Charlie Christian - First Master of the Electric Guitar: Selected Broadcasts & Jam Sessions, remastered / 4CD set

2002 European CD collection.

Read the title carefully: These are broadcast recordings that Charlie Christian made between 1939-1941. A majority of these shows were recorded with the Benny Goodman Sextet, but there is also material by the Goodman All Stars, the Benny Goodman Orchestra, Count Basie & Friends, and the Kansas City Six. The real meat of this box, however, are the now-famous jam sessions recorded at Minton's Playhouse, Clarke Monroe's Uptown House, and the Harlem Breakfast Club. Over the years, these have been prized by Christian's fans as the purest examples of his genius and the possible birth of bebop, and there are enough of them here to warrant the purchase of the whole set.

As for remastering, the quality of sound of the broadcasts is fair to poor, occasionally good; the jam sessions, however, are mostly clean, and sometimes surprisingly so. People interested in Christian's essential legacy need to first digest Columbia's Genius of the Electric Guitar box, but JSP deserves credit for assembling this rare material at an extremely affordable price.

Jim Smith ~ AllMusicGuide

disc1

Flying Home
Stardust
Flying Home
I Got Rhythm
Stardust
Tea for Two
Flying Home
Stardust
Memories of You
Rose Room
AC/DC Current
Flying Home
Soft Winds
Memories of You
Shivers
South of the Border
Seven Come Eleven (Roast Turkey Stomp)
AC/DC Current
AC/DC Current

disc2

Dinah
I Got Rhythm
Flying Home
Memories of You
Stomping at the Savoy
Honeysuckle Rose
Paging the Devil
Way Down in New Orleans
Good Morning Blues
Oh! Lady Be Good
Pick a Rib
Till Tom Special
Gone with What Wind
Gone with What Wind
The Sheik of Araby
Soft Winds

disc3

The Sheik of Araby
Seven Come Elevan
Six Appeal
Honeysuckle Rose
Six Appeal
AC/DC Current
Gone with What Wind
Benny's Bugle
Wholly Cats
Honeysuckle Rose
Wholly Cats
Flying Home
Gone with What Draft (Gilly)
Breakfast Feud
Gone with What Draft (Gilly)
Six Appeal
Solo Flight (Chonk, Charlie, Chonk)
Flying Home
Good Enough to Keep (Air Mail Special)

disc4

Wholly Cats
Ida, Sweet As Apple Cider
Breakfast Feud
Song of the Islands
Flying Home
Topsy (Swing to Bop)
Stomping at the Savoy
Honeysuckle Rose (Up on Teddy's Hill)
I Got Rhythm (Rhythm-A-Ning, Paging Dr. Christian, Dowm on Teddy's Hill)
I Got Rhythm (Guy's Got to Go)
Stomping at the Savoy (Lips Flips, on with Charlie Christian)
Benny's Bugle
Rose Room
Solo Flight (Chonk, Charlie, Chonk)