The Guitar in Jazz: 

Stylistic Development

from the Beginnings to 1960

Chapter 3:

 Charlie Christian and the Development of the Electric Guitar
 

Charlie Christian ⁽¹⁾ was born in 1916 ⁽²⁾ in Bonham, Texas and grew up in the black quarter of Oklahoma City, to which his family had moved shortly after his birth.  His father, a trumpeter, played in movie theaters, with his wife on piano, to accompany silent films.  When he went blind, he had to give up this means of making a living.  Subsequently he played with his three sons as street musicians in the residential white middle-class areas of the city, playing a mixed repertoire of operatic arias, blues and ballads.  CC and his father played guitar, brother Edward bass, and Clarence violin or mandolin;  all four sang as well.  This early practical experience in the family string band was extended by a dedicated lady music teacher at his school who taught her pupils the basics of harmony, and also introduced them to classical music.  A further influence on CC’s musical development was the country blues tradition that was maintained in Oklahoma.

The city had, what is more, a lively jazz scene, from which emerged amongst others, Walter Page’s Blue Devils, a forerunner of the later Count Basie Orchestra.  Also, the leading jazz bands and musicians of the Midwest could often be heard in Oklahoma City, located as it is only some 250 miles from Kansas City, a centre of jazz at that time.  Lester Young visited CC’s home town in 1929 and again in 1931 for extended periods with the Blue Devils, and is said to have had a great influence on the young guitarist (cf.  Schuller, 1988, p. 565ff.).

From 1934 CC worked in various bands, among others Alphonso Trent’s, who at that time had one of the leading bands in the Southwest.  CC is said to have played bass on his first job with Trent.  At the same time, he developed a reputation as an outstanding guitarist in jam sessions – at that time still on acoustic guitar – as Eddie Durham recalled:

“Touring with the band (Basie), I ran into Charlie Christian in Oklahoma City.  It was the latter part of 1937, and I’ll never forget that old, beat up, five dollar wooden guitar that he took to the jam session when I heard him play.  ...I don’t think Christian had ever seen a guitar with an amplifier until he met me.  It was a year before they got on the market generally, and then he got one for himself.”  (cited in Mongan 1983, p. 87)

One year later, in 1938, Mary Osborne heard CC on electric guitar with the Al Trent Sextet in North Dakota.  In Trent’s arrangements the instrument was voiced in three part harmony with trumpet and tenor saxophone playing the melody in such a way that Osborne at first thought she was hearing a second tenor saxophone, until she saw it was the electric guitar.

“I remember some of the figures Charlie played in his solos.  They were exactly the same things that Benny recorded later on as Flying Home, Gone with What Wind, Seven Come Eleven, and all the others.”  (cited in Mongan 1983, p. 87)

On the recommendation of pianist Mary Lou Williams, who had heard CC in the Midwest, jazz impresario John Hammond flew to Oklahoma City in August 1939 to see CC for himself.  Hammond, who at that time was working with Benny Goodman, arranged an audition for CC with the famous bandleader.  Goodman had already been considering the addition of an electric guitar to his quartet.  (cf.  Schuller 1989, p. 563, footnote 30).  Hammond’s account of the audition, in which CC is said to have convinced Goodman (who at first was going to reject him) with twenty solo choruses on Rose Room, has become one of the most famous stories in jazz  (Mongan, 1983, p. 88 f.).

From September 1939 to mid-1941 the guitarist played with the Benny Goodman Sextet, one of the most popular combos of the time.  In less than two years, his fame achieved through live radio broadcasts and recordings (including two with the Goodman big band), CC established his style as the benchmark for jazz guitarists.

Despite this great success, the guitarist felt he could not express himself artistically in the band of the conservative Goodman.  In mid-1940, the sessions at Minton’s Playhouse, that played a key role in the development of Bebop started.  There, young musicians, such as Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, and Kenny Clarke, who loved to experiment, met each other.  CC took part in the sessions at Minton’s so often that he kept an amplifier there.

“Charlie Christian was there a lot.  He and Monk would be hand in glove.  If Charlie had lived, he would have been real modern.  ...We used to look forward to Charlie coming in.  We used to wait for him to come in after finishing work with Benny Goodman;  Charlie was so sold on what we were doing he bought an extra amplifier and left it at Minton’s.”  (Kenny Clarke cited in Shapiro & Hentoff 1955, p. 340)

In May 1941 jazz enthusiast Jerry Newman made the recordings at Minton’s Playhouse that number among the precious few to document the beginnings of Bebop. On these recordings CC’s improvisations can be heard as they unfold, free from any restrictions of time.  They also belong to the last recordings of the guitarist:  one month later CC was hospitalized with tuberculosis and in March 1942 he died from the illness.  CC’s recording career is predominantly associated with Benny Goodman.

With the exception of some ‘airshots’ of the Goodman band, and the session under Lionel Hampton’s name, the Benny Goodman Sextet titles of October 2, 1939 represent the first main recordings of CC.  On all three pieces the guitarist is exposed to a degree that is not only unusual for the instrument, but also for CC as a new member of the group. On Rose Room he takes the first solo after Goodman’s theme statement, and has the only complete solo chorus – vibes, piano, and clarinet share a chorus.  On Star Dust the first chorus is shared by Goodman and Hampton, and CC takes the whole second and final chorus of the ballad.  The guitar is also showcased in the theme statement and on Rose Room the guitar plays the introduction with the clarinet, just as on Flying Home it is voiced in unison with clarinet and vibes on the A-sections.

What Mary Osborne had heard earlier in 1938 in North Dakota, was now being presented to a wider audience:  the addition of amplified electric guitar as an extra ‘horn’ (as all wind instruments are known in jazz).  But it was not just because of the novelty of this idea that Benny Goodman gave such prominence to the newcomer.  He valued CC’s gifts highly, and clearly wished to promote him, as his announcement before the concert version of Flying Home on October 6, 1939, in New York’s Carnegie Hall, demonstrates.  On this occasion he presented the new member of the band as follows:

“Charlie, I think, is really one of the most terrific musicians who’s been produced in years.”  (cited in:  Charlie Christian Live 1939-1941, Festival double album 377)

Flying Home (mx WCO.26132-A) the only original composition recorded on October  2, 1939, derives from one of the guitarist’s riffs – notwithstanding the fact that Benny Goodman and Lionel Hampton are credited as composers (see Mary Osborne’s quotation on p. 103).⁽⁵⁾  The piece has a 32-bar AABA structure, in which the A-section consists of a riff repeated several times, and the B-section is improvised.  Flying Home is therefore a typical example of the so-called ‘riff tunes,’ a type of composition that CC is said to have introduced into the Goodman Sextet (cf.  Schuller, p. 570) and that in the wake of that band, became used in every imaginable variation.  Of course, the concept did not originate with CC.  It probably developed in the legendary jam sessions of Kansas City in the 30’s, during which horn players who were not soloing, played riffs as accompaniments and to spur on the soloists.  From Kansas City, the musical centre of the Midwest, this idea spread and CC, who had a particular gift for creating such riffs, was the one who introduced the idea to Benny Goodman.

The A-section of Flying Home (ex. 1) has a harmonic basis in the E-flat major and E-flat mixolydian scales.⁽⁶⁾   While E-flat and A-flat/C could belong to both scales, Bflat7 clearly originates from E-flat major, just as E-flat/D-flat does from the E-flat mixolydian.  Only the last two bars of the A-section are clearly based harmonically and melodically in the E-flat mixolydian.  The melody line is based on the extended major pentatonic scale, and uses the blue notes G-flat and F-sharp as approach tones to the third and ninth respectively.  It is a typical feature of CC’s style to use a slide from the blue note to the relevant target tone.  This ‘slide’ technique can be traced back in part to blues guitar tradition (cf.  Lonnie Johnson).

At the same time, when combined with the rather delicate and sustained sound of the electric guitar it lends CC’s style a flowing feeling that recalls Lester Young’s legato articulation on the tenor saxophone.  The repeated use of the ninth (F) can likewise be put down to Young’s influence, in whose style the emphasis of the sixth and ninth was marked.  Similar applies to CC’s complete absence of vibrato, which clearly distinguishes him from Django Reinhardt.⁽⁷⁾  Fourth-notes are played quite short by CC, but sound less staccato in the hands of the black guitarist than when played by Reinhardt (who played ‘before the beat’).

CC’s solo on Flying Home (ex. 2) provides a perfect example of the guitarist’s method of structuring his approach to AABA-type compositions.  Two-bar phrases predominate in the A-sections, and these phrases produce a kind of call-and-response effect with the clarinet and vibes riffs in the accompaniment.  While these sections show a combination of quarter- and eighth-notes, the B-section is distinguished by two long eighth-notes phrases.  As well as these rhythmic differences, the sections also differ in their harmonic characteristics.  The solo line of the A-sections is constructed from a modified E-flat major pentatonic scale, in which the scale is extended to include the fourth, and twice (against Eflat7), the minor-seventh.  The entire section is treated in an almost modal way.  Thus a non-chord tone, the fourth (E-flat), is repeatedly played against the B-flat major chord at the end of each two bar phrase (bars 6, 14, and 28).  The solo line in the A-sections therefore corresponds more to the overall tonality of the piece, rather than to that of particular chords, and therefore can be considered as ‘horizontal’ in George Russell’s sense.  Since the phrases are constructed melodically in this way, certain dissonant tones do not sound misplaced.

The B-sections are clearly treated more ‘vertically,’ since each chord is interpreted with chord tones, passing tones, and chord extension tones.  Also, chromatic tones derived from the chord, like the A-natural (third of F7) occur on strong beats (bars 21ff). Ninths (bars 17, 19, 22 and 24), thirteenths (bars 18 and 22), and in one case a flatted-13th (bar 23) are also evident as extensions of the prevailing chord.  A characteristic of CC can be seen in the way the major-seventh occurs as a passing tone between the root and the flatted-seventh (against the relevant dominant-seventh), but placed on a down beat, thus having an effect like a delayed approaching note to the flatted-seventh (bars 18 and 22).  Normally, in the so-called Bop scales such passing tones are placed so that the chord tones fall on the beat (cf.  Baker, p. 5).

The same delay is particularly prominent in bar 24 and is not resolved until after a skip to the third of the chord.  A similar treatment of a chromatic passing tone can be seen in bar 21.  A descending chromatic run from a C (bar 20) arrives at an A-flat [on the first beat of bar 21];  in this context the A-flat functions not so much as a flatted-ninth of F7, but rather as a delayed approaching tone to the ninth on the weak beat.  A further frequently seen element of CC’s established style is evident in bar 18.  After a diatonic movement from C to A-flat there follows a D-flat minor (major-seventh) arpeggio [fourth inversion].  This occurs against an E-flat seventh, which in the B-section functions as a dominant-seventh before the tonic A-flat chord, and thus can be seen as an arpeggio on the minor-subdominant.

If one traces the peaks in the melodic line of the B-section, a descending line, going from C (bar 18) through A-flat (bar 21) and G (bar 22) can be identified, which represents a kind of higher-order line.  In the last A- section CC returns again to two-bar phrases, based on the E-flat scale.  The blues phrase in bars 29ff.  indicates the guitarist’s links with that tradition, but at the same time the off-beat phrasing lends it a contemporary effect.  Also, the riff-like accompaniment to the vibes solo that follows employs a double-stop (a tritone, C and G-flat – the raised-9th and 6th of E-flat major) derived from the blues.

If one compares the melodic characteristics of each of the A- and B-sections, one can find further differences between them.  While the short phrases in the A-section are related through a call-and-response pattern, and show a kind of motivic development, the line in the B-section can be characterized as closely following the underlying chords.  Jazz musicians use the term ‘running the changes’ to describe this kind of moving line, that depends less on a voice-leading style, and leans more on the use of formulas.  Evidently CC was one of the first musicians to use this approach, which later became a key element of Bebop, as the comments of two musical contemporaries testify:

“Charlie Christian, Lester Young, and Bird.  I think they all influenced each other.  You notice their approach to a song was different.  Prior to that when a guy would take a chorus on a song and get to the release, or the bridge, they never did really analyze those things, they’d skate through;  but starting with Christian, he really dug the interrelated chords leading in and out of the bridge – turn-backs.  Charlie Parker, Lester Young, and Dizzy Gillespie, they had a steady flow through there.”  (Red Callender, cited in Gitler 1985, p. 40f.)

“I used to remember this tune ‘Savoy’ [Stompin’ at the Savoy] they used to play, and I remember Charlie Christian would be playing on it, and he’d start playing, and on the outside of it he would just be going along slowly, and as soon as he came to the difficult part, the bridge, he would tear it up, he would dive in.  ...he was really involved with the chord construction.”  (James Moody, ibid.)

The contrasting treatment of the A- and B-sections is nowhere more clearly revealed than in the above example.  Nevertheless it is characteristic of CC’s approach to improvisation on all such AABA compositions.  With other types of composition as well, the guitarist uses both these contrasting types of melodic line to striking effect in his solos. 

This comparison can be further examined with the example of a live recording of Flying Home (ex.  3, October 6, 1939, on CC Live 1939-1941), dating from only four days after the studio version discussed above.  To be precise, the first A-section consists of two 4-bar phrases, but the two other A-sections are structured into smaller fragments;  a 6-bar sequence of eighth-notes in the B-section represents the longest phrase of the solo.  The eighth-note rhythm of the B-section differs from the more pronounced syncopated quarter-note rhythm of the A-sections.  The harmonic basis of the A-sections can be found (as in the first example) in the extended major pentatonic, with added fourth and minor-seventh.  The E-flat mixolydian is extended by the blue note G-flat;  but the pentatonic forms the main source for the solo line.  C-flat (as a passing tone) between the sixth and fifth (of E-flat) occurs three times, and the last time is inserted for a longer duration, on the down beat, as a delayed tone before the fifth (bars 3.4 and 10.4.f., and 29.3).  Although these passing tones were already widely used in the 20’s (see Chapter 1) they were not used so prominently, as delayed tones until later – notably by Lester Young.  Crucially in the case of CC, however, he applies this harmonic device in a linear way, thus the prevailing chords are neglected in favour of melodic development.

Over nearly every Bflat7 chord in the A-sections, he builds his solo from the basic tonality of the key, neglecting the dominant by emphasizing the tonic (E-flat).  The Bflat7 chord in the B-sections, on the other hand is clearly interpreted as the dominant by the repeated use of its third (D) and ninth (C), as well as the minor-seventh (A-flat).  In bar 24 the tension of the dominant is stressed by a flatted sixth.  The other harmonies of the B-section are also interpreted with chord tones and extended tones, that are linked, via an irregular sequence of chromatic and higher interval tones, in descending and ascending passages.  The impression of forward motion created in this way even today has an almost bewildering effect, but in 1939 must have seemed even more striking.

It should be noted that the peaks of this six-bar phrase, similarly to the B-section of the preceding example, follow a descending pattern, from the D-flat through the G and finally (in bar 24) to G-flat.  However, there can be no question of the line following a motivic development in either of the two B-sections examined.  As mentioned already, the line develops in a horizontal movement, based on an ingenious treatment of the prevailing chords.  The tonal resources for the dominant7 Chord are derived from the mixolydian scale, and for the A-flat from the major scale, where extended tones such as the 9th, 13th, and sixths are especially noticeable.  Several chromatic passing tones add to these sources.

Each time the middle passing tone in the above sequences falls (as in the example of the major-seventh against the dominant7 discussed before) on the beat in such a way to create a chromatic delayed tone.  Occasionally the passing tones are strung together in a long chromatic line (ex.  2, bar 20), or are interrupted by bigger intervals (ex. 3, bar 18).  The most frequent intervals – next to the thirds derived from the chords – are the fourth and the fifth.  Sometimes intervals of a seventh result from register jumps;  instead of a descending stepwise second, there follows an ascending skip of a seventh, after which the diatonic motion continues (but transposed up an octave) (ex.  2, bar 18).  Through alternation of chromatically enriched diatonic movement with higher interval skips, and irregular fall and rise in contour, there results an unusual, unpredictable pattern of accentuation in the peaks.  Because of the length of these phrases, this all has a quite disorienting effect.  This particular way of treating the B-sections cannot be traced back to Lester Young, whose approach to improvisation, as George Russell (1961, p. xviii f.) explains, was rather horizontal.  A prime example of the vertical approach to improvisation, on the other hand, can be found in Coleman Hawkins (ibid.).  While Hawkins’ solo line is often restricted to arpeggios on the chord, Christian’s vertical approach is far more sophisticated;  he suggests the chords, but without playing them note-for-note (cf. Simon, 1988, p. 328).

If one examines the corresponding sections in ex.  2 and 3, there are significant similarities, some extracts of which are presented in ex. 4.  In the second and third A-sections of the live version (ex.  3) tension is created on the dominant in the sixth bar, because the B is held for a relatively long time.  This is resolved by a run back to the E-flat (see the comparison of these two points in ex.  4).  In each case the connecting runs are very similar.  Their middle sections (bars 15 and 31) differ more markedly, but both start on the E-flat, and follow the sequence of pitches C, B, A-flat.  Both runs start in almost the same way, and their endings are identical.  Apart from that, the beginning and ends are based on the same sequence of pitches (#9, 3, 5, 6, 8).  Here one can clearly see CC’s characteristic use of repeated melodic material.

In his thesis, Spring (1980) seeks to identify all such formulas and categorize them from several perspectives.  Although, in my opinion, his analysis is open to criticism in respect of its completeness, and the method of classification, merely the fact that this research was conducted is testimony to its value in any discussion of the use of formulas by the guitarist.  Spring distinguishes tonic- and non-tonic formulas.  The former serve to establish the tonic and also provide melodic cohesion in the A-sections of riff-compositions.  Non-tonic formulas are mainly seen over dominant7 chords and are also used in the construction of long eighth-note sequences.  In contrast to Owen’s (1974) exemplary and painstaking analysis of Charlie Parker’s improvisations, Spring avoids a classification of formulas based on key signature.  This is justified, since the guitarist’s formulas suggest fingering positions, which depending on the key, lie on the fingerboard at a specific fret location, but do not themselves change.

In each case the most suitable fingering position for the execution of particular formulas corresponds to a conventional shape for the relevant chord (cf.  Spring, 1990, p. 36).  This ensures the position on the fingerboard can be reached quickly, and also that the chord tones are, so to speak, clearly visible (the black dots in the following fingerboard diagrams indicate the chord tones;  the square indicates the root).  Of course, we cannot be certain about which finger positions CC used.  Nonetheless, when one plays his solos, certain positions do emerge quite strongly.  Playing over the tonic in particular, in Flying Home, the following positions always fit well when the key note (E-flat), the ninth and # 9 are the highest tones (cf. also Ayeroff, 1979, p. 11ff., and Sokolow, 1988, p. 12).

The second of the above fingering positions occurs only once in Flying Home over the subdominant A-flat (ex. 3, bar 20).  CC clearly prefers the minor7th against the tonic chord.  One must imagine that passing tones are to be found in various places, where there is an unused fret, between two tones indicated in the diagrams.  In the context of this discussion it is not possible, and we will not attempt it, to produce an exhaustive list of CC’s formulas.  Nevertheless, two characteristic formulas should be mentioned, in order to clarify how the first fingering position is used.  These figures, in more or less modified form, can be seen in the language of many later guitarists (cf. also the fingering positions indicated in ex. 4).

It is also possible that CC used a stretch of fingers 3 and 2 instead of 4 and 3 for the first six pitches of formula b.  He could just as well have used a stretch of the first finger, down to a lower fingering position, for the last three pitches of the same bar, which would be equally suitable for the pitches around the tonic.

This finger position falls directly below that identified previously, and shares with it the same root on the top E-string.  Using both these fingering positions the A-sections in both versions of Flying Home fall easily ‘in the fingers’ (the first phrase of ex. 3 can be played though both in the 3rd and 5th positions.  If these finger positions are correct, CC seldom used the A-string and almost never the E-string in single-line solos.  The range of both versions of Flying Home extends to a little over two octaves, from root E-flat up to #9, G-flat.  If one examines the A- and B-sections separately, they show an even narrower pitch range:  from B to G-flat in the A-sections (consistent with the above finger positions), and from E-flat to D-flat in the B-sections.  This observation provides further evidence for the applicability of the finger positions presented above.

For formulas used with the dom.7 chords (in the B-sections) CC appears to have favored three finger positions.

The first position applies for example in the B-section of both versions of Flying Home, over Eflat7 and Bflat7 passages.  The finger diagrams (b) and (c) lie immediately next to each other on the fingerboard (the root indicated with a square is common to both) and were probably used together for F7 (first (b) nearer the sound hole, then (c)).  The characteristic passing tones again lie on the unused frets between the two tones.

Howard Spring (p. 12) indicates that CC’s formulas never seem merely repetitive, thanks to great flexibility in how they are applied.  Formulas are varied not only in the sequence in which pitches occur, but also in their rhythmic structure and metric placement.  For instance, in the B-section of the live version of Flying Home (ex.  3) the Dmin-maj7 arpeggio appears (in the guise of the minor subdominant  of A-flat) first one bar later than in the studio version (ex. 2).  Apart from this it falls on the upbeat, instead of the downbeat.  The F7 formula that follows appears in both versions almost identically, but is placed two quarter-notes earlier in ex.  3 than in ex. 2.  In this way, the formulaic nature of the material is disguised.

Kernfield’s (1988, p. 558) concept of ‘formulaic improvisation,’ described above, can be applied to CC’s method of playing.  In this approach to improvisation, the solo line is constructed to a large extent from the building blocks of a set of formulas.  In contrast to motives, formulas are disguised, rather than expanded, and inserted into the solo in such a way that they are difficult to recognize.  In this approach, a musician’s creativity arises from the way in which these formulas are organized.  CC’s long eighth-note phrases in the B-section are made possible by combining ready-made elements.

The much attested significance of the guitarist in the stylistic development from Swing to Bebop should be sought firstly in the fluent rhythmic aspects and complex melodic features of his style.  From this perspective, it is no accident that Kernfield cites Charlie Parker, the most important of all improvisers of Bebop, as the prime example of successful formulaic improvisation.

After the AABA pieces already discussed, the 12-bar blues is the form most frequently recorded by CC.  An example of this is his solo on Gone with What Wind (ex. 5, February 7, 1940, mx WCO 26495-A).  In this form we do not see a different method of approaching the various sections of the piece (as on riff tunes).  Instead, the blues structure produces three 4-bar phrases from CC.  He generally starts each phrase in the last bar of the preceding section.  Starting phrases on the upbeat in this way is characteristic of CC.  In two places he anticipates the chord change by more than half a bar (bars 4 and 20).  Such anticipations, which produce considerable forward motion, are typical of CC’s style.

Less common, on the other hand, are delayed chord change, such as bar 23, where two tones from the subdominant delay the start of the tonic by one beat.  On closer inspection, the subdominant formula from Flying Home can be identified, but here, in contrast, in a different metric position, and also with a different rhythmic structure.  The characteristic dominant formula occurs in Gone with What Wind especially over the subdominant F7 and, in a rhythmically altered form, without passing tones in the second chorus, also over a G7.  In the first chorus the dom7 is embellished with a blues-inflected tonic formula.  Such added layers of tonic blues material on the dominant are an important element in CC’s style and originate ultimately in the horizontal interpretation of the blues tradition, represented among others by Lonnie Johnson.

Johnson, through the use of long sequences of eighth-notes, anticipated CC’s rhythmic conception in part, and the displaced rhythm of bars 12f. in ex. 5 (dotted-eighth-note against eighth-note) occurs as early as in the blues performers of the twenties.  If one traces the development from Lonnie Johnson to CC, it seems that Teddy Bunn and Eddie Durham are important transitional figures.  They will therefore be discussed in a brief digression.

A comparison of Durham’s Countless Blues with a CC solo on another blues in B-flat Breakfast Feud (ex. 8, Jan. 15, 1941, mx CO 29512-4, 1st solo on the Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz) shows CC’s fluent articulation and innovative phrasing.  Tonic and dominant formulas are incorporated into long eighth-note phrases, which in their six x two-bar structure, displace the formal 3 x four-bar pattern of the blues.  The phrase that starts bar 7 extends to the end of the first chorus and links immediately into the next phrase, which ends on the third bar of the second chorus.  The next phrase spans the fourth and fifth bar, and thus clearly disrupts the 3 x four-bar pattern.  The phrase that runs from bar 6 to bar 8.1 is likewise displaced against the normal structure.  With an almost imperceptible gap the next phrase then starts at bar 8.2. ending only in the final bar of the chorus.  The harmonic content of the solo always fits with the prevailing chord, despite the displaced phrasing.  Four other CC solos on the same piece were spliced together on the Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz, and transcriptions of these are available (see Schuller, 1989, p. 574f.) that provide further instances of CC’s rather innovative treatment of the 12-bar blues.  His subtle approach to phrasing can be seen not only on the blues, but also in 32-bar AABA compositions.  But this does not inhibit from the guitarists approach to this form, as described earlier.  In Good Enough to Keep (June 20, 1940, mx WCO 26942-A, transcription in Sokolow, 1980, p. 14) that later became Air Mail Special, the guitarist plays, for example, a long phrase that extends across the boundary of B- and A- sections, but at the same time is firmly rooted in the different approaches to the two sections.

On slower tempi, CC’s innovations are evident in the way he uses eighth-note triplets and sixteenth-notes.  I Can’t Give You Anything But Love (Nov.  7, 1940, mx CO 29260;  ex.  9) shows that CC in this respect is ahead of many horn players, at least however, those in the Benny Goodman sextet.  While these players tend to use such notes as ornamentation, CC inserts them as part of an overall intensifying pattern in the solo;  he starts his solo with eighth-notes, and then progresses via eighth-note triplets to double-time.  Also, his solo lines have an inner logic that is more complex than the other soloists, whose fast passages are in essence made up of arpeggios.  In the first series of triplets (bar 4) CC links a typical dominant formula into an equally characteristic arpeggio on the subdominant-minor, all in the shortest space of time, over the dominant.  The second triplet run (bar 12ff.) begins with an anticipation of the Bflat7 chord, and links with a figure (bar 14) that is similar to the device already identified, of delaying the minor-seventh by adding the major-seventh (A), in this case via the addition of the tritone E-flat, suggesting the tritone substitution of B7 before Bflat7.

The weak metric position of the chord tones A-flat and D on the 2nd and 3rd eighth-note of the triplets creates a slight displacement as well.  In the following sixteenth-note passage, the peaks in the contour follow an irregular pattern, more complex than the symmetrical double-time passages (with fewer off-beats) of the piano solo that follows.

As mentioned in the biography, CC often took part in the sessions at Minton’s Playhouse, where he could improvise for as long as his inspiration allowed in the company of like-minded musicians.  Generally this meant he could play far longer than the three-minute time limit of the recording studio.  Jazz fan Jerry Newman’s live acetates from 1941 at Minton’s, Swing to Bop, Up on Teddy’s Hill, and Stompin’ at the Savoy, testify to the apparently inexhaustible creativity of the guitarist.  The same is true of the less well-known recordings from Minneapolis, from which Tea for Two (see transcriptions appendix, p. 277ff.), recorded in that city at the Breakfast Club in March 1940, will be examined more closely.  Unrestricted by the weak rhythm section of his quintet, and uninhibited by the fast tempo (eighth-note = c. 216) CC solos for three choruses in all, exceptional for their constant flow of ideas.  Listening to the solo there seems to be a higher proportion of connected formulas, that occur through a process of sequencing.

The following analysis focuses merely on a specially interesting passage from the solo.  In bar 8 the modulation from A-flat to C-maj is anticipated by more than two beats.  The Cmin7flat5 chord of the twenty-third bar in each chorus is interpreted by CC as a diminished chord.  Dim7 chords, often used by Eddie Durham and Django Reinhardt, are also often found in CC’s solo.  The B-section of his composition Air Mail Special consists, for example, of chromatically moving dim7 chords.  Whole tone scales, favored by Lang and Reinhardt, occur seldom in CC’s work, but can be seen here in two places.  The passage in bar 17f. of the second chorus at first sounds ‘wrong,’ but achieves its justification, so to speak, in retrospect through the sequenced resolution in bar 19f. 

The surprise this creates is given vent on the recording in an audible cry from one of the other musicians, or members of the audience.  In bar 17ff. of the third chorus, CC sequences an arpeggiated augmented triad downwards in whole-tone steps from A+ to E-flat+.  Following this the movement from A-flat to B-flat-min7 is achieved with a chromatic movement from an A-flat-major triad, via G, A-flat and A.  Throughout this movement there is also, as in previous bars, a displacement of the meter, by a pattern of dotted-eighth-note against eighth-note, a device that also occurs in bar 31f.  of the second chorus.  In addition the polyrhythmic device of 3/4 against 4/4 can be seen in two places, (chorus 1, bar 31f., and chorus 3, bar 9f.), even if only briefly.  The arpeggios at the start of the second chorus represent a less characteristic method of creating eighth-note sequences for CC.  In the solo there are numerous chromatic passing tones, held for unusually long durations, and resolved very late, or not at all.  They function like extended tones (chorus 1, bar 17 & 24;  chorus 2, bar 14).  All in all, on live recordings CC offers not only a whole new set of ideas, but also manipulates his familiar formulas even more deftly than in the studio recordings discussed already.

One of the rare examples of a chord solo from CC is found in the 4-bar introduction to Tea for Two (ex. 10).  The most well-known and extended recording in this mode by CC is his chorded solo on Star Dust (Oct. 2, 1939, mx WCO 26134-A) transcribed and commented upon by Schuller (1989, p. 568 f.).  This solo is one that was worked out beforehand, rather than improvised;  for on the live recording of a Carnegie Hall concert CC plays the identical solo (CC Live 1939-1941, Festival double album 377) and on the live recording from Minneapolis (see Tea for Two), he performs his familiar solo after one chorus of an improvised single-line solo.  Evidently CC’s solo approach was so specifically geared to a horn-player style that he neglected the ‘orchestral’ possibilities of the guitar (that Django Reinhardt had used so extensively) in favour of the former.  He probably developed the arrangement of Star Dust to present audiences with a special chorded guitar feature.

CC’s accompaniment style is mainly confined to four-to-the-bar strummed chords, as in the piano and saxophone choruses of Tea for Two.  He apparently aimed to achieve an acoustic sound, and turned down the volume control on the guitar, rather than turning it off completely;  the result is that he often seems a little too loud.  The interruptions in the accompaniment before and after CC’s solos (during which he probably adjusted the volume) sound rather like gaps in the rhythm.  Since CC generally accompanied on amplified guitar he sounds different to the acoustic rhythm guitarists of the Swing era.  This probably accounts for the view sometimes expressed that CC was a poor rhythm guitarist.  This view cannot be sustained however.  CC used chords voiced over five or six strings, sometimes shifting chromatically on the third and fourth beats, with diatonic extensions (maj6, dom9), which fitted the metre, and were always right for the prevailing chord sequence, if without any great variation.  CC’s rhythmic conception for accompaniment is very regular and slightly ‘in front of the beat.’  The strokes always start a little early and thus propel the rhythm forward.

As well as performing the normal rhythm guitar function, and playing background riffs, as in Flying Home, CC also used ‘comping’ – the rhythmically loose style of accompaniment that later became the norm in Bebop.  Waitin’ for Benny (March 13, 1941, mx CO 52599), recorded as the musicians spent the time jamming, waiting for Goodman’s arrival in the recording studio, provides an example of this.  After an initial phase of loose improvisation in Amaj – CC strings together riff after riff – he starts playing the tune of A Smo-o-o-oth One.  In the B-section he changes from the melody line to accompaniment (ex. 11) which he plays in a comping style:  with short, 2- or 4-voice chords on the top strings, offbeat, and generally anticipating the chord change by an eighth-note.  For all its rhythmic forward motion, the example is quite simple harmonically.  Compared to Oscar Moore (see later in this Chapter) it is clear that CC’s conception of comping was not very advanced.  Further examples of the guitarist’s comping style can be heard during the vibes solo on a live version of Dinah (rec. Dec. 16, 1939, Festival double album 377) on the B-section of the second piano chorus of Swing to Bop (live at Minton’s in May 1941, Festival double album 377) and as accompaniment to the bass solo on All Star Strut (with the Metronome All Star Nine on Feb. 7, 1940.  mx WCO 26495).

Although these recordings are among the earliest examples of guitar comping – Oscar Moore did not start recording with Nat King Cole until Dec. 1940 – this aspect of CC’s work has to date not received much attention.  The view expressed by several critics that CC, had he lived longer, would have become the first important Bebop guitarist ⁽¹³⁾ must therefore be justified by reference to other factors.  Irrespective of such conjecture, CC’s role as a transitional figure between Swing and Bebop is recognized by most critics.  Schuller’s analysis on the other hand, is that the guitarist’s style developed and he describes his early work, reaching its peak on the Dec. 1940 recording of Breakfast Feud, as “essentially very conservative.”

“If we examine why Christian’s best work of this period (as on Breakfast Feud) sounds so utterly logical, effortless, and pleasing, we discover certain recurring traits and note patterns that bind his solos into a coherent continuity.  We also discover that Christian’s idiom is essentially a very conservative one.  Like Teddy Wilson, he breaks no new ground harmonically or rhythmically.  The novelty of Christian’s playing lay in the use of what was to all intents and purposes a ‘new’ instrument, a new ‘sound,’ which suddenly had broken into the front line of melody instruments.”  (Schuller 1989, p. 571)

The innovative elements of CC’s style, Schuller believes, cannot be discerned until the recordings of 1941, especially in the live cuts from Minton’s Playhouse.

“...solos like those on Stompin’ at the Savoy, Up on Teddy’s Hill, and Charlie’s Choice indicate that perhaps Christian was just really coming into his own artistically ...  in a way that marks a new stylistic departure.  Indeed it signals the birth of a new language in jazz, which even Parker did not have as clearly in focus at that time.” (ibid. p. 577)

“There can be little doubt that among the younger musicians who sat in at Minton’s, Christian was at the time (1941) the most advanced, the most original, and musically the most mature – even more than Gillespie and Monk.”  (ibid. p. 576)

If one considers that there were only five months between Breakfast Feud and the Minton’s Playhouse recordings of May 1941, and also that these sessions had begun in mid-1940 (thus six months before Breakfast Feud) Schuller’s argument of a sudden development from “very conservative” to “most advanced [musician]” seems rather unconvincing.  It is rather the difference between the narrow confines of the studio, and the loose setting of the jam session, that accounts for the comparatively greater flow of ideas in CC’s live recordings.  The recordings from the Breakfast Club in Minneapolis (dating from as early as March 1940) also support this point (see Tea for Two discussed earlier in this Chapter).  In addition, the earliest studio recordings (as in the example of Flying Home) reveal enough innovative characteristics to refute Schuller’s theory about CC’s development.  CC’s fluent articulation, his linear approach to improvisation (in the A-sections of riff-tunes), his phrasing – liberated from the form of the composition – and the absence of vibrato, probably can be traced back to Lester Young’s model.

Since Young, in the second half of the 30’s, became an important model for all innovative musicians, and, for example, influenced Charlie Parker considerably, these characteristics can scarcely be described as “conservative”.  The only “conservative” aspect of CC’s playing is his assimilation of the blues tradition, which of course is a common thread that even today runs through the history of jazz, and thus must be considered as timeless.⁽¹⁴⁾  The truly innovative elements of CC’s style however, can scarcely be traced back to any other models.  These are the long sequences of eighth-notes, which one finds for example in the B-sections of riff compositions.  These eighth-note phrases have an internal logic different to the ornamental runs of pianists of the Swing Era.  In comparison to pianists’ arpeggios, CC’s eighth-note passages have a narrower range, and their chromatic passing tones, arpeggios, and wide leaps produce an irregular and unpredictable contour.  One can suggest, on this basis, that such passages were an example for both guitarists and other players, for instance Oscar Peterson or Lennie Tristano.  In this regard, Owens points out that chromatic passing tones had become the “common property” of Bebop musicians (Owens, 1988, p. 209).

Thus with justification one can describe CC as one of the early pioneers of the new style.  The way he develops the solo line is distinct from Charlie Parker, whose method of soloing later became the generally accepted paradigm for Bebop.  The guitarist employed, though, the same components that Parker combined in such a way to form the style that would point the way ahead.

What is more, CC became the first and formative hero for a whole generation of guitarists that followed him.  Solo Flight – the guitar feature recorded with the Benny Goodman Orchestra (March 3, 1941, mx CO 29865) – was a revelation to countless young guitarists.

“‘Solo Flight.’  Boy, that was too much!  I still hear it.  He was it for me.  I didn’t hear nobody else after that for about a year.”  (Wes Montgomery to Ralph Gleason, in:  Jazz Guitarists, 1975, p. 75)

A guitarist as the leading soloist in one of the most popular big bands of the time – such a thing had been unimaginable before then.  Although there are greater solos by CC, there is no recording that embodies better than Solo Flight the new role of the guitar in jazz:  “guitar as a horn.”

Footnotes

 1.  This biography is based largely on Norman Mongan’s carefully researched chapter on CC (in Mongan, 1983, p. 84-94).  Other sources are cited where appropriate

 2.  Several accounts give 1919 as the date of CC’s birth.  Recent research seems to have confirmed that CC was born earlier, in 1916 (cf.  Schuller, 1989, p. 563).

 3.  ???

 4.  Notable exceptions are a session under the leadership of Lionel Hampton, one with Edmond Hall, and of course the live sessions from Minneapolis and Minton’s Playhouse.

 5.  At that time it was customary for successful band leaders to receive credit for titles composed by their sidemen.  Some band leaders including Miles Davis, continued this practice in the 1960s

 6.  We deliberately introduce terms from modal jazz at this point, since the A-sections of many riff tunes reveal a latent modality.  This results from the way ostinato bass figures are layered with riffs above them as well as the repetition that is built into the structure.  This becomes especially clear in Seven Come Eleven (mx WC0.26286) whose A-section has no chords at all.

 7.  Lester Young, it is true, did use vibrato, but so lightly (narrow and slow) that he was radically different from the previously generally imitated vibrato (wide and fast) of the ‘father of the tenor saxophone’ Coleman Hawkins.

 8.  Kernfield’s classification of course needs some qualification.  Every musician draws upon a certain reserve of formulas.  The way they are treated and appear in solos, can vary considerably.  Tempo, harmonization, the changing inspiration of the improviser (which in turn can depend on external factors) amongst other things, influence this.  Any analysis that is limited to identifying formulas and how often they occur, throws light on only one aspect of improvisation.

 9.

 10.

 11.

 12.  Sometimes CC also played unamplified rhythm guitar, such as the recording with the Benny Goodman Sextet on Nov.  7, 1940.  On the Edmond Hall recording of Profoundly Blue CC even solos on acoustic guitar (Feb.  5, 1941 on The Jazz Guitar, Joker C76/6).

 13.  cf. Schuller (1989, p. 576-578), Owens (1988, p. 209) and Kenny Clarke (in Shapiro & Hentoff, 1955, p. 340).

 14.  Incidentally, these elements seem to have even influenced many rock guitarists, in whose playing one can still detect figures from CC’s repertoire.  “formulaic improvisation is the building of new material from a diverse body of fragmentary ideas  [...] and motivic improvisation is the building of new material through the development of a single fragmentary idea.”

Unfortunately, the transcription examples cited in this chapter are currently unavailable.  The cogent analyses contained in this work, however, are well worth broader dissemination, even without the graphics.

Translation Notes:

 1.  The German text uses a notation of primes (e.g.  p. 107, <c"> ).  I assume this simply denotes the octave in which the tone occurs, and I think the normal English usage is simply to omit this information, which I have done.

 2.  [ref]  2nd para. sentence beginning line 5:  I interpret “nicht-gesangliche” as “unlike a voice leading approach,” and “motivorientierte” as used in contrast to “motivischer Entwicklung” in the previous sentence, and thus contrasting ‘using formulas’ with the ‘development of motives’, respectively.  This distinction follows the sense of Barry Kernfield’s (1988, p. 556):

 3.  the notation to refer to beats in the bar e.g. 3.4 meaning beat 4 of bar 3 is something I haven’t seen before,  but it seems to be clear, so I have left it as in the original.

 4.  The analysis by Schwab of how prevailing chords are neglected in favour of melodic development is  similar to the analysis by Birkett (PhD thesis) of I Got Rhythm.

Draft 2                        17 August 2001

reconstructed Sept / Oct 2016 from OCR scanned print of original Word document.