STOMPIN' AT THE SAVOY (1941) - Charlie Christian live in small club

[1funkyangel]

boy is this guy underated!!!

[oegaziz43]

I listen a lot to free jazz, etc--but I just love Charley Christian. He influenced bebop and a majority of the good RnR licks since 1950's were his IMHO. He catapulted the Texas tenors.

[InMyFifties]

Charlie Christian was key to the development of jazz guitar. Heck, of guitar as a solo instrument in pop music. Hence, all rock guitarists owe him a massive debt of gratitude. And BTW, he also pioneered be-bop. Not bad for a man who passed away before reaching the ripe old age of 25.

[metalmilitia137]

glad i found out about this guy, just started learning jazz guitar and this is awesome.

[AllenPinchloaf]

He is the man! 

[Guk1981]

3w.diegoriedemann.cl

great Charlie Christian..

[purplewhitetiger]

This is unbelievable!

[LanceHelmut]

the 1st practical electric guitar but with no cutaway...look everybody, charlie's playing past the 3rd fret...what a pioneer...thank you charlie for bringing the guitar out of the rhythm section to front and center and making it the dominant musical instrument in popular music ever since then.

[guitarpicka1]

No Delay..Distortion.. Wha- Wha Pedals...Not even a Whammy Bar..Just Perfect Jazz Lines Magnificenly Played.

[gelchert]

@guitarpicka1 Not even a cutaway!

[monkeytown1000]

Robert Johnson, Jimi Hendrix and Charlie Christian, three astonishing guitarists who died way before their time.

[Freedom0467]

@monkeytown1000 yes and Add Wes Montgomery to that list..

[fitz202]

La destreza de Charlie es genial ,posee la magia para embelezar a cualquiera ,con su fino y elegante estilo ,es de agradecer su valiosa  aportaciòn a la bella Arte de la mùsica .

[gwither2011]

my 2 favs christian and johnny winter.

[vguitarman]

it just has got to be fun to play like this.

[modir91]

Ridiculously ahead of his time

[FunkySkunk90]

That man had a sound. Imagine all the great records he would have made if we could have kept him some more years on this earth.

[Crabsdonthum]

Wow, this is so cool. This is the guy who countless guitarists copied. I never heard what he was like till this posting.

Now I understand what all the fuss was about.

[Modes9]

It's still some of the most coherent and focused guitar improvising you'll ever hear. Charlie always swung and always made melodic and harmonic sense. I'll take that over the sweeping, tapping, and chromatic excesses of today. If you're going to play too many notes, you better also be playing intervals and arpeggios and developing musical ideas.

[cloudbuster66]

loved to push his amp to the max,early use of distortion

[stuco]

I still hear a lot of those licks today, and he just created them one after the other like it was nothing, what a great player!

[SIRONEDRAGON]

awesome : ) 

[potzi67]

Bravo !!!

[minutegongcoughs]

Charlie died so young. Just listen to this.

[Fitzliputzli23]

Wow, this is kind of hip for 1941! His melodies walk some really weird paths. He must be dizzy by weed. He outlines fancy chords that are actually not on the sheet. Wonder what goes on in his head while playing. This guy is the branch-off point from compliant and tame traditional jazz into bop and other forms of modern jazz. Hey, and did you guys notice? He looks pretty much like Hendrix - just imagine him with "afro"-hair ....

[gruniongrady]

Nobody thinks like he did—nobody.

[fastborzoi]

Christian, then Hendrix.

[sclogse1]

@IcolossusPSN

Hope you get a chance to not only listen to Swing To Bop, but also look at the sheet music and follow along. It might bring just what he's doing to a brighter light for you. If you can't find it let me know and I'll email you a couple of page to follow along. It's unreal.

[sclogse1]

Something about playing like this...like it was a virus that spread through the players. You had to make a quantum leap to do it. Ask anybody who studies guitar. I'm not talking about the more obviously jump style licks...but when he puts it all together on a higher plane..which you hear more in Swing to Bop than this tune...but he does kick it back in around 3:21 on this Stompin'. If you know the tune, you have to wonder what happened to it...cause it's gone man...real gone.

[gwither2011]

goodman said to kenton "we drink our 5ths, not flatten them"

[spacepatrolman]

@gwither2011 how do you drink 9ths ? nine cans of beer

[SunshineSuperwoman1]

Before Charlie Christian, the guitar was a meek instrument buried beneath everything else in the band/orchestra. Amplified and in his hands, it became a completely different instrument. Yay.

[cholocharile]

@SunshineSuperwoman1 Ahem Eddie Lang Ahem.

[osiruskat]

@cholocharile and Lonnie Johnson also Oscar Aleman.

[glenn0425]

Savage playing. His playing is so rock n roll or rock n roll is so Charlie Christian.

Chuck berry have Charlie Christian written all over him.

[spacepatrolman]

@glenn0425 alvin lee was influenced by charlie christian too

[ray123ification]

Blimey, he was good wasn't he!

[tedybear335]

Genius!!

[49kasey]

He pretty much invented bebop. Wild. He did so much in such a short time. And what a guitar style, like no one else before or since!

[cliffworks4321]

In a number of the photos you can cleary see Charlie playing sans pick, in others with,

has anyone read any reports of his picking style / usage? thanks

[wilsonmcphert]

@cliffworks4321 Charlie was striclty a plectrum user. See anecdote by Barney Kessell in background info above describing his plectrum playing.. The main photo you are referring to looks like a pose for the photograph, but does not reflect his actual playing technique.

[cliffworks4321]

@wilsonmcphert Still, there are more than a few pics of Charlie playing without plectrum, so I wonder; btw, I studied with Barney in LA in the 70's, didn't think to ask him though!

[michaeljamsmith]

@wilsonmcphert Eh, Barney did not live with man. Too many pictures show Charlie playing with his thumb to deny is wasn't common for him. Maybe (like Jeff Beck) dropped them too much!

[consul1957]

Frightening!

[dominoscr]

Wow, just wow. So joyful. A true master. Thank you so much for sharing this important piece of musicianship. Amazing! Brought tears to my eyes. A beautiful arrangement indeed!

[yubayuba100]

@dominoscr Unnecessary, short, sentences don't make you sound smarter.

[dominoscr]

@yubayuba100 Whatev. I just like the video!

[Littlewhitelephant]

its been almost 70 yrs, sorry

[Littlewhitelephant]

Unbelievable that Charly Christian did this solo almost 60 years ago !

Too bad he died so early. Keep every tone in a treasury !

[busessuck1]

not enough credit goes out to this cat

[cMaXeJIJIo]

0 dislikes. No wonder! :)

[MrJhils531]

Green Bay's not gonna cover but I got Charlie Christian

[CadillacL]

Mind-blowing. There's really no words to describe this! Charlie Christian is THE man on guitar.

[fastborzoi]

this and Swing to Bop for the desert island 10

never tire of them

[fastborzoi]

raw & exciting -- one night at Mintons --

in my opinion one of the most enthralling recordings of all time

thanks for posting

[Gullahboy]

Damn his Fuccin Chops were on fire that night ....I have always been a fan of his but I never heard him step to it like this ..........

[danitaly]

My jaw just dropped on the floor... This is beyond amazing... Killer tone, great lines... No surprise he was Wes Montgomery's mentor...

[renemill]

That guitar sounds so sweet.I don´t find that sound in nowadays guitars.Technology is killing the pure sounds

[wesm65]

As good as it gets, really!

[vibratingstring]

That is a great recording, and I love your photo montage.

[shellytherealtor]

WOw listen to that guitar! Charlie Christian a true Jazz pioneer!

[kmc56]

He lets the open E (6th) sustain and plays a line over the top. Hendrix use to do that.

[Boingusboingus]

This is the first time I've heard him play. He was great and way ahead of his time. I think I even heard a bit of sweep picking in there!

[AgentZeroForTheWin]

@Boingusboingus sweep picking been around aslong as the flatpick

[leone7227]

Amazing!!!!

[slmccabe]

Stunning. Such a high level of playing at such a young age (or at any age). Thanks so much for posting this.

[AnfaengerGitarrist]

Damn, 1941

[4578a]

I can only imagine how he just tore everyone up at that time. Every electric guitarist should take several moments to ackowledge this early guitar innovator.

[1Delta]

this performance by Christian is simply killer. he's just relentlessly swinging to the Bop like it's infinite. really one of the best solos I've ever heard. thanx to the poster for the headsup to check out Eddie Lang. the only other Bop guitarist I know about around this time was Eddie Durham, now a I got another one to track down.

thanx for the info.,....but this solo by Christian is just so excelllent.

[1Delta]

going to listen to this to death. man, pure improvisational genius.

[neokira666]

This is music!

Woah!

[holoar]

It's really swinging! Refined and tasteful lines!

[Bottlenek6]

only 9,000 views??

[iocomposer]

Is there any actual video footage of him? I would be shocked if there was, but man... wouldn't that just be a treasure?

I love this man... he and Clifford are two of the greatest players ever to depart so young and leave such a tremendous mark.

It saddens me to read comments about who's better and all that. No, Charlie was not better than Steve Vai... that's just about as ignorant of a comment as could be made. They are what they are... No comparison. Vai just has 30 more years of evolution.

[EMCEMITCH]

mintons is back on 118th and st. nick but no more jazz---the be-bop of today---hip-hop

[DajaWaja]

@EMCEMITCH wtf hip hop the bebop of today? What the shit is that?? No way man!!! how could such a piece of shit be anything like near to bebop?¿?¿?

[irondragsportster]

Charlie Christian does circles around SRV, Steve Vai and Eddy Van Halen in style alone!! Jazz guitarists are at the top of the guitar chain!!!

[Modes9]

@irondragsportster Anybody can play a million notes over a static chord. Weaving a coherent line through a difficult chord progression takes real talent and skill. Think about how young Charlie Christian was when he did this stuff!

[sashje1]

I've never actually heard Charley like this - WTF?? Sorry - just amazing - this guy was on the bleeding edge at the time. Folks must have turned around in the club and said - what is that? A guitar?!?!?

[jimraw1]

@sashje1 I think what everyone wonders is what would have Charlie Christian become if he had lived even another ten years in relatively great health. His guitar skills kept improving, and I would have loved to hear him as he played with other jazz musicians on the new art form of bebop.

[sthugh]

@jimraw1 Why? Bebop pretty much killed jazz. Give me something that swings any day.

[kristofor12345]

@jimraw1 I think he would've sounded alot like wes montgomery.

[Modes9]

It's amazing how far ahead of their time Django and Charlie were. 90% of guitar players still don't outline the chords this well. With a feel and sound like this, I could listen to him all day.

[Hoopermazing]

Everyone overlooks Eddie Lang, who was an inspiration to both Charlie Christian and, especially, Django Reinhardt.

[wilsonmcphert]

Eddie's not overlooked on my channel. Check out my video for Eddie Lang and Carl Kress doing 'Pickin' My Way'. Amazing stuff for 1932. Thanks for your comment.

[Hoopermazing]

I'm listening to it as I type this. I can never hear too much Eddie... er ... Salvatore ... er ... Blind Willie.

[AMuhawi]

That is the SHIT.

[jerlouvis]

No matter how many times I hear him his talent always blows me away,it is guitar playing in it's purest form and is yet to be surpassed.

[yohenson]

what a sound

[kevinherbert]

Gr8 post...thanx

[littlerattyratratrat]

Certainly one of the primo Charlie jams...nothing else in the world like those old Minton's recordings. I used to have it on an old LP, but haven't heard it in years. Great collection of photos, too. Thanks, man!