Customer Reviews

Masters of Jazz

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If you're looking at this, you undoubtedly already know what you're getting. You've probably already heard Charlie Christian and know his reputation. While some raised on more modern guitarists may wonder why all the fuss, and may find CC's work a bit rhythmically square, you have to keep in mind this was a virtually unschooled guitar player from the sticks, and I don't mean that as an insult, but rather as a form of admiration. That someone with so little formal schooling could influence jazz so and send it spinning into the modern age is remarkable. That he died so young and recorded so little is a tragedy.

Here you have the good bulk of what he recorded. This is not every last
scrap, and to my great annoyance, one of my favorite sides, "Seven Come Eleven," is not included, inexplicably. (That's like issuing a Modern Jazz Quartet compilation and omitting Bags' Groove.) But there's so much good music in this 2-disc French import, at such a good price, that this is worth owning. Just beware: no liner notes unless you speak French, and even they are not much. But that's what Google and Wikipedia are for, if you need background info.

The music is a combination of familiar Christian--his BG studio work--along with rarer radio airchecks and some sides he recorded in 1939 for Blue Note that are notable because they feature him on *acoustic* guitar. While he seems more comfortable on the electric instrument, as he liked to create long lines that could be sustained on the acoustical instrument, these are still one-of-a-kind performances of obvious historical value. They also feature Meade Lux Lewis on celeste, an unusual instrument to find in a jazz combo and more effective than the stiffly-played harpsichord of Johnny Guarnieri in Artie Shaw's Gramercy Five a couple years later. Another highlight is a slow blues called "Pagin' The Devil," a live broadcast with members of the Count Basie band. In fact, the small impromptu jams and rehearsal numbers that just happened to be caught by engineers and preserved by someone with great foresight are the real highlights, far more interesting than most of the big, organized efforts. Charlie was best just being Charlie. No fancy arrangements required. Also shining on many of these tracks are two musician who complimented Christian beautifully, Lester Young and Buck Clayton. (The latter remains such an underrated intelligence in jazz.)

Sound is quite good overall. A few tracks, such as the rehearsals while waiting for a tardy Goodman (Waiting for Benny, Blues in B) seem to have had a little artificial reverb added--unnecessarily in my opinion. More critically, in the last few tracks of disc 1, there are a few moments where the music lurches. This is the sort of thing you typically get when de-clicking is used to remove big "pops" on old records, but I've heard these masters in other issues and they are in good shape: no de-clicking should be required. The affected tracks are "Ad Lib Blues," "I Never Knew" and "Wholly Cats." I am certain this issue goes back to the masters they used, by the way, and is not a problem with either the disc or my equipment, as I played it on three different CD players.

You may want to get these other tracks in another compilation--Proper Box's Lester Young set (5 very inexpensive CDs) has the same cuts without the lurches.

Other than that, buy with confidence. If only they'd included "Seven Come Eleven," this would have been a dream compilation. As it is, it's hard to go wrong.