Transcription Page:          Guitar Solo        

C&A:

This is one of the tunes recorded with Lester Young, Buck Clayton, and Count Basie with his entire rhythm section (including Freddie Green, Walter Page, and Jo Jones) to explore the possibility of joining with Goodman and Charles in a new ‘sextet.’  Unfortunately, it didn’t pan out but we lucked out with the session being recorded and preserved.  [Better yet would have been if Charles had gone with Basie to re-form the “Kansas City Seven” – but then we wouldn’t have a legacy of some many extant recordings, so scratch that thought.]

Wholly Cats is a 12-bar blues making its first of many appearances – this is the only one in the key of C, the subsequent versions being in G.  At the very tail end of the theme, a call assigning the first solo is heard:  “Come On, Charlie.”  Green was taking care of the rhythm guitar chores so Charles doesn’t get entirely caught off guard – maybe just a split second late.

Charles gets three full choruses whereas the other soloists (clarinet, trumpet, tenor sax) get only two and he makes excellent use of the time allotted.  Note also, he only gets two choruses for his solos on the other ten versions of the tune.

The solo is up to his superb blues standards.  For one thing, he’s funkier on this blues than he normally is on most other up-tempo blues with the sextet.  Bear in mind that on many slower blues he tends to go into his down-home mode staying on the same string for a longer time on a sequence of notes – he does so here a couple of times.

We must comment specifically on the opening bars of the second chorus:  that downward jaunt is reminiscent of the start of “Waitin’ for Benny” on the first CC Columbia LP, in this instance shorter and a bit more complex.  The opening bars of the last chorus, on the other hand, are the only relatively mundane moments of the solo – a strategic, refreshing interlude – all else is profoundly creative.