Columbia Records' John Hammond Remembers Charlie Christian
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- Опубліковано 25 лип 2024
- Welcome to my Talking Guitar podcast featuring Columbia Records producer John Hammond discussing the life and legacy of jazz guitar pioneer Charlie Christian.
One of the greatest talent scouts in the history of recorded music, Mr. Hammond signed and/or worked with a who’s-who of musical artists -- Bessie Smith, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Teddy Wilson, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, and Stevie Ray Vaughan among them. For fans of guitar music, one of Hammond’s greatest accomplishments was arranging to have Charlie Christian join Benny Goodman’s band in 1939. Playing alongside Goodman, Charlie demonstrated the potential of the electric guitar, then still in its infancy. Our interview took place on November 24, 1981, a few minutes after I finished my phoner with John Hammond’s brother-in-law, Benny Goodman.
For more insights into Charlie Christian, check out my podcast with Barney Kessel ( • Barney Kessel: The Com... . Transcriptions of these interviews were published in the March 1982 issue of Guitar Player magazine.
I hope you enjoy these unique, never-before-released recordings.
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Thanks to engineer/producer Nik Hunt for enhancing the sound of the 42-year-old master tape. Be sure to check out the other historic interviews on the Talking Guitar UA-cam channel. For dozens more guitar-intensive podcasts, interview transcripts, and articles, visit Talking Guitar magazine at jasobrecht.substack.com/.
#charliechristian #bennygoodman #jazzguitar #electricguitar #jazzguitar
This podcast is copyright 2023 by Jas Obrecht. All rights reserved.
Fantastic. A real treasure to have this available. Thanks so much.
I will never forget the first time I heard Charlie Christian. It was back around 1978 or 79. I was a guitar player and I used to read Guitar
player and I had read a lot of interviews with jazz players who all talked about him. Of course in those days there were no streaming services so there was no way to get a chance to hear him. I was working in a record store at the time and one day when we were unloading the latest merchandise I found a Charlie Christian record! It was the live recording from Minton's. When I got home I immediately put it on my turntable, dropped the needle and sat back waiting to be amazed. But my first reaction was disappointment. I thought he sounded like every other jazz guitar player I had ever heard. But then the light bulb went off over my head and I realized that Charlie didn't sound like them, every guitar player who has come after him sounds like Charlie. He single handedly created the vocabulary that we all have been working with for the past 80 years.
So great to hear these interviews that I read as a kid. Thank you, Jas!
Interesting.
Caught this and the Barney Kessel video today while it's still February ( lol), so it's now the 80 year anniversary of his death. What a cat🎵💯
I had heard a few of Charlie Christian's tunes like "Solo Flight" that were astounding in how advanced they were. At some point recently, I went back and listened to as much of his stuff as I could find. Hammond is absolutely right that Christian and Eddie Lang were the two most important early jazz guitarists. As a guitarist myself, it's hard not to listen to his solos and not be tempted to just throw in the towel and burn my guitar. I suppose the trick is to learn to be inspired by musicians of his caliber rather than discouraged by how far away we are from that level of greatness.
Jas and anyone with the sound of my voice:
“ ... the architects of Bebop - -
Charlie Parker
Dizzy Gillespie
Charlie Christian
....and what about Thelonious Monk?
( was Thelonious more of a musician, than a composer? I don’t know)