Dinah comes from a December 16 “Camel Caravan”
broadcast and is the only version of this tune to be recorded by Charlie
Christian. There’s some notable stride piano here and, especially on
the opening chorus, CC’s unique rhythm-guitar style is prominently recorded.
Not only is Charles solo a pure delight!as stated in the
Masters of Jazz CD liner notesbut his amplified chord accompaniment on the vibes
solo is so extraordinary that it becomes the main attraction of the chorus with the vibes
playing the supporting role.
On the following chorus CC sustains the essence of the melody during parts of his
exhilarating soloparticularly on the first three bars and on mm 8-10 where he plays
a variation of the first three. Theres also a good example of how he played
similar phrases (bars 2-3 and 30-31) on different places on the neckone reason his
licks dont sound repetitive or stale. On mm 4-6 he plays one of his favorite
phrases then unexpectedly inserts (at bar 6) an uncommon
D♮ instead of the usual
♭7 (D♭) of the chord.
Measure 16: Charles often anticipates the bridge by a beat or two, here he
does so by a full three beats. At bar 27 he pre-bends up half-a-step (to
G♭) before releasing to the normal
F
on the sixth fret rather than sliding down as he did at bar 14 or the regular bend at bar
31.
An unusual aspect of this solo is that theres as much interesting stuff going on
in the three A sections as there is on the bridgeusually he takes it up
a notch or two on the bridge. Also, its a particularly lyrical solo for such a
fast tempoand with relatively few rests.
The fidelity of the recording is not the best for transcribing, but its very
listenable. Were fortunate indeed that at least this aircheck version of
Dinah was captured, thanks to Jerry Newhouse.
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