Charlie Christian - Original Guitar Hero
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CD Details
Artist: Charlie ChristianEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2002-09-24
Music Label: Sony
Soundtracks:
- Seven Come Eleven
- Wholly Cats
- Good Enough To Keep (Air Mail Special) (Alternate Take)
- Flying Home (First Alternate Take)
- Boy Meets Goy (Grand Slam)
- Benny's Bugle
- Gone With What Wind (Alternate Take)
- Breakfast Feud
Music reviews of Original Guitar Hero
Music Review: Skimpy CD Doesn't Do Justice to the "Original Guitar Hero"
Rating: 3 Stars
In the few years that Charlie Christian spent as a member of the Benny Goodman sextet and big band, he recorded solos on 70 different master recordings. if you Include complete alternate takes, which at least in Christian's and Benny Goodman's case often contain strikingly different improvisations from take to take, the music of Charlie Christian with Benny Goodman stretches to over 98 recordings, all of which are included in the full CD box set of this reissue. Although even dedicated Charlie Christian fans may not need six or seven alternate takes of "Benny's Bugle" or even "Breakfast Feud," for my money the box set version of this reissue is a far better buy than this skimpy sampler disc.
Columbia has not made it an easy choice for listeners. The box set arguably did not need to include every single completed take by the Benny Goodman sextet and orchestra which included a Charlie Christian solo. Also, the packaging of this set is cumbersome and buyers might want to transfer each disc to a one or two disc replacement jewel case to avoid scratching the CDs or dropping them as you try to remove them from the unwieldy "speaker box" in which the full set has been packaged.
But the pros outweigh the cons in considering the full box set over this single disc version. First of all, those who are even passingly familiar with Charlie Christians work know that he was truly "a genius of the electric guitar." His music is thoughtful, groundbreaking, endlessly inventive, and explores, like the music of his contemporary Lester Young, the outer boundaries of what we think of as "swing."
The 98 selections in the box set amount to just under 25 cuts per disc. Even if you only count the master takes, and exclude the alternate takes of the same songs, there would still be just under 18 cuts per disc. And even for the casual Christian fan the alternate takes are enjoyable in themselves as superb examples of the best that the swing era had to offer. Finally, Columbia, to its credit, has done an absolutely remarkable job of remastering these recordings. I have owned versions of these tunes going all the way back to the first Columbia two-LP set, and these new reissues are in a league of their own. They are simply breathtaking in the nuance and detail of the sound revealed.
To present an eight cut disc clocking in at about 23 minutes (think of both sides of an early Beatles LP) as a representative sample of Charlie Christian's music, is an artistic and commercial mistake, even at a budget price. I would recommend buying this CD over the box set only to listeners who had never heard Charlie Christian, and wanted to be reassured that they were not wasting their money in buying the four disc box.
There are so many fantastic recordings that are excluded from this disc: "Royal Garden Blues," the astounding "Gilly," with the great trumpeter Cootie Williams, "Six Appeal," "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," and even Christian's signature song with Goodman, "Solo Flight," to name but a few.
All of the music on this eight cut offering is great, there is no denying that. But to limit the listener to eight selections from a jazz master who influenced countless musicians from the 1940s through the 1960s, and who in his brief lifetime made dozens of timeless recordings, seems a shame. For listeners who want more Charlie Christian but not a four disc set in a cumbersome box presentation, I would recommend picking up the two earlier Columbia budget priced discs issued in the late 80s, "Benny Goodman Sextet Featuring Charlie Christian" with 18 selections, and "Genius of the Electric Guitar," containing 16 tracks. Even without the benefit of the newly re-mastered sound, this might make a suitable alternative to the choices offered by Columbia in this new reissue.
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Description of Original Guitar Hero
In the few years Charlie spent alongside Benny Goodman, he recorded solos on 70 different masters; this is but a sampling of that material. Includes Seven Come Eleven; Wholly Cats; Good Enough to Keep (Air Mail Special); Flying Home; Boy Meets Goy; Benny's Bugle; Gone With What Wind , and Breakfast Feud .Jazz CDs
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