A Biography Of Charlie Christian Jazz Guitar S King Of Swing

This is a biography on the career of jazz guitarist Charlie Christian, who was raised in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma during the Depression era in the Southwestern region of the United States. This book provides an in-depth analysis of the details surrounding the events that shaped Christian's musical development, beginning with his early influences of 'Territory bands' and 'western swing' groups. The book documents Christian's performances in the urban area of Oklahoma City on Second Street, better known as 'Deep Deuce', as well as his travels with both Anna Mae Winburn and the Alphonso Trent Orchestra. Christian's discovery by producer John Hammond led to Christian's membership in the Benny Goodman Sextet in August of 1939. The book also chronicles Christian's most significant radio broadcasts, live performances, and recordings for Columbia Records, and also includes facts regarding Christian's pioneering guitar style during the early 1940's, as his performances at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem represented the connection between swing and bebop. The biography finally uncovers details into Christian's private life, and his untimely death during the apex of the Goodman era. ... ground-b Christian's contributions to swing and early bebop.

For many, the story of jazz guitar begins with Charlie Christian. In 1939, at 23 years old, Charlie joined the Bennie Goodman Sextet, already one of the most famous jazz bands in the world. Over the next two years of his all-too-brief life Charlie redefined the role of jazz guitar, expanding it from its role in the rhythm section to that of lead instrument on par with the great horn players. Simultaneously, his late-night jam sessions alongside Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Kenny Clarke at Harlem's renowned Minton's jazz club led to a revolutionary new jazz called Bebop. To best understand Charlie Christian's approach to improvising, for each song this book provides multiple examples of his soloing. Comparing and contrasting these different solos---taken from alternate takes, various recording sessions, and live radio broadcasts---will give you a better sense of not only Charlie's core concepts, but also how he developed a variety of ideas out of them. Each song is presented with performance notes that include information about the recordings (date, place, personnel, etc.), a lead sheet for the composition, and transcriptions of the live and studio performances placed in chronological order---in both standard notation and tablature. In addition, there is a full analysis of his improvisation style to give you ideas on what to look out for. We've also included a bio, a discussion of his gear, and tributes from over 30 jazz greats. Featuring multiple solos from: * As Long as I Live * Benny's Bugle * Boy Meets Goy (Grand Slam) * Flying Home * Gone with "What" Wind * Good Enough to Keep (Air Mail Special) * Honeysuckle Rose * I've Found a New Baby * Rose Room * The Sheik of Araby

More than 13,000 historical markers line the roadsides of Texas, giving drivers a way to sample the stories of the past. But these markers tell only part of the story. In History Ahead, Dan K. Utley and Cynthia J. Beeman introduce readers to the rich, colorful, and sometimes action-packed and humorous history behind the famous (Charles Lindbergh, Will Rogers, The Big Bopper, and jazz great Charlie Christian) and the not-so-famous (Elmer "Lumpy" Kleb, Don Pedro Jaramillo, and Carl Morene, the "music man of Schulenburg") who have left their marks on the history of Texas. They visit cotton gins, abandoned airfields, forgotten cemeteries, and former World War II alien detention camps to dig up the little-known and unsuspected narratives behind the text emblazoned on these markers. Written in an anecdotal style that presents the cultural uniqueness and rich diversity of Texas history, History Ahead includes nineteen main stories, dozens of complementary sidebars, and many never-before-published historical and contemporary photographs. History Ahead offers a rich array of local stories that interweave with the broader regional and national context, touching on themes of culture, art, music, technology, the environment, oil, aviation, and folklore, among other topics. Utley and Beeman have located these forgotten gems, polished them up to a high shine, and offered them along with convenient maps and directions to the marker sites.

Any listener knows the power of music to define a place, but few can describe the how or why of this phenomenon. In Lonesome Roads and Streets of Dreams: Place, Mobility, and Race in Jazz of the 1930s and ’40s, Andrew Berish attempts to right this wrong, showcasing how American jazz defined a culture particularly preoccupied with place. By analyzing both the performances and cultural context of leading jazz figures, including the many famous venues where they played, Berish bridges two dominant scholarly approaches to the genre, offering not only a new reading of swing era jazz but an entirely new framework for musical analysis in general, one that examines how the geographical realities of daily life can be transformed into musical sound. Focusing on white bandleader Jan Garber, black bandleader Duke Ellington, white saxophonist Charlie Barnet, and black guitarist Charlie Christian, as well as traveling from Catalina Island to Manhattan to Oklahoma City, Lonesome Roads and Streets of Dreams depicts not only a geography of race but how this geography was disrupted, how these musicians crossed physical and racial boundaries—from black to white, South to North, and rural to urban—and how they found expression for these movements in the insistent music they were creating.

By the longtime editor-in-chief of Guitar World and a veteran rock journalist, an unprecedented history of the electric guitar, its explosive impact on music and culture, and the people who brought it to life. Spanning a century and encompassing some of guitar's greatest builders and players, from Les Paul to Keith Richards to Eddie Van Halen, Brad Tolinski and Alan di Perna bring the evolution of the guitar to roaring life. This is a story of inventors and iconoclasts, of scam artists, prodigies and mythologizers, as varied and original as the music they spawned. Play It Loud uses twelve landmark instruments, each of them a milestone in the progress of the electric guitar, to illustrate the chaos, conflict and passion it has inspired. It introduces Leo Fender, a man who couldn't play a note, but whose innovation helped transform the classical guitar into the explosive sound machine it is today. Some of the most significant social movements of the 20th century are indebted to the guitar: it was an essential part of Beatlemania and Woodstock; a mirror to the rise of the teenager as a social force; a linchpin of the punk movement's sound and ethos. And today the guitar has come full circle, with contemporary titans such as Jack White of The White Stripes and Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys bringing some of those earliest electric guitar forms back to the limelight. For generations, the electric guitar has been an international symbol of freedom, danger and hedonism. Play It Loud is the story of how a band of innovators transformed a simple notion into a singular cultural force.

Includes entries on jazz artists, record labels, and musical concepts in addition to providing a 20-page chronology of jazz and extensive bibliographies for different jazz styles and jazz artists.

Charlie Christian is regarded by many jazz historians as one of the major voices who shaped modern jazz in the early 1940s. Even though he tragically died before reaching his 26th birthday, his brilliant improvisations, phenomenal rhythmic drive, and blues influenced guitar playing had already changed the course of jazz, and the guitar's place in jazz, for all time. This second, updated and expanded, edition of his book details the full importance of Charlie Christian's known recordings for over 30 years. His well-researched jazz genius reveals many new facts about Charlie Christian's short life, and career in music. The discography in this book is certainly the most complete and accurate to be published to date. It corrects for the first time many errors in previous discographies and books. Also included is an impressive and unique collection of photographs and documents to illustrate this important work. --

Countless musicians have been inspired upon hearing Charlie Christian for the first time. In this exciting book, the author has compiled 39 precise solo transcriptions (in notation only), as well as a thorough analysis of each. There is also a complete "how to" section that is a book in itself. The author has recorded each transcription in slow and fast versions. The book contains some of Charlie's best work including the Jam Sessions at Minton's, John Hammond's Spirituals to Swing concert and the Celestial Express Blue Note Recordings. Charlie Christian was the first to popularize the use of the electric guitar in jazz. He was the pioneer who led the way. Includes access to online audio.