Charlie Christian - Recordings August 19, 1939 through October 31, 1939

CHARLIE CHRISTIAN

Volumes  1 thru 8

MASTERS OF JAZZ

MJCD 24, 29, 40, 44, 67, 68, 74, 75

Notes from:  

http://home.roadrunner.com/~valdes/revu_cd.htm#MoJ%201

This series of CDs, produced in France on Media 7’s Masters of Jazz label, is one of the best and most complete ever issued on any artist in jazz.  Eight volumes were released containing all available recordings on which Charlie Christian is prominently featured.  This includes studio masters, alternate takes, radio broadcasts, and jam sessions.

Assembled between 1992 and 1994, each volume is about an hour long and comes with an excellent 28 to 40-page booklet (in French and English) containing good-quality photos, great track-by-track commentary and a discography identifying the soloists.  The most-rare recordings have not all been included nor is the information quite 100% accurate but the series does have some items that had never been issued before.  Most likely this is the best anthology we’ll ever see on Charlie Christian.

An added bonus on the last four CDs is the restoration of all the recordings to their correct pitch.  This had not been done before on any other LP or CD releases, including the first half of this series.  I took a large sampling, especially of those tunes that I knew to be always blatantly off-key in the past, and found them all to be virtually on the exact pitch.  Many thanks to those responsible for getting this batch on the right key.

Volume 1 covers the period of August 19, 1939 through October 31, 1939:

Track 1 – On his very first recording, Charlie Christian takes a 32-bar solo on his own composition “Flying Home” on a Camel Caravan radio broadcast from The Hollywood Bowl on August 19, 1939.

Track 2 – First-time-ever issue of this September 2nd aircheck of “Star Dust” from the Michigan State Fair in Detroit.
[Reissued in October 2001 on Masters of Jazz MJCD 189, Charlie Christian • Volume 9 with much-improved sound.]

Charles’ 32-bar chord solo on “Star Dust” was dedicated to his mother, Willie Mae, who had written to him requesting that he play a song for her. He replied that he could not publicly dedicate a song to her but that whenever he played this solo it was especially for her.

Track 3 – Now in New York City on September 11 at his very first studio recording session, Charles’ plays obbligato chords on “One Sweet Letter from You” behind Lionel Hampton’s vocal chorus.  Unfortunely, he doesn’t solo on the other three tunes from this excellent Victor recording session with Hamp’s ad hoc orchestra that included Benny Carter, Chu Berry, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, and Dizzy Gillespie.

Tracks 4 thru 6 – The legendary Minneapolis session at the Harlem Breakfast Club on September 24.

“I Got Rhythm” was recorded twice, both times with identical routines:  4-bar piano intro and one-chorus solos by Jerome, Christian, Hines, Jerome, Christian, Jerome.  The first time the tune was recorded, as that there was plenty of recording time left, the musicians were motioned to continue but they misinterpreted the signal and ended the take at the end of the chorus.  They then replayed “I Got Rhythm” to fill up the remaining time.  Four high-energy swingin’ solos by CC are on these two takes.

The second take is spliced ahead of the first.  Neither take is complete:  take 2 is missing the last 28 bars of the last tenor sax chorus;  take 1 is missing the piano intro and the first 28 bars of the first tenor sax chorus.

All previous LPs and CDs had been issued in the same configuration until the two takes were finally issued in 1993, separated and in their entirety, under the SUISA label on a compact disc (JZCD 379) entitled Charlie Christian:  Air-Checks and Private Recordings.
[Reissued in their entirety in October 2001 on Masters of Jazz MJCD 189, Charlie Christian • Volume 9.]

“Star Dust” is complete with the only two-chorus solo Charles would record on this tune—a beautiful, spirited rendition.

“Tea for Two” is missing the first 4 bars of Charles’ extraordinary 8-bar chord intro and the first 8 bars of the second tenor sax solo, as are all other issues to date, but both of CC’s amazing solos (64 bars and 32 bars) are intact.  This was the only time CC was recorded on this tune.

[The complete “Tea for Two” was issued in 1997 on a Jerry Jerome double-CD Something Old, Something New (Arbors ARCD 19168).]
[Reissued in its entirety in October 2001 on Masters of Jazz MJCD 189, Charlie Christian • Volume 9.]

Tracks 7 thru 10 – Charles’ first studio date with the Goodman sextet produced two takes of “Fying Home” (the alternate take was released as “Homeward Bound” on V-Disc), “Rose Room” and “Star Dust” on October 2nd for Columbia Records.  CC solos for one chorus on each.

Tracks 11 & 12 – The Carnegie Hall concert of October 6, 1939:   Charles gets 32-bar solos on “Flying Home” and “Star Dust.”

Track 13 – An October 7th aircheck of the first version of “Memories of You” with an 8-bar guitar solo on the minor-mode bridge.

Track 14 – “Rose Room” broadcast from the Empire Room at the Waldorf-Astoria on October 9.  Charles is outstanding on his solo, just as he was on the previous version and all other renditions of “Rose Room” — all beautifully melodic and totally different from each other…incredible creativity.

Track 15 – On October 12, CC was again invited to record with Hampton’s orchestra for Victor Records—this time along with bassist Artie Bernstein from the Goodman sextet.  Charles takes a solo on “Haven’t Named It Yet” with trumpeter Henry ‘Red’ Allen on the bridge.

Two other titles were recorded at this session but with no CC solos.   However, one of the two takes of “The Heebie Jeebies Are Rockin’ the Town”could have been included here:  CC plays a 4-bar chord intro and some very nice obbligati on Hamp’s vocals.

Track 16 – On “AC-DC Current,” Charles gets the 4-bar intro and a couple of 4-bar breaks.  Louis Armstrong is the featured guest on another tune on this October 14 Camel Caravan aircheck with the Goodman sextet & orchestra.

Track 17 – From the Waldorf-Astoria on October 16:  another version of “Flying Home” with the usual 32-bar guitar assignment.

Track 18 – The first recording of “Soft Winds” — Charles’ beautiful 16-bar blues composition (with 12-bar solos) — on a Camel Caravan October 21st broadcast.  He never soloed on his tune but he is prominent on the theme, on boogie riffs behind the vibes solo, and on the tag.   Seventeen years later “Soft Winds” became a big hit for Dinah Washington.

Track 19 – Back to the Waldorf-Astoria on October 23 for a bridge solo on “Memories of You.”

Track 20 – Seven different blues were recorded on the two October 31, 1939 Ida Cox sessions.  A total of 22 different takes (including false starts and breakdowns) are known to exist, 12 of which are available on compact disc.  I agree with the producers that the entire session may not be quite appropriate in this series.  “Deep Sea Blues” is as good a representative of this session as any of the other cuts, which have similar contributions from Charles.

[Eleven takes are on Ida Cox — Complete Recorded Works, Volume 5:  1939-1940 (Document DOCD-5651).
 The remaining cut, take 2 (of 4) of “One Hour Mama,” is on Mean Mothers (Rosetta RR 1300).]



Some other readily available cuts that were recorded during the time period covered by this volume (August 19, 1939 through October 31, 1939) but not included in this series are:
“Opus ½” (a novelty tune from a September 23 aircheck at the Orpheum Theater in St. Paul and not yet available on CD);
Two takes of “The Heebie Jeebies Are Rockin’ the Town” (from the October 12th Hampton studio session);
Both titles have CC chord intros and prominent chord accents and/or obbligati, but no solos.

“Flying Home” from a September 9th broadcast was omitted from this first volume.  It’s first-ever release was in 1995 on More Camel Caravans, Vol. III (Phontastic NCD 8845/8846).
[Reissued in March 2001 on Charlie Christian—Complete Live Recordings (Definitive DRCD11177).]
[Reissued in October 2001 on Masters of Jazz MJCD 189, Charlie Christian • Volume 9.]

An October 28 aircheck of “Rose Room” was also left out—issued in 1997 for the first time on Camel Caravan Shows (Jazz Band EBCD 2138-2).
[Reissued in October 2001 on Masters of Jazz MJCD 189, Charlie Christian • Volume 9.]



A few comments and minor corrections on the liner notes:

Page 16 – Around 1928 or 1929, Charlie Christian learned guitar basics from OKC guitarist Ralph “Big Foot Chuck” Hamilton who used a chord technique common to that era.  Charles developed his horn-like, single-string style on his own after that, before pickups and amplifiers were generally available.   As the liner notes state, CC’s conversations with guitarist Eddie Durham probably only concerned guitar amplification.  Charles was also taught advanced music theory by Ralph Hamilton and especially by trumpeter James Simpson.

Page 17 – John Hammond’s recollection of Charles’ audition date is a few days off.  Charles’ going-away party took place on Aug. 13, 1939 at Ruby’s Grill in OKC;  his audition was three days later, on the 16th in L.A.

Page 18 – Hammond was mistaken in assuming that Charles didn’t know “Rose Room.”  Along with “Sweet Georgia Brown” and “Tea for Two,” it was one of the tunes on which he soloed in his first public appearance when he sat in with Don Redman and his Orchestra in 1930 or 1931 at “Honey’s,” an after-hours club run by Honey Murphy in OKC.

Page 20 – The Minneapolis session was neither recorded by a disc-jockey nor for broadcast use.  That one-night session was recorded by Jerry Newhouse who had recently graduated from college and was just starting out in the paper industry.  Jerry’s friend, Dick Pendleton, knew Jerry Jerome who was playing with Charlie Christian and the Benny Goodman band at the Orpheum Theater across the river in St. Paul.  Pendleton recruited Newhouse because of his recorder and his recording experience (Newhouse recorded most of the airchecks by Basie, Goodman and a few others around that time that have been issued on LP and CD).

Pendleton and Newhouse picked up Charles and Jerome after their gig and took them to jam at the “Harlem Breakfast Club,” a private home that had been converted into an after-hours club.  They were joined there by two local musicians:  Frankie Hines on piano and 17-year-old Oscar Pettiford on bass.  There was no drummer on this session;  the “drums” that some listeners seem to hear may have been Charles tapping out the time with his foot and doing it so enthusiastically that the recorder couldn’t stay on track.  The recorder had to be moved to another room and the whole session was recorded with a pillow under Charles’ left foot.  Newhouse and Pendleton took turns pointing the single microphone at the soloist.  September 24, 1939 is the most probable date for these recordings—they were definitely recorded during the Orpheum gig that ran from the 22th through the 28th of September.

Page 26 “Charlie Christian’s guitars” – Charlie Christian used three different guitars regularly during his tenure with the Goodman band.   Sometime during the summer of 1939 he replaced his Epiphone with a sunburst Gibson ES-150 which he bought together with an EH-150 amplifier for $150—he was still making payments on it when he joined the Goodman band.  In April 1940 he replaced the ES-150, which has remained the model most associated with him, with the larger ES-250 custom-made by Gibson with a natural (blond) finish and a Super 400 tailpiece.

In late February 1941, Charles took delivery of a blond, extremely-rare version of a Gibson ES-250 with an L7-style neck.  All three were non-cutaway, f-hole, hollow-body guitars with carved tops and a single bar pickup that soon became known as the “Charlie Christian” model pickup.  The ES-150 had dot inlays on the fingerboard, the first ES-250 had bowtie markings, and the rare ES-250 had a flower pot peghead and eight beautiful fretboard position markers each with their own unique design.

Page 32 (Discography) – The location and date of October 9, 1939 for “Rose Room” are correct, however I don’t believe it was part of the Young Man with a Band program but was a regular broadcast from the Empire Room at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

http://www.mediafire.com/?qbb6jtx77emlolh