Charlie Christian Electric CD

Charlie Christian's career was all too brief, lasting a mere five years. After catching the attention of John Hammond, who recommended him to Benny Goodman, he appeared on fewer than 100 sessions between 1939 and 1941, mostly broadcasts, plus a few privately recorded sessions issued on various labels over the years, in addition to his well-known studio recordings and with Goodman. While the music in this compilation has been previously available, this collection has to much recommend it. First of all, new digital transfers have been made from original acetates from the Jerry Newhouse collection, rather than relying on later generation sources. Frank Driggs' detailed liner notes provide a wealth of historical background and there are also lots of photographs. But the most important factor is the music itself.

Charlie Christian's tragic death at the age of 23 is a firmly entrenched fact of jazz mythology. On The Genius of the Electric Guitar, which consists of various tracks recorded with the Benny Goodman Sextet and Orchestra, Christian's revolutionary guitar playing is clearly displayed. In keeping with the era, each of these 16 songs is relatively short, with each soloist allowed only a chorus or two to make their statements. Paucity of time troubles Christian and his compatriots not a whit, however, and they let loose with concise, swinging lines. Of the other soloists on display here, Lionel Hampton and Goodman himself play admirably, but Christian is in a different league altogether, his sophistication remarkable. Exhibit A: his solo in "Rose Room." Logically constructed and rhythmically varied, it is nevertheless eminently singable…

Definitive's mini-anthology of classic recordings featuring pioneer electrically amplified guitarist Charlie Christian is an excellent core sample taken from his brief and eventful career. Note that Definitive has also issued what purport to be compilations containing all of Christian's complete live and studio recordings, as well as another more modestly proportioned sampler entitled The Genius of the Electric Guitar. Charlie Christian was like a will-o'-the-wisp, a strikingly creative sideman who appeared at studio sessions and live jams during a span of months only adding up to a couple of years before succumbing to tuberculosis at the age of 25 in 1942. On Definitive's Celestial Express, the guitarist is heard with various groups led by Lionel Hampton and Benny Goodman, with Edmond Hall's Celeste Quartet, and with the Kansas City Six (a band including Count Basie and Lester Young) at the second From Spirituals to Swing concert in Carnegie Hall.

Charlie Christian - The Genius Of The Electric Guitar (1939-1941) {4CD Deluxe Set Columbia C4K 65564 rel 2002}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 836 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 674 Mb
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© 1939-41, 2002 Columbia / Legacy / Sony Music | C4K 65564
Jazz / Bop / Swing / Big Band / Guitar

First, a few myths get cleared up by the very existence of this box, which goes far beyond the original Columbia compilations with the same name. For starters, Columbia goes a long way to setting the record straight that Charlie Christian was not the first electric guitarist or the first jazz guitarist or the first electric guitarist in jazz. For another, they concentrate on only one thing here: documenting Christian's seminal tenure with Benny Goodman's various bands from 1939-1941. While in essence, that's all there really is, various dodgy compilations have been made advertising Christian playing with Lester Young or Lionel Hampton.

Early jazz electric guitarist whose dazzling single note style unshackled the instrument from the rhythm section, immeasurably influential. It can be said without exaggeration that virtually every jazz guitarist that emerged during 1940-65 sounded like a relative of Charlie Christian. The first important electric guitarist, Christian played his instrument with the fluidity, confidence, and swing of a saxophonist. Although technically a swing stylist, his musical vocabulary was studied and emulated by the bop players, and when one listens to players ranging from Tiny Grimes, Barney Kessel, and Herb Ellis, to Wes Montgomery and George Benson, the dominant influence of Christian is obvious.

Avid Jazz presents four classic Charlie Byrd albums including original LP liner notes on a finely re-mastered and low priced double CD. “Jazz Recital”; “Blues For Night People”; “Byrd’s Word” and “The Guitar Artistry of Charlie Byrd”.
You might say Charlie Byrd was on a mission on his first album as a solo artist “Jazz Recital”, recorded in Hackensack, New Jersey in February 1957. A passionate believer in the guitar as an affective lead instrument in jazz, five of the ten cuts here are solo guitar pieces. With a background in classical guitar technique and having studied in Italy with the guitar maestro Segovia, Byrd lays out his ambition in the original liner notes “I’d like to see the guitarists of today using more of the vast store of knowledge…

Sacramento-based blues, swing and jump masters Little Charlie & The Nightcats have much in common with their feline counterparts. They take great (musical) leaps and always land on their feet, they're constantly on the prowl (gigging all over the world), and, with all of the various styles of music they play, they seem to have many lives. Their new CD, NINE LIVES, is the ninth album of their remarkable career. As on their previous recordings, they combine unsurpassed musicianship and inventive lyrical vision with their deep understanding of blues and jazz traditions to produce music that is both technically brilliant and soulfully streetwise. "Endlessly impressive," raves the Associated Press. "Marvelously entertaining and brilliantly played," agrees the San Francisco Examiner.

Charlie Christian with The Benny Goodman Sextet - Solo Flight - Live! (2014) {Phoenix Records 131606 rec 1939-1941}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 252 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 171 Mb
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© 1939-41, 2014 Phoenix Records | 131606
Jazz / Swing / Bop / Electric Guitar / Clarinet

This release features some of the best live recordings by the celebrated Benny Goodman Sextet featuring the legendary Charlie Christian. Taken from rare radio broadcasts, they present the magic of Christians guitar during his short-lived three year music career, before he succumbed to tuberculosis in early 1942. As a bonus, this edition presents four tracks taken from a jam session at Minneapolis Harlem Breakfast Club, presenting the Jerry Jerome Quartet with Charlie Christian on electric guitar (including extended solos), Frankie Hines on piano and the great Oscar Pettiford on bass (no drums).

Various Artists - Let Me Tell You About The Blues - Texas: The Evolution Of Texas Blues (2010) {3 CD Box Set}
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© 2010 Fantastic Voyage / Future Noise Music Ltd. | FVTD047
Blues / Regional Blues

‘The blues come to Texas, loping like a mule,’ Blind Lemon Jefferson sang through a shower of surface noise as he made his recording debut in March 1926. He established the primacy of Texas blues musicians that continued unchallenged for the next 30 years, encompassing the likes of Henry ‘Ragtime’ Thomas, Texas Alexander, T-Bone Walker, Smokey Hogg, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown, Clarence Garlow, Lil’ Son Jackson, Lowell Fulson and Frankie Lee Sims. Other famous musicians recorded when they were passing through Texas, and that included Lonnie Johnson, Walter Davis, The Mississippi Sheiks, Robert Johnson, Roy Brown, Joe Turner, Honeyboy Edwards, Memphis Slim and Jimmy McCracklin.