Good Enough to Keep  (Air Mail Special)  —  13 March 1941  —  CO 29943-1

        First Page:              Theme

        Second Page:       Guitar Solo

        Third Page:             Riffs

        Fourth Page:          Out-Chorus

C&A:

Nine months after the sextet recorded three rejected takes of Good Enough to Keep in Hollywood, the tune was recorded in the studio again.  On this Manhattan session one more chorus was appended to the routine to accommodate the additional soloist in the septet;  riffs are now present behind the clarinet and tenor sax solos.  This time one of the two takes was released by Columbia.  It was first titled Good Enough to Keep on the initial release then re-titled Air Mail Special in later pressings.

CO 29943-2                                                                   ☊   LISTEN   Guitar Solo – first take
The first four bars of Charlie Christian’s solo on this take would again be used at the start of his solo on the recording of the tune on a radio show four days later.  Charles used the repeated figure starting at bar 9 to begin his solo on the other take of this session.

The guitarist spruces up the sax solo with his riffs before swinging into the shout-chorus.

CO 29943-1                                                                   ☊   LISTEN   Guitar Solo – second take
Charlie Christian continues to be inspired during this date on all the riffs and solos.  He begins his own solo on this one with a strong phrase borrowed from the previous take.  Measures 5 thru 12 contain fairly common phrasing but then Charles becomes quite creative for the remainder of his solo so that it decidedly becomes the highlight of the two takes.

※  Both takes from this session were spliced together and released by Columbia on one track of the first Charlie Christian 12"-LP (CL 652) in the mid-50s.  A couple of decades later, a reissue producer for Columbia by the name of Chris Albertson came along and again spliced the two takes together but this time one of Charles’ solos was truncated by eight bars so that the two solos would run together better – it was released on a Charlie Christian double-LP (CG 30779).  Further clarification of the splicings can be found here.