Charlie Christian and His
Guitar
The Making of a Jazz Forerunner
Alex Talishinsky
The Charlie Christian Mystery
- In 1939, Charlie Christian and his
guitar slammed head-first into the
world of contemporary swing.
- In 1942, Christian died of
Tuberculosis.
- Teddy Hill's famous puzzled
question about Christian; "Where
did he come from?"
- Christian was able to make an
immense impact in three years
- So my puzzled question is this;
"What did this guy do exactly that
attracted so much attention?"
The Pre-Christian Jazz Guitar
- Before the appearance of Charlie Christian on the jazz scene,
the guitar was predominantly a harmonic instrument.
- provided support
- never soloed
- Said former Benny Goodman sextet member Jerry Jerome of
Christian's predecessors, "They had great bassmen and rhythm
players, but none of them ever did a solo, because guitars were
not solo instruments in those days." (1)
- According to African-American writer Ralph Ellison, "the guitar
had long been regarded as a traditional Southwestern Negro
instrument" (2)
A Unique Upbringing
- Born in Bonham Texas, moved to Oklahoma City at a very
young age
- Charlie's father and both of his brothers were musicians.
- "When Charles was a baby, his father would lie small stringed
instruments next to the child and let him explore the sonority. As
the child grew, so would the size of the instrument." (3)
- "The sons would accompany their father through the more
well-to-do white neighborhoods of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
and serenade the residents in return for cash, clothing, or food."
(4)
- Was a precocious musical talent and received high
instruction.
- Originally wanted to play tenor saxophone (5)
The Southwestern Musical Modality
- Christian certainly
received heavy influence.
- Ralph Ellison described
people "who amused
themselves by playing
guitars, Jews harps,
kazoos, yukes, mandolins,
C saxophones, or combs
ruffled by handkerchiefs."
(6)
- Ellison also referred to
"territorial orchestras that
were constantly in and out
of Oklahoma city" (7)
- Schuller describes Southwest;
"A rich complex of earthy dance
musics ranging from AngloAmerican country dances and
crude stompy polkas to the
Mexican and French-Acadian
dance idioms, the cowboy songs,
the rural banjo-picking tradition-all intertwined with a ubiquitous
fiddle tradition" (8)
A Foreign Influence
- In 1929, famous jazz saxophonist
Lester Young made his first
appearance in Oklahoma City.
- Charlie later claimed that after
leaving the concert, he "wanted his
guitar to sound like a tenor
saxophone." (9)
- Lester clearly had a lasting
influence in Christian and led the
young artist to further explore the
single-string method. (10)
Unhampered Beginnings
- Ellison wrote of a "conflict between what the Negro American
musician feels in the community around him and the classical
techniques of his instrument"
- However, he writes further, "the guitar was subjected to little of
this conflict between techniques. Its role in the orchestra had
been important but unobtrusive, and before Christian little had
been done to explore its full potentialities for jazz" (11)
- In this way, Christian was unhampered by the so-called norm
of his instrument i.e. free to experiment w/ potential
Opportunity Knocks
- In July 1939, pianist Mary Lou Williams, after hearing him
play, referred Christian to agent John Hammond, who set up a
'surprise' audition with Benny Goodman.
- Highly Impressed, Goodman took Christian into his group and
thus began a prominent jazz career.
- From 1939 through 1941 Christian won Down Beat
magazine’s ratings as America’s best guitarist.
- “Solo Flight,” the Goodman hit featuring Christian, made the
top of Billboard’s Harlem Hit Parade in 1943 (12)
- Charlie was one of the earliest users of an electric guitar, and
he played the first electric guitar model that was a commercial
success; the Gibson ES150. (13)
- Unlike an acoustic guitar, the electric guitar could be amplified
so that Christian's riffs could and solos were audible.
Growth of the Single-String
- Charlie Christian clearly had a defined individualistic
conception of chords progressions and chromaticisms (i.e.
which notes to play), and arpeggiated rhythms. (i.e. when to
play them).
- However, the thing that made him so appealing was his ability
to blend.
- Trevor de Clercq, a Sproull fellow at the Eastman School of
Music, notes, "Although Christian's solos perhaps sound fairly
complicated on first listen, only a few simple formulas seem to
actually make up more than 90-95% of his improvisatory
material." (14)
- In an interview, former bandmember Jerry Jerome comments
on Benny Goodman's first hearing of Christian, "Benny went
crazy when he heard him, because he'd never heard a guitar
player that could sound like a tenor saxophone." (15)
Benny's Bugle and Blending
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8JlM_apWrc
- 0:30 - 1:10 Look at the blend between the guitar riffs and the
following piano line. This is a reason Benny loved Christian -because his solos fit so well into his band.
A Long-Lived Legacy
- Christian was inducted into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame as
an 'early influence'.
- His induction letter notes, "His single-string technique
established a solo style that was carried on by such
contemporaries as T-Bone Walker and emulated by later
disciples like B.B. King and Chuck Berry." (16)
- Even outside of guitar, Christian had a big influence.
- Guitarist John Scofield supports this with his statement that
Miles Davis told him Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker "got
that stuff from Charlie Christian." (17), and in his self-titled
autobiography, Davis says of Christian, "He played the electric
guitar like a horn and influenced my approach to trumpet, and
Dizzy Gillespie's and Chet Baker's." (18)
Blend
- So let me re-iterate my point one more time...
- Diverse influences
- Unfettered experimentation
- Development of horn-like sound
- Ability to blend
- Eclectic legacy
What Might This Say About the Nature
of Radical Change?
- The guitar was only accepted in the forefront of jazz after
Christian gave it a sound like that of other big band solo
instruments.
- From there, it has evolved many chordal and single-string
methods of soloing which could never have been foreseen in
Christian's time (think Hendrix, Richards, Hammett)
- What does this say? Perhaps that big change must start with
small steps.
Bibliography
(1) http://www.music-open-source.com/source/Charlie-Christian-guitar-methodeBook/fichier/%28ebook%29%20Charlie%20Christian%20%20Legend%20of%20the%20Jaz%20Guitar.pdf
(2) Ellison, Ralph & O'Meally, Robert; Living with Music; 2002 Modern Library Paperback Edition,
RandomHouse, p. 41
(3) Centlivre, Kevin; Revisiting Charlie Christian; ©1999, 2009; Quotes Taken From Author's Interview with
Clarence Christian; 1978; Recorded Online @
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=428001184&blogId=483515554
(4) Ibid.
(5) Lee, Amy; "Charlie Christian Tried to Play Hot Tenor!" Metronome, 1940
(6) Porter, Horace; Jazz Beginnings: Ralph Ellison and Charlie Christian in Oklahoma City; © 1999; Antioch
Review; p.277
(7) Ibid.
(8) Schuller, Gunther; The Swing Era; New York; Oxford UP; 1989; p. 564
(9) Centlivre, Kevin; Revisiting Charlie Christian; ©1999, 2009; Quotes Taken From Author's Interview with
Clarence Christian; 1978; Recorded Online @
<http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=428001184&blogId=483515554>
(10) Wayne Goins and Craig McKinney, A Biography of Charlie Christian: Jazz Guitar's King of Swing, pp.
369, 373-374
(11) Ellison, Ralph & O'Meally, Robert; Living with Music; 2002 Modern Library Paperback Edition,
RandomHouse, p. 41
(12) Wayne E. Goins and Craig R. McKinney; A Biography of Charlie Christian, Jazz Guitar’s King of Swing
(Studies in the History and Interpretation of Music); Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2005
(13) http://www.jazzguitar.be/charlie_christian.htm
More Bibliography
(14) de Clercq, Trevor; 'Improvisatory Formulas of Charlie Christian'; The Science of Songwriting; Uploaded
2008; Accessed Jan. 2010; <http://www.midside.com/?p=11>
(15) Centlivre, Kevin; transcribed/edited by Gary Hansen; Jerry Jerome Interview -- 'Benny Went Crazy
When He Heard Him'; 1993; <http://www.music-open-source.com/source/Charlie-Christian-guitar-methodeBook/fichier/>
(16) Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame -- Official Website; Inductee Letter: Christian, Charlie; Copyright 2007. The
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc.; Accessed Jan. 2010;
<http://www.rockhall.com/inductee/charlie-christian>
(17) Sony, "The Genius of the Electric Guitar" liner notes
(18) Davis, Miles; Miles: The Autobiography; Simon and Schuster Paperbacks; Copyright 1989; New York;
p. 275