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Charlie Christian - Solo Flight: Best Of 1939-41

Charlie Christian - Solo Flight: Best Of 1939-41

Stock Status: In Stock
Charlie Christian - Solo Flight: Best of 1939-41

Despite having such a short recording career, the original guitar hero Charlie Christian single-handedly revolutionised the electric guitar. With having no direct influence on his guitar playing, he used the horn and reed lines he heard from the likes of Lester Young as inspiration to develop his unique single line phrasing – And so was born the guitar solo. No-one had been doing this before, but every guitarist has done it since.

Without this innovation, the guitar would still have been in the rhythm section and not used as a solo instrument. Christian tragically died at 25 of tuberculosis, just as he was jamming with cool cats Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker on the East coast, developing the future sound of be-bop.

He never recorded as a lead, but as a sides-man he was one of the hottest properties in the jazz world. In the two years of recording, he won numerous guitar awards, with Gibson christening the pickups he used on his E150 model as “The Charlie Christian Pickup”. This term has been used ever since.

Our collection features some of the best material he recorded with the legendary Benny Goodman small bands. Playing alongside such luminaries of the jazz world as Goodman himself, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, “Papa” Jo Jones, Lester Young and Lionel Hampton, Christian shone above them all with his utterly unique and pioneering playing. Featuring tracks such as Rose Room, Grand Slam, Breakfast Feud, and of course Solo Flight and A Smo-o-o-th One, it is easy to hear what an incredible natural talent this young pioneer had.

Track List

Side A 

1 Flying Home
2 Rose Room
3 Shivers
4 Grand Slam (Boy Meets Goy)
5 Lester's Dream
6 Wholly Cats
7 Royal Garden Blues

Side B

1 As Long As I Live
2 Breakfast Feud
3 I've Found A New Baby
4 Gone With What Draft
5 Solo Flight
6 A Smo-o-o-th One
7 Air Mail Special

  • UPC:
    824046164027
  • Release:
    October 2023
  • FORMAT:
    LP
  • Brand:
    Acrobat
  • Product Code:
    ACRSLP1640
  • Weight:
    0.2kg