Will James

Dr. Steve Valdez

History of Jazz

4/27/12

Flying Solo: Charlie Christian’s Influence on Bebop Guitar and Beyond

Historically, the guitar has generally had a difficult time being accepted into instrumental group

settings. Early jazz relegated the guitar to banging out block chords as part of the rhythm section, and

even still was interchangeable with a banjo simply because the banjo’s sound was more audible in live

performances. Before jazz , acoustic guitars were often seen as inferior to established instruments such

as piano violin, or cello. The guitar’s quiet nature was usually to blame for this, but also the guitar’s

ignoble reputation was due to its user base being primarily unschooled in music theory and generally

incompetent when compared to “real” classical musicians. In the early twentieth century, virtuoso

Andres Segovia dedicated his career to promoting the guitar in a classical setting, commissioning new

classical works that were idiomatic for the fingerboard, and elevating his instrument from a novelty to

one worthy of the concert hall1. In jazz there exists a similar figure, whose unique genius took existing

music of the time and used it as leverage for an unprecedented foray into new musical directions. His

name was Charlie Christian, and between the years 1939 and 1942 his recordings laid the groundwork

for all jazz guitarists that came after him. While drawing melodic influences from saxophonists like

Herschel Evans and Lester Young, Charlie Christian used them as established templates of the jazz

idiom that could be applied holistically to the electric guitar, forging a unique identity for his

instrument that re-invented its role in jazz.

1 Duarte, John. Andres Segovia: As I Knew Him. Mel Bay Publications, 1998. 17

Little is known of Christian’s early life, other than he was born in 1916 in Bonham , Texas and

shortly after relocated with his family to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He, his blind father, and two

brothers made their living by busking on the streets and eventually clubs in the Midwest area2. His

oldest brother Edward was a bandleader who introduced a teenage Charlie to his band’s guitarist, Ralph

“Big Foot Chuck” Hamilton. Under Hamilton’s tutelage Charlie learned music theory and sightreading,

and was introduced to the common jazz guitar techniques of the day, which largely consisted of a

unamplified chord-based playing style that needed to be played with much force in the right hand in

order for the sound to project in a band setting3. Charlie took to the instrument quickly and soon was

playing standards in his brother’s band for a meager living. Before dropping out, Charlie played the

saxophone in high school which helped broaden and develop his musical knowledge, a fact that will

come into play when he purchases his first electric guitar in 19374.

This new instrument, a Gibson ES-150, was a recent invention that included an arched top with

F-holes, steel strings with a wound pickup located near the meeting of the fingerboard and the guitar’s

body. By plugging it into an amplifier, one can play with much more subtlety and at a greater volume

that can compete with a horn section in a swing band. At the time, acoustic guitarists such as Lonnie

Johnson and Eddie Lang have been practically unamplified, but the notes they chose to play indicated

their desire to bring the guitar out of the rhythm section and into the forefront of a jazz band, playing

alongside trumpets, clarinets, and saxophones. Christian’s plugged-in tone does not sacrifice subtlety

over volume, and allows meticulously clear playing. Christian begins to use this advantage to carry on

his acoustic precursors’ musical innovations and push forward into a new era of jazz.

2 Simon, Bill. The Guitar in Jazz. University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln and London, 1996. 563 Simon, Bill. The Guitar in Jazz. University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln and London, 1996. 584 Ibid, 59

Christian’s multi-instrumental upbringing was important in the development of his new swing

style; his solos showed an influence of saxophonists like Lester Young and Herschel Evans, whose

fluid runs follow chord changes and swing through extended harmonies such as nineths, thirteenths,

and augmented figures through improvisation5. Through constant practice and study, Christian doesn’t

just copy these players note-for-note, but truly understood their improvisational mindset and applied it

idiomatically to the electric guitar in a way that makes the guitar sound like a unique voice in an

ensemble. As he practiced, Christian avoided the devices introduced by his early lessons from “Big

Foot” Hamilton such as chordal playing and comping techniques, and instead focused on phrasing his

lines one note at a time like a wind player6. Being an early adapter to electric guitar gave him an

advantage in that he could audibly accent certain notes for dramatic effect and sustain lines much

longer than an acoustic guitar player could7; the musical nuances enjoyed for so long by wind soloists

were finally available in full to this new six-stringed electric instrument, and in the hands of a master

such as Charlie Christian, it could finally hold its own against the best brass and woodwind players.

Like most instruments, the guitar has its idiosyncrasies that sometimes defy logical

interpretation. For instance, the 2nd string (B) is the only string tuned a major 3rd instead of a perfect

4th higher than the next lowest string. This is to allow the top and bottom strings to both be the note E

two octaves apart, but can present problems to a player who is trying to take a given fingering pattern

and transpose it on various points of the neck ; the player will have to adjust for the interval of a major

3rd in cross-string passages that involve the second string. Another curiosity of the fingerboard is its

behavior toward playing the same notes in a passage in different positions on the neck. If played in a

lower position, a melody tends to have a thinner timbre than the same notes in higher position, but

5 Ayeroff, Stan. Charlie Christian. New York: Consolidated Music Publishers, 1979. 66 Gitler, Ira. Swing to Bop. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. 337 Simon, Bill. The Guitar in Jazz. University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln and London, 1996. p. 60

played on the bass strings. To new players this is arbitrary at best and confusing at worst, but in

Christian’s hands it became a valuable asset to the qualities that set him apart from concurrent guitar

players8.

Still a teenager, Christian was building a formidable set of techniques that would elevate the

electric guitar to the next musical and artistic level. His precursors developed a single-string technique

of soloing that made the guitar a soloing instrument, but Christian took those aspects and continued to

develop them naturally9. For instance, a Charlie Christian solo might include a long melodic line that

takes place all on the same string. This wouldn’t be done just to make it more challenging, but instead

as an artistic decision on Christian’s part since he liked the sound of the notes all on the same thickness

of string. He would also outline chords during his solo idiomatically, sweeping across the strings in the

order that they are arranged on the neck10, which results in a sound just slightly different and more

guitaristic than a similar passage played on a saxophone or clarinet.

It is interesting to note that while Christian used certain guitar idioms to his advantage, he

downplayed and sometimes outright ignored others. Natural and artificial harmonics are naturally

occurring phenomena on any guitar, and are commonly used in classical repertoire for their ethereal

and sweet sound. After extensively combing through transcriptions of Christian solos, not a single

passage included any harmonics. Also, since one can strum all the open strings of a guitar and sound a

chord, mixing open strings with fretted notes is a common device for early 20th century guitar

composers such as Heitor Villa-Lobos and Augustine Barrios. Christian again decides to ignore the use

of open strings and will avoid them even at the cost of greater technical effort. This is probably due to

the tendency of swing tunes and their horns to perform in flat keys that are not necessarily idiomatic to

8 Ayeroff, Stan. Charlie Christian. New York: Consolidated Music Publishers, 1979. 49 Ibid, 510 Ayeroff, Stan. Charlie Christian. New York: Consolidated Music Publishers, 1979. 7

the guitar’s standard tuning of E A D G B E, from which open strings and harmonics are derived. Still,

an example of Christian not conforming to the standards of others and staying in line with his vision of

a new school of guitar playing.

By 1939 Christian had made a name for himself on a regional level, but had yet to experience

his breakthrough to stardom. That year he was introduced to Benny Goodman through a mutual friend

and began touring and recording on a national scale. In a short span of time, Christian went from

earning $7.50 per week to $150 per week from Goodman’s organization11. Most of his performing was

with Goodman’s Sextet since colored members were relegated to Goodman’s “chamber” groups, but

Christian’s playing can also be heard on the Benny Goodman Orchestra cuts Solo Flight and

Honeysuckle Rose12. The relationship between Christian and Goodman was purely professional; they

rarely spoke of one another and generally kept their interaction to rehearsals and performances13.

However, $150 per week was a handsome sum of money to most people in pre-WWII America, and

Christian would take whatever he could get on the condition that he could play his brand of jazz and

share it with the public with such a renowned bandleader.

While he enjoyed the exposure Benny Goodman offered, Christian continued to raise the bar

with his musicianship and musical aspirations. Whenever a set with Goodman ended, Christian would

take a cab to Minton’s, a jazz club in Harlem where players were beginning to experiment with a new

style of jazz14. This new way of playing favored smaller groups, and avoided the riffing that was so

popular with swing. Minton’s after-hours jam sessions were mostly filled with like-minded musicians

who played for themselves, not an audience who just wanted to dance. This style evolved from groups

of musicians jamming with a recording or one another in a way that celebrated harmony and

11 Simon, Bill. The Guitar in Jazz. University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln and London, 1996. 6212 Gitler, Ira. Swing to Bop. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. 2513 Simon, Bill. The Guitar in Jazz. University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln and London, 1996. p. 6314 Ibid

complexity; it was cool, hip, and fiercely individual. The style fit perfectly with Charlie Christian’s

musical persona and ethos. The style eventually became known as bebop.

These nightly extended jam sessions were home to many individuals who would later become

major figures in the bebop style. The house band included trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, saxophonists

Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins, piano giant Thelonius Monk, and house drummer Kenny

Clarke15. Christian was received warmly by these musicians, and his dazzlingly unique soloing style

resonated as well in their hearts as it did in the late-night jazz club. Thelonius Monk was known to

“love listening to Charlie play solos with fluid lines and interesting harmonies”16. Regarding Christian’s

stellar performances at Minton’s, jazz musician and historian Gunther Schuller writes:

“His work here seems to me relentlessly creative, endlessly fertile, and is so in a way that marks

a new stylistic departure. Indeed, it signals the birth of a new language in jazz, which even [Charlie]

Parker did not have as clearly in focus at that time…17”

Minton’s would remain open until 4 AM every night, allowing Christian to release the pent-up

energy leftover from his comparatively tame Benny Goodman job as a sideman in a swing band. He

was finally living the dream of ultimate creativity and self-expression by his early twenties, and was

universally adored by those who witnessed him jamming with so many other great musicians. His

stardom, however, was short lived as complications from tuberculosis took him out of the spotlight and

into the hospital.

15 Goins, Wayne F. and McKinney, Craig R. A Biography of Charlie Christian, Jazz Guitar's King of Swing . University of Michigan: Edwin Millin Press, 2005. 81

16 Simon, 6317 Schuller, Gunther. The Swing Era. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. 24

Christian knew he had tuberculosis since the late 1930s, but his life of constant partying was

beginning to have a serious impact on his health. In 1941 he was admitted to Seaview, a New York

City-run sanitarium on Staten Island where he was placed under observation by Count Basie’s personal

physician, Dr. Sam Mckinney18. Determined to continue sharing his amazing gift, Christian would

sneak out at night and party with his friends. All it took was one exceptionally cold night out for

Christian to develop pneumonia and become bedridden, and a few days later he was dead. He was

twenty-five years old.

Death did not keep Charlie Christian from reaching the ears of more new listeners. His

innovations live on in the form of just a few years’ worth of recorded material, which was plenty for the

next generation of jazz guitarists to latch onto and develop into their own styles. Wes Montgomery’s

(1923-1968) early career was heavily influenced by Christian’s legacy, and when asked , Montgomery

how he got interested in guitar, Montgomery replied,

“Charlie Christian, like all other guitar players. There was no way out. That cat tore

everybody's head up. I never saw him in my life, but he said so much on records. I don't care what

instrument a cat played, if he didn't understand and feel the things that Charlie Christian was doing, he

was a pretty poor musician.19”

And when asked about Christian’s most important recording,

“’Solo Flight’ - boy that was too much! I still hear it. He was IT for me. I didn't hear anybody

else after that for about a year. I listened to (Charlie Christian's records) real good, and I knew that

everything done on his guitar could be done on mine. About six or eight months after I started playing I

had taken all the solos off the records and got a job in a club just playing them. I'd play Charlie

18 Simon, Bill. The Guitar in Jazz. University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln and London, 1996. 6219 Broadbent, Peter. Charlie Christian: Solo Flight: The Story of a Seminal Electric Guitarist. 54

Christian's solos then lay out.20”

In summary, Montgomery is referring to Christian’s lasting legacy through his records, and how

the tracks transcend instrumental genre. The recordings Charlie was on can’t be labeled anything but

Charlie Christian sounding like Charlie Christian, and to be known so well for that speaks volumes

about his influence on a new generation of players playing a new offshoot of jazz. A generation of

players later, and guitarists like Joe Pass still cite Christian as an influence as the decades passed after

his death. Down Beat magazine has quoted Pass as saying,

“I first heard Charlie Christian in about 1942 - on record - I never did hear him live. His sound

was just great. How, with a little amplifier without any gimmicks or anything, he gets that sound!

Today we have all this equipment, all special kinds of pickups and amplifiers.....and still can't get that

sound! I think it has to do with the person that's playing, probably.21”

Charlie Christian’s life and legacy are a bittersweet reminder of the fragility of life, but also a

celebration of his musical accomplishments that will now live on in the form of his recordings and

reach new listeners every day. During his lifetime, Christian went from unknown to a central figure in

jazz in just a few years by seeing a niche, then filling it. It didn’t matter what other trends were, or what

other players were coming up with; Christian was always going to do things his way, and that is the

very essence of what makes him so great and adored by musicians and music fans wordwide. He broke

new ground by being the first to develop a technique that was natural to the electric guitar instead of

having to adapt an acoustic style22. While drawing melodic influences from saxophonists like Herschel

Evans and Lester Young, Charlie Christian used them as established templates of the jazz idiom that

could be applied holistically to the electric guitar, forging a unique identity for his instrument that re-

20 ibid. 5521 Simon, Bill. The Guitar in Jazz. University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln and London, 1996. 6422 Ayeroff, Stan. Charlie Christian. New York: Consolidated Music Publishers, 1979. 5

invented its role in jazz. Hopefully future players will appreciate his impact on music, and perhaps

there is already a new Charlie Christian out in the world, waiting to be discovered.

Works Cited

Ayeroff, Stan. Charlie Christian. New York: Consolidated Music Publishers, 1979.

Broadbent, Peter. Charlie Christian: Solo Flight: The Story of a Seminal Electric Guitarist. University

of Virginia: Ashley Mark, 2003.

Duarte, John. Andres Segovia: As I Knew Him. Mel Bay Publications, 1998.

Gitler, Ira. Swing to Bop. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.

Goins, Wayne F. and McKinney, Craig R. A Biography of Charlie Christian, Jazz Guitar's King of Swing. University of Michigan: Edwin Millin Press, 2005.

Schuller, Gunther. The Swing Era. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Simon, Bill. The Guitar in Jazz. University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln and London, 1996.