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Texas Music SourceThe Early Years: 1900-1930


Photo courtesy Texas Music Museum

(1916-1942)
Birthplace: Bonham
Genre: Jazz
Influenced: Established the electric guitar as a major jazz solo instrument, and influenced the development of bebop


Charlie Christian
Chester Rosson (May 1997)

As a young musician Charlie Christian burst upon the national big band circuit by crashing a Benny Goodman concert and playing in his own distinctive style a dazzling set of variations on the Goodman standard "Rose Room." Goodman, immediately recognizing Christian's extraordinary talent, hired him on the spot and added him to the elite Goodman Sextet. That national exposure led to instant recognition, with Christian winning Downbeat polls from 1939 through 1941. During his off-hours he also contributed to the emerging bebop style later championed by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.

Born in Bonham to a blind musician father who worked as a singer-guitarist, Christian grew up on the road in and around Oklahoma City. The story goes that he was too poor to buy a guitar of his own, so he built a makeshift instrument out of discarded cigar boxes. In the early thirties Christian had become accomplished enough to have acquired a manufactured guitar, for he was accepted into regional or territory bands, as they are called, led by such respected musicians as Anna Mae Winburn and Alphoso Trent.

By 1937 Christian was experimenting with amplifying his guitar to be heard above the noise of the audience and the other instruments. He was playing at the Ritz Cafe in Oklahoma City where jazz fan and critic John Hammond heard him in 1939. Hammond recommended him to Benny Goodman, but the band leader wasn't interested. The idea of an electrified guitar didn't appeal, and Goodman didn't care for Christian's flashy style of dressing. Reportedly, Hammond personally installed Christian onstage during a break in a Goodman concert in Beverly Hills. Irritated to see Christian among the band, Goodman struck up "Rose Room," not expecting the guitarist to know the tune. What followed amazed everyone who heard the 45-minute performance.

Recordings followed, establishing Christian as a great jazz innovator as well as a first-rate guitarist. Late night sessions, for which he was constantly in demand, took a toll on his rather delicate health. Some of these sessions, recorded by a fan, have survived to show the beginnings of the bebop style in his playing.

By 1941 Christian was suffering from tuberculosis, but took no rest. At a Staten Island sanitorium musician friends continued to play, practically up to his death on March 2, 1942.

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