers. So you are correct that it was not Les Paul.

[guitarpick678]

too many great guitarists die so so young

[zthetha]

Ages since I've heard this. As a kid I used to work with an older guy who was into swing - at the height of the British rhythm and blues craze - and though this was really my parents' kind of music I was immediately impressed by Charlie in whose playing I detected more than a whiff of R&B. Superb guitarist.

[1Delta]

thanx to this post of Charlie Christian announcing it's THE BLUES IN B,...well, I'm going to tackle this one until get the bog.

following the tune according to Minor Bob scale.

thanx so much for posting.

[1Delta]

@1Delta

CORRECTION:  Not bog or bob, meant THE BOP!

[cholocharile]

@Motionedout No, not really.

[sheripavelich]

@Motionedout what does Hendrix have to do with Tupac, again?

[sheripavelich]

@Motionedout what does Hendrix have to do with Tupac, again?



[sheripavelich]

@Motionedout  what makes you think I'm taking it seriously? just asked a question.

[misiebobo]

FUCKIN GOOD

[derdeder9]

no offense but Memphis Minnie was the first electric guitar player,  a Female....not trying to take anything away from Charlie Christian

[deathorca]

@derdeder9 mostly referring to the jazz world....all guitar players before used acoustic and chopped 4's all day long in a big band....

[onmumusic]

Charlie was ahead of his time, seen as a genius BEFORE he left his hometown to come to New York. His abilities were recognized immediately by all those who heard him the very first time. He was always in poor health since a kid. Maybe he didn't consider healthy behaviors. But it is off the mark to attribute his early death drugs and alcohol. He was probably carrying TB from childhood. Let's be glad he was able to give us great music. I heard that he was a cheerful and very kind person!

[taildragger53]

@onmumusic Point taken and you are right to a great degree but the drugs & alcohol didn't help. Consider this, Clarence' Gatemouth' Brown suffered TB as a child, so did many others, but Gatemouth lived well into his 80s.

The main reason being he didn't touch Heroin.

[nevikmoore]

This may sound goofy, but Charlie Christian is one of those performers whose work I wish I had a time machine to travel back with a camcorder and capture his playing in motion. It's beautiful to hear, but what a treat to see the guy play. Guess I shoulda payed more attention in physics class. :-)

[ColbertandStewartpwn]

Not goofy at all. I've not seen one video of him playing. I would love to as well.

[Hitamaru]

charlie died before t.vs were invented :I... so close almost 10 years off

[FaustyFob]

yea..but there were still people filming things.. i mean django rienhardt was filmed in 1939!! so.. its not out of the question to have a least a little clip...

[meximetal96]

it was probably really expensive to film things WAY back in the 30's, especially with the Great Depression and stuff, but how amazing it wouldve been if we could see the one and only Charlie Christians playing... ahh why did he die so young?! :(

[bigrussthefusss]

@nevikmoore i wish i could go back and tell him not to smoke cigarettes or cigars , not to do heroin adn smoke reefer, or shoot coke, or do anything bad, cuz he died so young! But yeah recording it would be great too!

[HighZombiesRule]

What's wrong with smoking a little reefer? I don't think it'd be really effective to shoot coke. Heroin, yea, it's one of the most addictive substances on earth, you're pretty much dead or close to it if you do that, but no one has ever died of marijuana, man.

[bigrussthefusss]

@HighZombiesRule, well your right, theres nothing really wrong with smoking a little reefer, and although no one has ever "overdosed" on reefer. Reefer has a lot of carcinogens, its tar level is very high, Now if we mix that, with oh say 2 cigars or a pack of filterless cigarettes a day which he inhaled, mix it with shooting cocain and heroin into his veins which would slow and speed up his heart, id say you have a really good chance of dying young. Pot doesnt create art, the artist is ---->

[bigrussthefusss]

already there, the pot acts more as a playground for the artist, he knows how to run and jump, but now he can slide and swing, now.charlie, came in to his era right on time, he wasnt ahead or behind, he plays the music which is popular, he took what others did on an acoustic and electrified it. That was just evolution.if he hadnt done drugs and was healthy, he could have gone on to really create something amazing. dont get me wrong, He was INCREDIBLE!! so imagine if he lived for 40 more years.

[HighZombiesRule]

Well yea, that's true. I like your analogies. I guess it is just a myth, and talented people are just talented. Wish I was talented, but I guess I can just step back and enjoy other people's playing. :)

[alexjrmarino]

@HighZombiesRule I'll say that if you are able to appreciate such genius, then you have the talent of the ear... next thing is the talent of sweat and practice ;)

[GiorgioV]

Actually, cocaine is much more addictive, heroin has a very tough phase if you want to come clean, but after that it's out of your organism and you don't feel the need to shoot again (if you don't want to, that is), while cocaine if much much harder to leave behind, and the psicological dependance kicks in much sooner.

[urab17ch]

he pretty much died of tuberculosis... and even if he did do all of the above, why imply it would have a derogatory effect on his playing and ability? it might even have improved it dare i say... !?

[DaveDFFA]

without doing all those things he would never be the great he was, like so many others, sadly :\

[FaustyFob]

but he did not die of any drug overdose.. at least from what ive learned he died of TB, i could be very wrong...

[12bar145ne]

Charlie was the 1st electric guitar player...ever...1st to play single note guitar lines as a solo in a big band...ever....all too short a career

[NickinDK]

@12bar145ne -- No, he was NOT "the 1st electric guitar ... ever," etc. For example, George Barnes were several years earlier. Charlie wasn't even the first on record

[12bar145ne2ww2]

@NickinDK I stand corrected..Thank you

[rhoads83j]

@12bar145ne Half of that's true.

[Odin029]

@12bar145ne As much I love Charlie C, I have to put in a word for Lonnie Johnson who might have played first single note solo ever recorded in the late '20s. Also he worked with Louis Armstrong and his hot 7 back in the 20's and 30's. I don't know about the electric guitar, but if he wasn't the first it doesn't matter because between Charlie and his buddy T-bone they popularized it.

[taildragger53]

@12bar145ne Charlie was incredible but according to many historians he wasn't the first electric guitarist. I used to think he was also.

Eddie Durham was before him and was a big influence. George Barnes was also reputed to be among the first.

[EasyAce]

@taildragger53 T-Bone Walker should probably be mentioned in there, too. As a matter of fact, he and Christian played together in the late 1930s. Walker picked up on the idea of amplifying his guitar at around the same time Christian did, though Christian popularised the concept first.

[taildragger53]

@EasyAce T Bone Walker was the main reason we have rock guitar today. He was the man who passed it all to Chuck Berry .

Oh yes, i'm aware of his early days with C.C. but it has been documented that it was Eddie Durham who played amplified guitar first and that the idea was to imitate horn players like Lester Young.

Before this, the guitar was just a rhythm instrument, a replacement for banjo.

[EasyAce]

@taildragger53 The guitar's graduation from rhythm instrument actually began well enough before even Eddie Durham---reference Lonnie Johnson, the bluesman who made a lead instrument out of the guitar in the first place, often in hand with his great duet partner Eddie Lang. As for T-Bone Walker, he's the reason we have blues guitar as we've come to know it since (just ask B.B. King), well before anyone passed anything to Chuck Berry. (I wonder if LJ ever recorded with Durham, though . . .)

[taildragger53]

@EasyAce I agree with you completely.. I'm talking about amplified guitar though.

I'm well aware of Lonnie Johnson, Eddie Lang, Teddy Bunn...and how it all changed from the days of Johnny St Cyr and his banjo.

Obviously the effects of T Bone's string bending were absorbed 1st by all the Blues legends. Some say it affected Lowell Fulson before BB King. But there's no end to what's written.

But i mention Chuck Berry because he influenced the way guitar based pop bands played in the 1960s.

[EasyAce]

@taildragger53 I agree---I see Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Carl Perkins, Scotty Moore, and Link Wray as the guitarists who most influenced those 1960s pop/rock bands' guitar playing. I could be wrong, but I think Lowell Fulson and B.B. King picked up on T-Bone Walker at about the same time; intriguingly, both Fulson and King had their earliest hits with "Three O'Clock Blues," Fulson in 1946 and King in 1951, though the King version became the standard because of his singing style, too.

[taildragger53]

@EasyAce That's absolutely right. The thing is i grew up in the UK during the British Invasion and although Scotty Moore, Perkins etc were names on peoples minds The Rolling Stones & Beatles covered Chuck Berry FIRST rather any of the others(as much i mean to say) It was Chucks songs that appeared on both those bands 1st LPs...so i've grown up accepting that Chuck was the link to T Bone.

But when asked personally, Chuck cites Charlie Christian & Nat Cole.

[taildragger53]

@taildragger53 But that's all to do with pop...MY real hero is Wes Montgomery and i know for sure without Charlie Christian they'd be no Wes. Wes was a sweet natured and sincere guy and took guitar to another zone.

Thank you Easyace. Best wishes.

[taildragger53]

Eddie Durham got known more for his trumpet playing rather than his guitar.

There are recordings with Lonnie Johnson & Durham but with Ed on trumpet or some wind instrument. But the originator sometimes gets forgotten.

Just consider Charlie Parker and his mentor Buster Smith.

Everyone who is into jazz has heard of Parker but how many know about Buster Smith?

[BrunoJazzmanLeicht]

Love this one. A guitar that made history, if regrettably in a far too short time. Can listen to it over and over again.

Feel free to visit my little jazz & swing blog. For link see profile.

Brew "Groover" Leicht